Chicago Burning and Talking Heads
So another high rise was burning in downtown Chicago today. Check it out at NBC 5 or at ABC 7 and of course we cannot forget our local paper's coverage so we must check out the Chicago Sun Times.
Just as I was about to go do my evening walk today my mother tells me that Fear Factor had been preempted by coverage of yet another downtown fire. I was about to go walk out anyway, but then I looked at the screen and saw how the fires was just shooting out the windows and I was hooked. The helicopter coverage was pretty intense. You could see the fire fighters walking on the floors above and below the fire and you could see just how incredibly out of control the fire got for a while. I like to watch a fire. This one cast it's spell over me and I sat mesmerized until the firemen were able to get some water on some of the more visibly burning bits and all the helicopters took a break to refuel as there was nothing to see through all the steam.
With the loss of the live camera feed I began to notice what the reporters were saying and I realized that these journalists have absolutely no skills when it comes to reporting live news. If they aren't reading something that's been previously prepared they are out of their element. The only people who seemed somewhat competent were the ones doing the interviews. After six or seven people saying that the fire fighters were wonderful and talking about their experiences sitting in a room breathing out a window I got bored. The talking heads at the television stations would keep stumbling over their sentences and it was obvious they were all very uncomfortable with silence. They couldn't just shut up and let the camera tell the story for a minute or two. They had to tell us what we were seeing. I figured the water was on the fire I could go for a walk. The show was over.
Not quite.
So I get back home after a nice hour long stroll in the beautiful forty degree air and Mom tells me that while ABC is reporting the fire over and returning to Monday Night Football, CBS has picked up the feed from their helicoptor that has returned to the scene and the fire has not only spread along the original floor but jumped around a corner and up a floor. So there were more hours of live coverage and reporters on the ground two blocks away who couldn't see a thing but will tell the viewer about the parking lot of fire equipment on the streets surrounding em. They break to another reporter doing research on the building and this person spends five minutes give us trivia about Chicago high rise architecture. Then back to more helicopter footage and maybe an anchor will briefly correct some obscure fact about the building that was reported earlier.
At one one point a television station is talking on the phone with a personal injury attorney with his name up on the screen while the camera shows the building burn. Another phone call to a man who heads up a group that has been lobbying the city to install sprinkler systems in all high rises. Back on ABC they decided to stick with the Football. (dont want to lose those advertising dollars). FOX stayed tuned to their regularly scheduled line up of crap (I flipped over at one point and caught some reality nonsense and quickly flipped back to the news).
What surprised me was there was no statements from or about the mayor. The new fire chief was not seen or heard from on any television station and the news people didn't seem to be looking for him. No one seemed particularly worried abut the fact that over a third of the fire department was at this fire. They all talked as if it was a modern wonder that we could mobolize so many so quickly to get them to this fire. What if more than one of these things were to happen at any given time? How would the city handle it? Over a third of the city's fire department (trucks and personal) working on a fire that was still burning five hours after it started. This city is not prepared for any sort of major catastrophe. A two floor fire in one building should not use up that much of our fire coverage. This convinces me that all high rises need a sprinkler system no matter what the cost and it also convinces me that our local news teams need to go back to school.
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Just as I was about to go do my evening walk today my mother tells me that Fear Factor had been preempted by coverage of yet another downtown fire. I was about to go walk out anyway, but then I looked at the screen and saw how the fires was just shooting out the windows and I was hooked. The helicopter coverage was pretty intense. You could see the fire fighters walking on the floors above and below the fire and you could see just how incredibly out of control the fire got for a while. I like to watch a fire. This one cast it's spell over me and I sat mesmerized until the firemen were able to get some water on some of the more visibly burning bits and all the helicopters took a break to refuel as there was nothing to see through all the steam.
With the loss of the live camera feed I began to notice what the reporters were saying and I realized that these journalists have absolutely no skills when it comes to reporting live news. If they aren't reading something that's been previously prepared they are out of their element. The only people who seemed somewhat competent were the ones doing the interviews. After six or seven people saying that the fire fighters were wonderful and talking about their experiences sitting in a room breathing out a window I got bored. The talking heads at the television stations would keep stumbling over their sentences and it was obvious they were all very uncomfortable with silence. They couldn't just shut up and let the camera tell the story for a minute or two. They had to tell us what we were seeing. I figured the water was on the fire I could go for a walk. The show was over.
Not quite.
So I get back home after a nice hour long stroll in the beautiful forty degree air and Mom tells me that while ABC is reporting the fire over and returning to Monday Night Football, CBS has picked up the feed from their helicoptor that has returned to the scene and the fire has not only spread along the original floor but jumped around a corner and up a floor. So there were more hours of live coverage and reporters on the ground two blocks away who couldn't see a thing but will tell the viewer about the parking lot of fire equipment on the streets surrounding em. They break to another reporter doing research on the building and this person spends five minutes give us trivia about Chicago high rise architecture. Then back to more helicopter footage and maybe an anchor will briefly correct some obscure fact about the building that was reported earlier.
At one one point a television station is talking on the phone with a personal injury attorney with his name up on the screen while the camera shows the building burn. Another phone call to a man who heads up a group that has been lobbying the city to install sprinkler systems in all high rises. Back on ABC they decided to stick with the Football. (dont want to lose those advertising dollars). FOX stayed tuned to their regularly scheduled line up of crap (I flipped over at one point and caught some reality nonsense and quickly flipped back to the news).
What surprised me was there was no statements from or about the mayor. The new fire chief was not seen or heard from on any television station and the news people didn't seem to be looking for him. No one seemed particularly worried abut the fact that over a third of the fire department was at this fire. They all talked as if it was a modern wonder that we could mobolize so many so quickly to get them to this fire. What if more than one of these things were to happen at any given time? How would the city handle it? Over a third of the city's fire department (trucks and personal) working on a fire that was still burning five hours after it started. This city is not prepared for any sort of major catastrophe. A two floor fire in one building should not use up that much of our fire coverage. This convinces me that all high rises need a sprinkler system no matter what the cost and it also convinces me that our local news teams need to go back to school.
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posted by Rich Rosenthal II at 1:29 AM
3 Comments:
I've long contended that local newsies are nothing more than glorified talking heads. Turn off the teleprompter or take away their scripts and they expose themselves as the lightweights that they are.
Any medium that has its "journalists" spend more time doing their hair and clothes than actually going out and covering a real story is not a medium that adds to society's collective body of knowledge in any meaningful way.
Every time I watch the bumbling idiots that put on the local "fake" news in my 'burg, I ball my fists in frustration, partly because it's such a waste of potential, and partly because I wish I had a shot at being in their place. I know I could do a better job than they do. (Arrogant of me, no?)
my dad used to work in that building.
Oh they love the First Major Snowfall story here too. Make som poor talking head pointlessly stand out in the elements to report on the snow or in front of the city snow removal truck lots to talk about how they are poised to drop salt and clear the roads. Its winter in chicago and you will never believe it. We get snow!
My favortite is when A reporter pointlessly stands in front of an entrance of a hospital to update us on some persons condition or on the numbre of wounded. Framing the Entrance sign is top notch journalism. Couldn't have just reported that from a desk.
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