Tea Party - media coverage
Filed under "Journalism - not?
The attitude of the local media coverage, especially that of WMUR (essentially, NH's only TV station of any size), in covering the Tea Parties has been rather poor. In this case, I believe that the New Media - the bloggers and talk radio - have carried the day. While GraniteGrok certainly has done its share (being a co-sponsor of the event, we've already done 22 posts in the last few days). Not only that, 12 other bloggers have contributed on their sites as well.
Nope, no media assembled in a crowd clapping, hooting, and a hollerin' like they did in Denver as Obama stood between those Doric columns - no siree, Bob! News gathering is a serious business, correctly reported by J-school graduates well schooled in the method of reporting the news as news (after all, opinions should remain on the Op-Ed pages and pundit shows, right?). Words did not fail me:
Superficial. Condescending. Visually hunting for the "counter signs" or activities. Not willing to do the hard work of actually doing, well, journalism. Sticking to the narrative the national media seemed to be playing.
First for WMUR - The problem I had was simple; I saw the WMUR truck parked at Victory Park for HOURS. I expected LOTS of coverage - it wasn't like there was beaucoup traffic or no place to park for that honkin microwave antenna to lift up to the sky. Result - frankly, not much of substance from their veteran reporter, Ray Brewer. I think the operative phrase is "he phoned it in". A couple of sentence like answers from a couple of attendees, a couple of signs. Really, nothing on the driving force behind the WHY of the event - a pent up demand for Government to be good stewards of both our culture and our finances and tired of BOTH parties screwing up America as it gets yanked Leftward.
Did that come out in any coherent, methodical fashion? Nope.
Did he bother to seek out the "driver" of the event, Matt Murphy? Nope.
Did he bother to seek out any of the well known names there that spoke? Nope.
Did he talk to ANY of the co-sponsors during the event? Nope.
Were the topics of real interest discussed? Only in passing.
But Skip, how could you tell - you were at the event, right? How can you say such things?
Ya gotta love technology - I DVR'd the 5pm, the 5:30pm, the 6:00pm, and the 11:00pm Channel 9 news shows and watched them when I got home. To say that I was extremely underwhelmed with the absolute poor reporting by Ray Brewer and the "well, I guess we sorta hafta cover Concord and Manchester" attitude is putting it extremely mildy. In fact, one of the bloggers emailed me:
I've just posted the video report from the Manchester Tea Party. Be sure to send it out to anyone who might be interested. We can provide much more in depth coverage than Channel 9. That's for sure.
The antenna went up....they focused pretty much on one sign - one that, from a distance, could be considered contraversial about Hitler - what the sign was really about was history repeating itself. From an email thread to which I was a was a part:
A> NASHUA TELEGRAPH: ABOUT 1,000 CROWD PARK FOR ANTI-TAX RALLY
By 5 p.m., the park was more than half-full of protesters; many carrying signs espousing opinions ranging from state and federal leaders who shouldn't be re-elected to calls to not pay taxes and a few that compared President Barack Obama to Hitler.
A> Is the below [actually, above -Skip] true?
BB>> It's true. There was a big one that said Hitler is back and another that had BB >>1933 w/swastika symbol and 2008 with the Obama symbol declaring those BB >> who forget history are doomed to repeat it. It was well made, actually, and BB >> a finalist (among >>44) in the sign contest.
A> Zoinks!
Another added:
It's not just TV. The local (in state) print media is just as bad. Yesterday, there was an article in the Telegraph where one of the Op-Ed pieces "explained" how some of the folks were really Republican party operatives. This was near a cartoon showing middle aged people drinking tea and hold signs.
Here's the straight poop - many of us are Conservative or Libertarians first (or a mix of the two) - the only mildly successful party lately in helping to advance (re-acquire?) those premises is the Republican Party, so there is that tie. But Operatives - HAHHAHAHAHA! While there may have been some Tea Parties run as GOP events elsewhere, this was not one - not by a long shot.
Concord Monitor? Oh yeah - just lovely title - can you FEEL the love? There's a reason why they are called Pravda on the Merrimack - the Leaning Tower of Pisa could be used as a right angle compared to that bunch. Their headline?
Motley bunch at tea 'revolt'
Yeah, that certainly sets the stage, doesn't it. Why not just wave flags, set the red light spinning, and have the lighted signs go on saying "Move along folks, nothing to read here..."
HEY, that's right! There really wasn't much there, either! It seemed like the reporter, Daniel Barrick, has a thing for the word "motley" - just look at the second paragraph in:
It was a motley group gathered in front of the State House yesterday for a "Tax Day Tea Party," one of several held across the country on the last day to file income tax returns. The only unifying theme seemed to be a general sense of outrage against the government.
Remember the questions I asked before - not much of a better showing, IMHO.
Moving on to the national level, the blogosphere is abuzz with the crappy reporting that has been seen at the major papers and networks. Translation - not much better than what we've seen locally. And the MSM wonder why their eyeball ratings are dropping as fast as their stock prices.....hmmmm, just can't understand why.....hhmmmmmm
I guess, as one fine fellow suggested "hey, let's hold the next rally in their parking lot!". Hmmm, can't make it much easier than that for them, eh?
So, what can YOU do? Contact them! Let them know that as we want better from our politicians, we want better from them!
WMUR: useless for Internet contact. Why? See this from their Contact Us page?
Mail or E-mail your questions and or comments to a specific department by selecting below.
Yeah, no email addresses given (wonder why!). None for Ray Brewer. None for anyone above News Anchor - I wanted the GM or News Director (neither was listed in anyplace I could find - let me know if you know!). Old fashioned contact info:
WMUR-TV Broadcast Center
100 South Commercial Street
Manchester, NH 03101
(603) 669-9999
FAX: (603) 641-9005
Update: an alert reader sent me this info:
David Sakowich
News Assignment Manager
WMUR-TV
Phone: 603-641-9000
Fax: 603-641-9005
DSakowich@hearst.com
Which probably means that Ray Brewer's email address is RBrewer@hearst.com Try it!
Concord Monitor: at least this folks have emails:
Concord Monitor and New Hampshire Patriot
Monitor Publishing Company
P.O. Box 1177
One Monitor Drive
Concord, New Hampshire 03302-1177
Main phone number 603-224-5301
Customer service 603-224-4287
Toll free (NH only) 800-464-3415
Business office Fax: 603-228-5868
Newsroom:
Phone: 603-224-5301 ext. 670
Fax: 603-224-8120
E-mail: news@cmonitor.com
Comments
Posted by: NH | April 20, 2009 10:37 PM
Posted by: Scoop11 | April 21, 2009 5:32 AM