Another Mass SHOTING ... Really?

First, on Monday night, WPTA21 repeatedly runs a stale news update in primetime saying "coming up at 5pm" during Dancing With The Stars, and then today, WANE-TV embarrasses themselves, and poor Pat Hoffman, with a graphic that defies explanation.

Why do our local stations continue to do everything they can to tarnish and damage their credibility?

Perhaps because the audience no longer demands that local TV media be anything more than just chewing gum for the eyes. 

Confused Again

The Maven cringes whenever our local TV "journalists" try and explain anything having to do with the law, medicine, or nuclear physics. 

In what should be a simple bar assault story, the kids in the WANE-TV newsroom do their best to confuse their audience by reporting that a man was beaten into a medically-induced coma. 

Usually, medically-induced comas are performed in hospitals and not on barroom floors. So, in reading the WANE-TV story, does that mean an EMT, doctor, nurse, or another qualified medical professional beat the living daylights out of the man at the bar?

To further bamboozle and confuse the audience, WANE-TV can't decide, 

(1) if the medically-induced coma was performed at the bar, or 

(2) at the at a local hospital. 

The writing is "murky", to say the least. 

And one more thing:

WTF Friday

Fort Wayne's Media Maven presents another WTF Friday. 

Real news stories that leave the audience scratching their heads and muttering "WTF"?

Here's an everyday, garden-variety news story about an everyday garden-variety crime. Except the bad guys must have had some exceptionally dangerous hands and feet in order for the police to include those appendages in their official report along with a hand gun. 

So what's the real issue here? 

The Maven thinks someone in LaGrange County law enforcement is having a little fun with the kids in the WANE TV newsroom. 

Local media has long been accused of just cutting and pasting their news stories from press releases provided by the authorities.  This time, the cops have caught local media red-handed.

In this case, the folks in LaGrange have gotten a good laugh at the expense of local journalists stenographers, and have given the rest of us a good WTF moment. 

Coverage That Doesn't Add Up

The Maven wonders what it is about simple arithmetic that makes media outlets look like blithering idiots?

Thanks to our friends at WANE TV for illustrating the point so well in their story about Columbia City's new Aquatic Center.

Columbia City's mayor is upset that the lowest bid for the project is really out of line for what the city had budgeted. Indeed there is a wide gap between the two numbers. What doesn't add up is WANE TV's ability to add and subtract. 

For those of you with journalism degrees, the Maven will explain the issue s-l-o-w-l-y for you. 

First, we are told that the difference between the budget and the bid is $800,000. Following so far? Good. 

In the next sentence, we're told that the lowest bid was $4.7 million or $4,700,000. Then we're told the city had budgeted only $4.2 million, or $4,200,000. 

Now, here's where it gets tricky, so put down your Starbucks and stop texting for a minute. 

To find out the difference between the two numbers, simply subtract the smaller number from the larger number. 

     4,700,000
   - 4,200,000
        500,000  the difference (not quite 800,000 as we're told)

So, how does this happen? 

Two explanations and neither make the media look good. 

Scenario #1: The WANE TV people are piss-poor at math.

Scenario #2: The WANE TV people took the word of the Columbia City mayor and did not verify the numbers they were given. 

Either way, now we know that sometimes Journalism is more than just cutting and pasting press releases...... 

FORMER Sex Offender?

OK, kids.....

How does one become a "FORMER" sex offender?

Is there a 12-step program? Is there a court-approved mechanism for removing the conviction and record?

How often do we hear anyone called a FORMER murderer, FORMER rapist, or FORMER bank robber?  

 
How they do that?

Well, since you asked.....

No, you should thank your lucky stars that your producer took the initiative to keep you from looking like an idiot. 

Considering some of the pronunciation gaffes your colleagues over at WPTA21 commit daily, the Maven is amazed they have not tried to hire your producer. 

Promote the person, or at the least, buy them a steak dinner. 

Sighting The Cited Site

From our friends at Adams Radio Group, this little gaffe. 

As any 6th-grader can explain, when sharing something on Facebook, you have the option to add your own comment at the top of the item shared.

In this case, someone at the fast-growing radio conglomerate is apparently not familiar with English as a first language. 

This has to be a language thing. How else could one confuse CITE for SITE? The folks at vocabulary.com put it into words that even disc jockeys can understand: "CITE is short for citation, SITE a place, and SIGHT is what your eyeballs are for". Not quite the way the Maven might explain it, but good enough for media work. 

Confusion and lack of detail are nothing new to Adams Radio Group. Many will recall a principal of the group coming to town and boasting the move of sister station WXKE's programming to the 96.3 spot would make them a "50,000-watt station". 

"Wait, make that "equivalent" to a 50,000-watt station. Same thing, right?"

"Oh, no! Sorry, it's equivalent to a 25,000-watt station. Yeah, that's the ticket!"

Finally, the ego-driven dust was settled and reality finally reared its ugly head when a bright reporter checked the official FCC license and allocation validating the 25,000-watt level, but also noting that due to the station's antenna being high above the allocated height for the B1 license class, WXKE was allowed to broadcast a respectable, but lower 8,400 watts. 

50,000 to 8,400. What's a few watts between friends, right?

Here's the official FCC record: (caution, WXKE sales people may not know this)

And attention to detail?  

Aren't you kids missing open parentheses on the phone number? Like (260-483-9393)?

Of course, the Maven hasn't dialed the number, but odds are, they got that correct.