Severe thunderstorms hit southwest Missouri Wednesday night. Some carried tornadoes that dropped from the sky and tore up the ground below.
Just before 10 p.m., and no reports of injuries. But another storm system is rolling through the Ozarks as we type. More nastiness is expected, and it could continue into early Thursday.
17 comments:
I watched KY's casts at 6 and 10 and in between, and frankly could not believe my eyes. Teasers (not to mention any viewer's own look-out-the-window observations) made it clear that a SERIOUS storm was on its way. And yet, there sat Forhetz and Rose, grinning goofily and yukking it up at how neat it was that people were sending in digital shots, cam phone video, etc., of funnel clouds. In the meantime, while the anchor was tossed back and forth like the furniture on my patio, KY's on-screen crew spent an inordinate amount of energy showing off how nifty and neato these pictures looked on the station's web site.
At times like that, the public demands and deserves specific INFORMATION that tells us about pending danger so that we know whether or not to worry about it striking in our neck of the county. Some of us call that serious news. We don't need a seven-minute infomercial about the KY web site. And we definitely don't need the "garsh, shucks, gee whiz" smile fest that was demonstrated last night while untold numbers of viewers were probably left wondering and worrying about what was really going on.
Is anybody at 999 West Sunshine listening?
Don't you know it's not about safety or information? It's all about pageviews, clicks and $$$$$$$$. Asking people to risk danger to help prop up a Web site. Shameless.
But to be honest I'm not even sure the news crew was really there last night. After all, they are now working in a "virtual newsroom."
They were awfully proud of all the submitted photos weren't they. Hasn't the technology to send photos in been around for some time?!
As for the weather coverage as it was happening. KSPR did a heck of a job their first time out! Very smooth. I'd almost rather watch them than old Ron over at 3. Especially the light-haired guy. He's calm but pointed in his delivery. Good job Ron!
Anon 1129: Congrats belong to weather guys Kevin Lighty and Josh DeBerge (he's the light-haired guy), and News Director Brad Belote. Your friendly neighborhood producers (Dori Olmos, Larry Burkum and yours truly) played supporting roles.
you have got to be kidding. kspr's main guy looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown. he didn't know how to operate his equipment, and he surely doesn't know the market yet. it was painful.
Looked to me like the "main guy" was totally getting into reporting his first big storm in the Ozarks. I've been consistently impressed with how professional he is, while still making it clear that the dude loves weather.
I was flipping between 10 and either 33 that night. They appeared to have the information I needed to know.
I was listening to KY3 on an emergency radio in my car as I was driving, and I got all the information to get where I was going safely. I'm not sure what everyone is so bent out of shape about. Showing pictures of the storm as it occurs definitely qualifies as "weather coverage as it was happening" to me.
As for "the main guy," I didn't consider listening to 33 because I have been so totally unimpressed with his performance on a regular basis.
33 did a great job on the severe weather coverage. Josh and Kevin definitely showed that while they are new to the area, they aren't new to handling severe weather coverage. I was pleasantly surprised that they gave me more info than 3 or 10.
admin, how many tv's do you have? 3?
i doubt you could watch all three at the same time.
the validity of any of these comments is zero without knowing how many are coming from inside 3, 10 or 33.
ron, you were wise to open up the door for comments without commenting.
i wish continued success at 33 -- in case you do not know where chatter originates.
Anon 9:17:
I believe the word you were looking for is clever, not "wise."
ky3 was pretentious before but now it's comical as no one can actually recognize any of their people. good thing they've got the website and the virtual newsroom
Didn't anybody happen to see the amount of reporters in the field? KY had reports from everywhere, while 33 and 10 had one or 2 reporters. I don't really see how that's comparable. The problem is the one blonde girl from 3 went on way too long . . . but so did all the weather people . . . They probably all overdid it for the amount of damage actually out there.
9:17 p.m. I own 2 televisions that I use to analyze newcasts. I do not work for any tv stations. I am a communications, history, and debate instructor. I am an unbiased source of information.
Unbiased? Everyone has bias.
You need 3 tv's. By leaving one off, you automatically insert bias by leaving one station out.
With live weather breaking into your favorite show, there is no way you can truly monitor all stations during a situation like this.
actually, you'd need 4 sets...kolr, fox, ky3, kspr.
there was hardly any damage, but some stations like to scare the living bejesus out of everyone to look like they're on top of it...and then run commercials about themselves the next day (ky3?)
Most generally KSFX and KOLR break in with weather coverage at the same time so it would not be all that necessary to have 4 tvs. I apologize for not having 3 tvs.. unfortunately my salary does not permit that. :-)
As far as having preference and an internal source of bias, you are correct. I was specifically referring to your comment about individuals working for specific stations and then commenting on all stations' coverage. That would be the most obvious bias possible.
My specific comparison was referring to KSPR remaining on air uninterrupted during Jeopardy while the other stations aired regular programming with ocassional updates. By being on-air without commercials you *SHOULD* (not always the case) break weather info. first. I know for a fact that KSPR had the funnel cloud sighting in Monett at least 4 minutes before it came across KY3. IF the funnel had touched down, that would have been 4 minutes earlier to prepare in harm's way.
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