Aug 30, 2009

A few complaints about fire coverage*

I've seen and heard a few complaints about the coverage of the Station Fire from both the print and TV side. LA Times architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne let out a few frustrated tweets last night:
For a fire to threaten Tujunga on one end and Pasadena on other is like threatening Tribeca and S. Bronx, or G'town and Chevy Chase. Huge.

NYT might want to think about putting fire *somewhere* on homepage. As of 10 pm LA time, nada.
The New York Times now has a story up on its homepage.

LA Observed noted that Channel 9 got around to covering the fire from the perspective of the station's helicopter pilot:
Channel 9's fire coverage in the 9 o'clock hour included several minutes with reporter Dave Lopez on the battle by firefighters to save the La CaƱada Flintridge home of the station's helicopter pilot, Larry Welk.
The post goes on to relate complaints from an LAO reader and LA County Supervisor Mike Antonivich about the dearth of coverage.

*Update: LA Observed has this from TV anchor John Beard:
Are LA TV Stations not doing live fire coverage (with lives at risk) because they spent so much on excessive Michael Jackson coverage?

Will LA tv take another day off as fires thrtn hmes and lives? Does anybody in mgmnt have the guts to spnd $$ to give viewers critical inf0

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The SGV Tribune had covered these fires from beginning with a plethora of stories.

Anonymous said...

yes, but circulation and readership has dwindled so much no one knows.

Anonymous said...

Hey 2:19, the only plethora the Lang flagship has is laying people off. They haven't had a plethora of stories for two years.