Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
Here are a couple of comments from you, my loyal readers, about my post regarding the fake “breaking news” on WLOS. What really galled me was the “the story we first reported yesterday” phrase, or something similar, that the news readers add into their scripts to try and make it sound like they broke the news or have a report nobody else has. Here’s the original post.
All this talk got Bulldog’s dander up:
“Moron Detector” must be wondering what that constant beeping sound is everytime he/she turns on the TV. My God, what kind of idiot needs to be “reminded” of a story from the day before. “Oh, yeah, now I remember that story. I had forgotten about the double homicide and suicide yesterday.”
WLOS obviously means to suggest that they’re following up on yesterday’s scoop. Why not spare us the self-serving blather and just run one of those shell explosion icons on the screen that says, “News News News !!!” They could use the corner of the screen opposite the “Flood Watch” map.
Grrrrr.
Mountain Man has this:
The whole “Breaking News” and “We told you first” phrases are a bit misleading, especially in this market. The main thing to know is that WLOS has no competition in this market because there are no other stations in the market that dedicate to Western North Carolina.
Also, WLOS and Asheville Citizen-Times don’t compete with each other. A lot of people think they do but that is far from the truth.
So in other words, WLOS will always be the first to tell you what’s going on.
My reply (where I am holding back the desire to scream):
Hey Bulldog, how dumb are these people???
Mountain Man, ever heard of a little thing we like to call the World Wide Web? WLOS is rarely, if ever, the first to tell me what’s going on. That’s because I have something called a computer connected to a cable that gives me something else called the Internet where news is revealed, reported and sent around the entire world instantaneously and constantly.
I can get my news on the web within minutes. Why wait around until noon or 5 or 6? It is a baldfaced lie to say that “WLOS will always be the first to tell you what’s going on.” What century are you living in?
WLOS gets 99 percent of its “news” from reading local newspapers and their Web sites. Take for example their “hometown news” segment. All they’re doing is ripping off headlines from local newspapers. Just take note of their stories for one day, then do something called a Web search and you’ll see that those stories have been published days, if not weeks, before WLOS gets it on the air.
What passes for a Web site over at WLOS is best described as a big Internet ad for the station. There is no news, much less breaking news on it.
Bulldog… *you* are exactly the kind of idiot that needs to be “reminded” of a story from the day before. It’s simple semantics fool. WE first told you. You’re just assuming we are lying, because that’s what you want to be true. Hell the paper does it too, that bastion of “all that’s right” you all work for. And for that matter, the paper does plenty of fluff reporting, just like Le. The paper also makes plenty of errors. Thats why they run a daily “corrections” section. And it’s never given the same page consideration as the originally wrong story. I’m sick of all you jealous losers blogging about everything on WLOS. Too bad no one blogs about you. Oh wait… no one cares…
Ashvegas you are missing the whole point. WLOS is in the TV business, not the World Wide Web. On other hand, Asheville Citizen-Times is in the print and internet media business, not the TV industry.
And in reguard to your comment that WLOS take stories from local newspaper websites, name me a station in our market, for that matter across the country, who dosen’t take stories from small town media sources?
Bulldog… *you* are exactly the kind of idiot that needs to be “reminded” of a story from the day before. It’s simple semantics fool. WE first told you. You’re just assuming we are lying, because that’s what you want to be true. Hell the paper does it too, that bastion of “all that’s right” you all work for. And for that matter, the paper does plenty of fluff reporting, just like Le. The paper also makes plenty of errors. Thats why they run a daily “corrections” section. And it’s never given the same page consideration as the originally wrong story. I’m sick of all you jealous losers blogging about everything on WLOS. Too bad no one blogs about you. Oh wait… no one cares…
All I have to add is, why doesn’t WLOS provide web visitors with copies of newscast scripts on their web site anymore?
Maybe they are afraied readers / viewers would see all the errors, inacuracies and outright misinterpretations of the truth WLOS airs nightly?
There used to be a link to the scripts, http://www.wlos.com/news/scripts.htm , but I think a few people were catching on when stories were lifted sometimes ‘word-for-word’ from local newspapers and read on air without attribution.
It’s been quite a while since that function was ‘currently under construction’ …
WLOS clearly is “Western North Carolina’s News READER” and far from a “News Leader.”
In closing, to paraphrase one of their corporate pinheads…
“That’s the point. I’m White Lightnin’. KABOOM! rumble, rumble, rumble…”