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Lansing News Coverage Sucks

Discussion pertaining to Lansing, Jackson, Owosso, and all areas from Alma to Hillsdale
Graham Wellington
Posts: 632
Joined: Fri Dec 21, 2018 4:48 pm

Lansing News Coverage Sucks

Post by Graham Wellington » Fri Feb 11, 2022 11:55 am

https://www.wlns.com/news/michigan/msp- ... ing-house/

Some hard hitting news coverage here. So apparently now the media just rewrites tweets from the police. No further investigating, no follow up. Oh wow, a drug bust in Lansing. Where in Lansing? What neighborhood? When did it happen? How were they tipped off about it?

The LSJ does this bullshit all the time. Take the press release from the police (which are always vague), rewrite it basically word for word, and pat themselves on the back for their local coverage. No further digging, no investigating.

I just had an idea. Maybe I should be an independent contractor, scanning Twitter for news releases. Copy/paste into a Word doc and sell it to the local media for $15 a pop. Same hard hitting coverage, but no need to have people on staff.



kager
Posts: 1387
Joined: Mon Jun 21, 2010 11:10 pm
Location: GPS lost

Re: Lansing News Coverage Sucks

Post by kager » Sat Feb 12, 2022 7:22 pm

Not unique to Lansing, unfortunately.

I hope you have backup in case your Twitter -> Word sales slump.


"The problem with communication is the illusion that it has occurred."

otrfan
Posts: 12
Joined: Tue Jun 06, 2006 3:52 pm
Location: Lansing

Re: Lansing News Coverage Sucks

Post by otrfan » Wed Mar 02, 2022 6:05 am

The thing that confuses me is why I keep seeing stories on the local tv news that start out with video of a bunch of cop cars and/or fire/EMS vehicles in a neighborhood. Then the voice over by the anchor says something to the effect of "police were out in large numbers in the xyz neighborhood on Lansing's east side this morning. We're not sure what was going on, but stay tuned to (fill in the blank) news as we try to find out or log on to (fill in the blank) news.com.

In my day, ( and yes I actually worked in tv news as a photographer/editor for 5 years) we called that a non-story. Cops routinely set up perimeters around neighborhoods for things as mundane as a guy with a low level warrant was seen walking in a neighborhood and they're trying to close in on him. Or it could be a major event like a homicide suspect on the loose. Police presence in a neighborhood isn't necessarily news worthy. That's point 1.

Point 2, did you ask any of the cops in the area what was going on? Yes they may tell you that you have to talk to the public information officer. But often the cop in the district car will let you know off the record at least the nature of what's going on. Point 3, if the cops on the scene can't give you info, then you may have to call central dispatch and ask to speak with the public information officer or command officer on duty to find out what's going on. And you might have to be patient and wait for them to call you back since they may have to get up to speed on the call. (Sometimes there is multiple crap going on in a city). Finally, there's a chance that all you end up with is B-roll of cops in a neighborhood that you can use as file tape at some point in the future. But you may not have a story. It's kind of like fishing or hunting, some days you don't get anything..

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Sholmes
Posts: 83
Joined: Wed Dec 25, 2019 4:33 pm

Re: Lansing News Coverage Sucks

Post by Sholmes » Wed Mar 02, 2022 9:57 am

I agree, there are a lot of Non-Story out there. Just trying to fill time now since we went from Local News at 6pm and 11pm back in the day to now a news cast at (in some markets) 4, 4:30, 5, 5:30, 6, 7, 10, 11. REALLY?

May be cheaper then re-runs of Sinfeld and MASH, but at what cost. Also now they are basically doing infomercials covered an news stories to fill time now on some of these.

I question the journalists ethics sometimes on these local shows?

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