Let's LOCALIZE!

[Pinkie]

What's the dumbest/weirdest/most difficult story you've had to localize? What did you do with it?

[Clever Login Name]

How many "are our bridges safe?" stories do you think are being done even as we speak?

[Obewon]

Sorry
IMHO the bridge story is totally legit. There have been warnings about the deterioration of the nation's infrastructure for thirty years. Remember the section of the I-95 bridge that collapsed on the East Coast a few years back?

I'd have my I-Team on the move.

The politicians have been bandaging and covering up the problem because they don't want to deal with the cost. Spending tax money for important things is not nearly as important as spending it for entitlements and other garbage.

[The Mockingbird]

OH MY GOD COULD IT HAPPEN HERE WE SHOULD PROBABLY DO SOME INVESTIGATING BUT WE DONT ACTUALLY DO THAT SO WE'LL GET A QUICK ONESTOP SHOP INTERVIEW WITH SOME UNIVERSITY RESEARCHER WHO HAS BEEN ON A ROAD ONCE OR TWICE

CRAP PICK UP SOME MARFANS MEDICATION WHILE WE ARE GETTING B-ROLL

/SAVE

[Clever Login Name]

Originally posted by Obewon:
Sorry
IMHO the bridge story is totally legit. There have been warnings about the deterioration of the nation's infrastructure for thirty years. Remember the section of the I-95 bridge that collapsed on the East Coast a few years back?

I'd have my I-Team on the move.

The politicians have been bandaging and covering up the problem because they don't want to deal with the cost. Spending tax money for important things is not nearly as important as spending it for entitlements and other garbage.It's also entirely too predictable. Why not lead the pack and do these investigations BEFORE something major like the MN collapse occurs? That's journalism. Had a Minneapolis news station done something like that in the months or so prior to Aug. 1st, don't you think viewers would be saying "Geez, ya know, WCCO warned us there were problems with some of these area bridges ... dang if they weren't right!". Or if such an investigation led to some sort of legislative action that ended in more DOT funding. The "could it happen here?" folo is the cheapest, easiest thing to do in t-v news .. and while other cities may also have legitimate concerns about the safety of their own bridges and that's a worthwhile story to pursue, the time to do it was two days ago ... not today.

[The Mockingbird]

Well, duh, that requires people to be staffed beyond the bare minimum.

[MichaelPS]

If the story you are doing today is "are our bridges safe" and all youhave is sound from an official saying "yes they are," and mos sots from people saying "I'm frightened," then yes, this is an unnecessary story.

If you have a study you've dug up that concludes that a particular bridge has structural problems, with a recommendation that action be taken as soon as possible, then you may have a story.

[Slave to the Grind]

Originally posted by The Mockingbird:
OH MY GOD COULD IT HAPPEN HERE WE SHOULD PROBABLY DO SOME INVESTIGATING BUT WE DONT ACTUALLY DO THAT SO WE'LL GET A QUICK ONESTOP SHOP INTERVIEW WITH SOME UNIVERSITY RESEARCHER WHO HAS BEEN ON A ROAD ONCE OR TWICE

CRAP PICK UP SOME MARFANS MEDICATION WHILE WE ARE GETTING B-ROLL

/SAVEAMEN.

[Lazlo Toth]

When Mike Tyson did his ear bite, I was sent ot the Oakland Coliseum to ask the A's players if this reflected badly on professional athletes. I could not talk the producer out of it. As you might expect, none of the players and even one explayer announcer, was going to touch that question. Mark McGwire was very polite, but declined. I decided not to wrestle him for it.

[Pro]

Originally posted by Clever Login Name:
Why not lead the pack and do these investigations BEFORE something major like the MN collapse occurs?It probally should have,. However, that shouldn't preclude a news organization from doing such a story NOW. Better late than never.
[/qb][/QUOTE] Originally posted by Clever Login Name:
The "could it happen here?" folo is the cheapest, easiest thing to do in t-v news.Probably so. But that does not mean we should ignore it. I guarantee you, your audience is thinking that right now (if there are major bridges/causways in your market). They WANT to know if there are problems with the bridges they travel on. Maybe we - and they - should have been concerned about it before the Minneapolis tragedy. But does that mean we SHOULDN'T do that story now?

[ August 02, 2007, 12:53 PM: Message edited by: Pro ]

[McCovey Cove Returns]

The Virginia Tech rampage comes to mind. Could happen here? Well no **** sherlock. Thousands of students. Some commute to school. Minimal security force. That's a captain obvious story.

[ZuZu's Petals]

If you can get your local DOT structural engineer to tell you which bridges and overpasses he/she actually avoids driving on personally - because his/her recommendation has been ignored for months or years...
THEN YOU GOT A STORY!

Otherwise it's a worthless, predictable folo.

