Short Memory

From the "if you were from here, you'd know this" department. 

WANE-TV's story on Zoo Day was complete, but it was not accurate. 

According to WANE-TV, "Kroger is launching its 26th annual campaign to raise money for the Fort Wayne Children's Zoo. Since 1993, the grocery store chain has collected $1.8 million for the zoo." 

One hitch...Kroger has had nothing to do with Zoo Day until 2007 when they bought out Scotts stores and rebranded those stores as Kroger. 

The News-Sentinel gets it right - "This will be the 26th year for the fundraising partnership started by Fort Wayne's Scott's Food Stores and continued by Cincinnati-based Kroger after it bought the business in 2007".

While one might argue that the kids in the WANE-TV newsroom may not have been alive 26 years ago, it is safe to assume that most were born before 2007 when Kroger took over. 

WANE - 15, Your Station For Class Warfare

A child is in critical condition, yet WANE-15 feels is necessary to go out of their way to tell us about the socio-economic condition of the neighborhood before telling us the details.

Here's the story from WANE - 15's website:

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) - A child is in critical condition after being pulled from a pond in the affluent Sycamore Hills neighborhood on Fort Wayne's southwest side.

First responders were called around 1:45 p.m. to a pond just off Carnoustie Lane. Dispatchers first told WANE 15 that a water rescue had been conducted there and the person was out.

Later, dispatchers said the victim was a child and was reportedly in critical condition.

The Maven may have missed a few stories, but does not recall reading about breaking news on Winter Street, for example, being called and economically-depressed neighborhood. 

Is this a new newsroom policy or someone finding a way to include "affluence-shaming" as a political comment?

Here's the link to the story as this blog post is being written:

https://www.wane.com/news/local-news/water-rescue-at-pond-in-sycamore-hills/1956871565?utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook_WANE_15&fbclid=IwAR1mGUaTbCQeVZ0_EOW91e0qt-pRCMaiXsG4B_kN7Vl2LNd7S83f24YZ8mI

Local Media Gives Us Gas

On Wednesday morning, Fort Wayne Police forced two people from a house in the 800 block of Columbia and arrested them after they had barricaded themselves in the house. Police were there to serve a warrant. 

What makes this interesting is how the local news media stories were similar and different. 

Comparing the stories to the "official" FWPD press release, it appears that local media gets good marks for getting the Who, What, Where, Why, and How correct. So far, so good. 

How the individuals were "motivated" to abandon the house seems to have confused local media. 

FWPD Press Release - "Emergency Services introduced a chemical agent into the residence". 

WANE-15 - "Police fired gas into the home and the suspects came out."

WPTA ABC21 - "Officers say they then used gas to get the suspects to exit the home." 
Note how similar the WANE-15 and WPTA ABC21 stories are, including the curious word "gas". The Maven wonders if they used Unleaded or Premium in this case.

WOWO - "police had to send tear gas into the building."
Note that the kids in the WOWO news room help us out by calling the "chemical agent" by its generic name, tear gas. A term most listeners/readers/viewers will quickly understand. 

The Journal-Gazette - "police said negotiators and chemical agents were used to persuade the couple to leave the home." 
Note that the J-G reports the facts from the official Press Release. 

Each story is "correct" in regard to the facts, but the story from WOWO is easier to understand and digest from a user standpoint. The TV stations appear to be copying from each other's papers, again. The similarity of those efforts including the confusing and useless term "gas" do nothing more than confound their viewers. 
It is unclear if a journalist or stenographer wrote the J-G story. 

Find the FWPD press release here 
http://www.fwpd.org/barricaded-warrant-suspect-april-17-2019

The WANE-15 story is here
https://www.wane.com/news/local-news/columbia-ave-closed-during-police-standoff/1932726603

The WPTA ABC21 story is here
https://wpta21.com/news/2019/04/17/police-standoff-results-in-arrests-drug-charges/

The WOWO story is here
https://www.wowo.com/update-two-arrested-following-columbia-ave-standoff/

And the J-G story is here
https://www.apnews.com/566cc9e1d8214d9fb98538b18f8b5dd8

Weather Disturbance

Everyone talks about the weather, but no one ever does anything about it.

When it comes to Fort Wayne TV weather, they talk a lot about it.

Why can’t a weather forecast just be a weather forecast? In the past, the weather was a presentation of the current conditions along with a mention of how national weather trends are impacting our area, then a presentation of the forecast conditions, low and high temperature for the next day or two. Now, a typical weather segment includes up to a 60-second interactive exchange with the anchors (we used to call this “happy talk”) after which the credentialed meteorologist will explain in meteorological terminology why the forecast for the past 24 hours missed their prediction. This will involve a graphically intense map of the US complete with icons showing highs and lows, warm fronts, cold fronts and an occasional occluded front (which will be explained to viewers as if they are 4^th graders). Next on the agenda will be the current forecast and a 7-10 day extended forecast. The extended forecast is a hoax, because most any non-TV meteorologist, including those at the National Weather Service, have repeatedly held that weather cannot be reliably forecast beyond the next 48 hours. To wrap up the weather segment, we are once again treated to interactive happy talk with the anchor or anchor team. In the case of WPTA ABC21, this exchange usually includes the female anchor complaining about Fort Wayne’s cold and snowy conditions. The Maven wonders if she pulled that stunt when she worked in South Bend?