Jason Sandford
Jason Sandford is a reporter, writer, blogger and photographer interested in all things Asheville.
WLOS led separate news casts with major breaking news Thursday night: first, there was “just released surveillance video” of last fall’s flooding (yes, this is true); and second, there was breaking news from Pritchard Park – bums piss in the park (gasp!)
Russ “Nice-Buns” Bowen had the scoop on the flood videotape. They could have aired tape of grass growing and it would have been as riveting. The water didn’t move, but something floated by, which made it look like they were fast-forwarding the tape to get some movement (were you, guys??)
Then Russ interviewed a teacher or someone at the flooded-out school where the videotape was captured. There was the four-framed videotape on a monitor in the background, frozen but ready to rip again.
Russ, you disappoint. Please stop pretending that ancient video of water rising is news.
Then Holly Headrick hit us with a shocker – downtown drunks regularly break the law by “relieving” themselves in the park, sometimes to the horror of passersby. The reason – well, they’re drunk. No, wait. Actually, it’s because there are no public downtown restrooms except the restrooms over at Pack Library (about 100 yards away) and they’re not open all the time.
We’ve never had a problem with Holly before. Holly the idealist. Holly the ethicist. At least someone at WLOS has put some thought into journalism ethics. Here she is (why do TV journalists always write like they’re answering a beauty pageant question?):
Journalism is important to me because I feel that everyone has a right to know what is happening in the community, nation and world. I feel that ethics are the most prominent part of journalism and unfortunately are sometimes overlooked. I strive to be an ethical journalist who will one day make a change with stories I can tell and broadcast to the world.
I guess it’s ethical to report on bums pissing in park corners. And to ask passersby to go over to said corner and take a whiff, then report back their reaction. But it seems like such a long fall from the days when Holly was reporting about “What is Underwriters Laboratory” and doing other award-winning journalism.
Actually Holly might be on to something – maybe a series of lawbreaking in parks. Parks and porno – people having sex there. Parks and punks – people littering there.
Oh, how the mighty have fallen. Holly, don’t lose that sweet idealism, no matter how many vagrants piss in your park.
I couldn’t think of a better nickname for this chick than "Holly Headache." You are spot on. I was in school with her. She graduated a couple of years before me. The professors talked about her like she was a distinguished alumna for landing a job at WWAY in Wilmington right out of college. However, they stopped singing her praises when she abruptly moved back to Asheville. … The story goes that the WLOSers felt sorry for their former intern and gave her a job producing ASAP so it looked like she chose to make the move back home. But hey, if I believed everything I heard around the J-School…..yikes.
Holly just recently became a reporter. She had been working as a producer, so I guess they haven’t had the initiative to put a bio of her up on the website.
What’s up with those photos of Holly Headache? She looks like she’s halfway through “Thirsty Thursday” at a Tourists’ game.
PS- Why no bio for her on the WLOS web-site? She’s been there a while… who is this woman?
Inquiring minds want to know….
KABOOM! rumble, rumble, rumble…
(lightnin’ has spoken)
— wl —
There was a story there, but it was the reconstruction of the school, not the ballyhooed surveillance video. The video showed nothing that we haven’t seen for the past 8 months — standing water inside a building. Hell, there have been miles of videotape on water inside buildings so this was nothing new. My guess is that rebuilding the school just wasn’t sensational enough by itself, that the WLOSers had to spike the punch with a Geraldo-like revelation. Or, as the fat cop in “Hollywood Knights” said about the punch at that school, “It does taste like it’s got a little WHANG in it.”
Thanks very much for your insights! We can only go by what we see on TV, so we appreciate the info.
I love your website, but would like to offer some explaination behind Russ’ story on the flood water. First off, I know the surveillance video was lame as hell, but when you can’t get the video until after 2pm for a 5:00 package and you already have two other stories you need to put together, then you just go with what you have b/c there’s no time to change the story idea. And even if there was time to change the package for the day, try telling a producer or management not to run a story just because the surveillance video is lame, and you’ll be told to do the story anyway. Not exactly good journalism, but how much in daily tv news is really good journalism? (at any station in any market)
Also, you are correct about the video being sped up, but it was like that on the surveillance tape the school had, not by WLOS. But considering how little action there was on the surveillance tape, it’s probably a good thing. One minor inaccuracy in your write-up — during the interview, the surveillance video behind the woman was not paused, it was playing. The fact that the video looks like it’s paused when it’s playing is another example of how little there was going on in that video.
Oh well… at least the lighting on the interview was nice, and the rest of the story was shot well. Aside from the surveillance video, the rest of the story can be considered legitimate news.