[ August 02, 2007, 05:53 PM: Message edited by: ZuZu's Petals ]

[Spike]

Originally posted by Pinkie:
What's the dumbest/weirdest/most difficult story you've had to localize? What did you do with it?The dumbest localized story I had to work on was organized prayer breaks at work. I don't know where she got the story, but one of our producers read about companies in some other market scheduling organized prayer breaks for their employees at specific times of the day. From that, she became convinced that since we were a bible belt market, companies in our town MUST be doing that as well. Thus we were assigned the story.

The problem was that NOBODY was doing it. We couldn't find any companies that scheduled prayer breaks for their employees. We even contacted several charity organizations run by churches, and even they didn't have prayer breaks for their employees. A manager of one charity told us they didn't need prayer breaks, because employees were free to pray whenever they wanted, but that they generally didn't break for prayer because they were there to work.

But when we told the producer what we (hadn't) found, she insisted that we just weren't looking hard enough and that there WERE companies in our city with scheduled prayer breaks for their employees. Of course she couldn't tell us where they were.

Luckily one of the charities did have its own chapel area within its building, so we put together a story about employees having the option to pray. But since none of the employees were praying, and since we weren't about to stage something just for the producer's fantasy, it ended up being a story mostly about charity employees loving Jesus.

[Judge]

According to a 2006 Federal Highway Administration report (that so many news organizations brought to light today), there are 6299 "structurally deficient" bridges...
...IN OKLAHOMA.

There are more than 5500 in Pennsylvania, more than 5100 in Iowa, and nearly 4600 in Missouri ...etc.

I believe this is a time when viewers actually DEPEND on their local reporters to pick up the phone, ask questions, and report findings...a time when people probably DO stand around the watercooler and say, "hey, you know what I saw on the news last night?"

That so many in this thread are ripping the idea of "localizing" this story is actually pretty sad to me.

[Pinkie]

Actually, when I started this thread I wasn't really meaning the bridge collapse. That is a legit safety issue to look into. It just got me thinking about when we localize stories, when it's worthwhile and when we really reach to find a connection between a big national story and our market.

[Judge]

Originally posted by ZuZu's Petals:
If you can get your local DOT structural engineer to tell you which bridges and overpasses he/she actually avoids driving on personally - because his/her recommendation has been ignored for months or years...
THEN YOU GOT A STORY!

Otherwise it's a worthless, predictable folo.I respectfully disagree.

You mean it's only a story if you can get a city/state official to admit that he saves his own life every day, while quietly allowing you and thousands of others to cheat death?
Now that would be a HECK of a story.

Isn't it enough that state transportation experts admit that several bridges in your area are structurally deficient? That the governor mandates the inspection of several specific bridges in the state highway system? That one fifth of the thousands of bridges in your state have the same safety rating as the one that collapsed in Minneapolis?

Those were local stories I paid attention to today. I didn't find them to be worthless or predictable.

[Judge]

Originally posted by Pinkie:
Actually, when I started this thread I wasn't really meaning the bridge collapse. That is a legit safety issue to look into. It just got me thinking about when we localize stories, when it's worthwhile and when we really reach to find a connection between a big national story and our market.Pinkie:

Noted.

Your original thread has been been collectively side-tracked, if not completely hijacked. I apologize for my part in it...but you posed a legit question that is worth discussing and relating to the MN bridge tragedy.

[Another side]

Yeah ... the bridge collapse is probably a bad example for those condemning localizing stories. It's timely, it's relevant, it's important. And anyone who's watched the news in the past 24 hours is probably interested.

[markminn]

Of course you do the local bridge folo the next day, but you do it right. Luckily, we are in a state capital, so talking to the head guys on bridge inspection and construction is easier than in other news markets. Plus, we found 2 undertruss bridges (similar construction to the 35W bridge) that are also on a list of bridges in most need of attention.

You have to do the folo, just the right way.

[Clever Login Name]

Since I "hijacked" the thread, let me add a few points ... the bridge collapse story was the first thing to jump to my mind (obviously) when I read pinkie's question. I agree there is some merit to doing that follow-up, because -- as others have noted -- you know that's what viewers are thinking/talking about the day after the MN disaster. It's the predictability of such a story that irks me ... you just know at least one station in every single U-S market is doing that kind of follow, and it's indicative of the knee-jerk/collective mindset response we see so often in our business ... it takes absolutely no imagination or foresight to come up with that kind of story. There's still an argument there that we should be thinking of stories like this BEFORE disaster happens somewhere. But that would require (and I hate this term) thinking outside of the box a little bit. These highway safety reports come out all the time ... how many of us have reported their findings at the time? I'd wager very few ... yet that's where we all run for information once tragedy strikes. "Gosh!" we say, "Look at all the bad bridges in our area!". Well, that information was out there months/years before now and we ignored it. Is it better late than never to report it now? I suppose so. But it would be even better if we had been on top of our game all along.

[The Mockingbird]

(**ON CAM**)
YOUR DRIVE TO WORK COULD BE DEADLY IF THERE'S A BRIDGE COLLAPSE.

