Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Media stuff

Stuff that comes to mind as I read along this morning ..

The ABJ should have put Phil Trexler's piece on Akron's foreclosure crisis on the front page instead of the top of the local section. Likewise, Stephanie Warsmith's piece on the Ward 4 recount belonged on the local page instead of above the fold on page 1. Both stories are well written, accurate, and timely, but I think they should flip-flop positions. Call me old fashioned (or just call me a broadcaster who should stick to flapping his gums and stay out of the print business) but I think stories that affect the masses have greater appeal than those that affect the few.

Speaking of media stuff that should have been flip-flopped, I don't think viewers will long forget missing the end of Saturday's Kent State-Akron thriller in favor of some local commercials and a national pre-game show for the Ohio State-Northwestern game.

Channel 5's decision to cut away with 1:13 left and Kent driving down 27-20 still cuts viewers like Robert who writes, "... It wasn't until 9 minutes later that the OSU game actually started. Everyone I know is very upset about this. I would greatly appreciate it if you could report this story sometime this week. It would give your newscast a lot of respect for sticking up for the Zips."

I've gotten quite a few emails from folks still upset ... but since I work across town, I can't really speak for WEWS's decision .. other than I think they underestimated the local viewership.

Roy Peter Clark has great insight at Poynter.com that captures the debate over Washington's uproar over the creative license taken in the NY Times ad debate:

Clark writes, "The MoveOn.org writer should indeed have written the phrase 'General Betray Us,' showed it off to friends and colleagues, and then murdered that little darling, burying it and leaving possible exhumation for another day. I make this case as someone who leans left of center, but who thinks the characterization of the general as a traitor is as reckless and dishonest as the accusation that those who oppose the war are hurting the troops and lending aid and comfort to the enemy."

Well said.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gib Shanley, on WEWS' Sports Sunday show commented on the breaking away of the Kent-Akron game. He said that they station got a ton of calls, and yes, it was a mistake to cut away. But then, he also said essentially that it's only a game and that all the complainers should just get a life.

Sounds like Gib needs to hang it up for good! Isn't he about 250 years old?

Anonymous said...

It was only a game that they were breaking away to, right? Gib is obviously a Buckeye fan. teehee.

Eric R. Swanson said...

I saw that the ratings for the Ohio State game were close to triple what they were for the Akron/Kent game. WEWS did right by its advertisers on this one.

Eric Mansfield said...

Good points by all .. I just think that had the station at least sacraficed its local commercial break to stay with the game a few more minutes, that would at least have been a crutch to lean on ..

I also think that the large audience of OSU fans would have been o-k watching the final seconds of a fast-and-furious no-timeouts Kent State drive versus the national car commercials that surrounded a 2:00 national pre-game.


keep it coming ..

Ed Esposito said...

Not a good decision; if there's ANY chance of a change in possession that would lead to a reversal of lead should keep coverage on the active game...especially for a NE Ohio outlet with coverage for both schools. Not an easy decision to make but since the scoring situation would still have allowed for a turnover and KSU score (gee, let's think back to Sunday's Oakland win over the Browns) the right program decision would have been to stick with the game until it was over.

This would be similar to a Denver station dropping coverage before Byner's fumble...or Red Right 88.

Eric -- note WAKR's Ray Horner hit this pretty hard on Monday as I put it in my blog, too. Don't want to beat up on WEWS but it was a bad call...regardless of the "get a life" response from Gib.

It isn't over 'til it's over...how many times do we have to repeat that?