WE'LL SHOW YOU THE WORST ONES IN PART THREE OF OUR SERIES "BRIDGES OVER TROUBLED WATERS".

AND YOU DON'T JUST STOP DROP AND ROLL...WE'LL SHOW *YOU* WHAT TO DO IF YOU'RE EVER IN A MAJOR BRIDGE COLLAPSE.

PLUS... WHO WOULDN'T WANT TO DROP A BRIDGE ON PARIS HILTON? THE LATEST IN HER ONGOING LEGAL PROBLEMS.
IT'S ALL TONIGHT AFTER 20/20 ON ACTION 7 NEWS.

[ August 03, 2007, 07:05 AM: Message edited by: The Mockingbird ]

[ZuZu's Petals]

Originally posted by Judge:
</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by ZuZu's Petals:
If you can get your local DOT structural engineer to tell you which bridges and overpasses he/she actually avoids driving on personally - because his/her recommendation has been ignored for months or years...
THEN YOU GOT A STORY!

Otherwise it's a worthless, predictable folo.I respectfully disagree.

You mean it's only a story if you can get a city/state official to admit that he saves his own life every day, while quietly allowing you and thousands of others to cheat death?
Now that would be a HECK of a story.

Isn't it enough that state transportation experts admit that several bridges in your area are structurally deficient? That the governor mandates the inspection of several specific bridges in the state highway system? That one fifth of the thousands of bridges in your state have the same safety rating as the one that collapsed in Minneapolis?

Those were local stories I paid attention to today. I didn't find them to be worthless or predictable.</font>[/QUOTE]I concede.
Yeah.. it would be a heck of a story.
But I'll agree with you, stories about what 'structurally deficient' means to your community, which bridges - is a worthy folo.
Because people ARE thinking about it now.

The local station here did it and I admit I was interested.

Also - folo ups on road funding - are we behind in maintenance? Can we catch up - angle is also worthy.
It's just too bad we don't think of these angles until something like this happens.

Now, what would be nice is if you can pull video from last weeks County Commissioner's meeting in which the transportation engineer asked for funding for bridge repairs and was denied.

[ August 03, 2007, 08:31 AM: Message edited by: ZuZu's Petals ]

[cinehead]

Originally posted by Clever Login Name:
It's also entirely too predictable. Why not lead the pack and do these investigations BEFORE something major like the MN collapse occurs? That's journalism.I live on the east coast, a station in my city did a story recently about our decaying infrastructure. Guess what? No one did anything.

It seems like we as humans can hear all the warnings, but we don't take them seriously until something like the Minneapolis collapse gets our attention.

[ August 03, 2007, 08:37 AM: Message edited by: cinehead ]

[Clever Login Name]

Kudos to them, cine. Would that more stations did the same kind of reporting.

But, as you noted, we can make all the noise we want. We can't make people pay attention. But it shouldn't stop us from trying.

[The Mockingbird]

Oh for the love of Jebus:

I AM FREAKING NOSTRADAMUS (http://abcnews.go.com/US/story?id=3441588&page=1)

Seat Belts Key to Survival in Bridge Collapse
Buckle Up, Stay Calm Keys to Escaping Sinking Car, Experts Say You guys know I was joking when I suggested a "how to survive a bridge collapse" piece, right?

Right??

[s'news]

It's sometimes a fine line between mockery and reality, Mockingbird.

[Spike]

Originally posted by The Mockingbird:
You guys know I was joking when I suggested a "how to survive a bridge collapse" piece, right?

Right??I knew you were joking. And I laughed out loud. But the reason I laughed was that as soon as I read your tease, I realized that someone would do it. It wouldn't have been funny otherwise.

So even though you were joking, the joke itself rested upon a bitter truth about this craft.

[markminn]

Doing the story BEFORE the bridge falls/buidling burns/hurricane comes is a great idea, but it often changes nothing! The paper in New Orleans did a huge series of stories about the problems in The Big Easy before Katrina, and most people just ignored it. And when Katrina hit, so many citizens cried foul and boo hooed that no one knew this could happen.

If you can do the big investigation before the big event, great! I hope you can kick some butt with the story. But, too often, our bosses idea of "investigation" is a stinger before a pkg that was turned in 3 hours or less.

[WalMartNation]

Earthquake in the Aleutian Islands... 7.9 earthquake in Peru..
What would happen in Seattle if a 7.9 hit us? Would we be prepared? Would the bridges hold up?
Would terrorists use it as a chance to detonate a weapon of mass destruction in our area?
COULD IT HAPPEN HERE?!

[Pro]

Is Seattle on a fault line? If it is, then a story about "the big one" would be appropriate.

[Roy Hobbs]

Looks like he picked the wrong day to localize Bridges.
http://blogitlikeyoumeanit.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/airplane_steve_mccrosky.jpg