Hard News Goes Limp

Really, WANE TV? 

This is news?

At best it's feature fluff. 

One might consider that WANE is schmoozing a finicky advertiser, or, perhaps WANE now sells "opportunities" within their "news". 

At any rate the Maven could never imagine even the revenue-challenged Journal Gazette stooping to put something like this on their front page.....

Uh, WISH TV? They Don't Live Here

File this in the "if you were from here, you'd know this stuff" folder.

The kids in the WOWO news room seem to have a problem with which TV stations are located in, and serve, the Fort Wayne market. 

Repeatedly, The Station Of The Year Marconi Award Winner, credits WISH TV (alive and well, serving Indianapolis), as the source of a story about grease in city drains. 

As an added bonus, WOWO also misidentifies Fort Wayne City Utilities as the "Fort Wayne Utilities Department". 

Further, the Maven wonders why WOWO did not credit the Journal Gazette, (that's the daily morning newspaper here.....it's not the Indy Star) which originally broke the story. 

Closed Circuit to WOWO news: The local CBS affiliate that you copied your homework from is WANE TV. 

So, on this eve of Thanksgiving, the Maven is thankful for the kids in the WOWO news room for providing and endless stream of errors and foolishness. 

...our partners in news at 21Alive...

The Maven wonders if 21Alive might be rethinking their reciprocal promotion agreement with the kids in the WOWO news room. By providing 'traffic reports' to 21Alive, the kids in the WOWO news room are allowed to cut and paste "news" from the 21Alive web site for use on WOWO. Think of it as permission to copy your neighbor's homework. The idea is one of "cross promotion". How that benefits the listeners/viewers may be a point of debate. 

For instance, Radio Shack will close 2 Fort Wayne stores. The 21Alive story includes the locations of the stores. The kids in the WOWO news room leave those details out of their story. Why? Since Radio Shack does not sell lip gloss, the Maven guesses that it's not an important fact of the story in their eyes. 

WPTA reports:

The WOWO effort:

Sharp readers will note that the last words of the WOWO copy "if any other locations will do the same". Hard to tell since the kids left out the locations that were closing. 

The Maven's advice: 21Alive needs to be a little more watchful on how the kids in the WOWO news room handle and present 21Alive's work product.....leaving out important details can be expected from WOWO, but when WOWO indicates that the story came from 21Alive, there should be a concern that 21Alive's news product is slipshod and incomplete. 

Protecting Their Friends, Or Are They Really That Inept?

It was a mixed bag for this individual. Winning and election, and going to jail. 

The Maven has just one question, why didn't 21Alive reveal the man's political party affiliation?  Seriously, is being charged with sexual abuse any more offensive than being labeled a Democrat or a Republican?

Are the folks at 21Alive protecting a political friend, or did 21Alive just not think it was important to you, since they are "journalists" and you are just some ignorant viewer? 

So, what is Mr. Fritz's party affiliation? All the 21Alive folks had to do was look a little deeper into their copy of the Journal Gazette this morning. That is, if they really wanted to know.

You can find the 21Alive story here:

http://www.21alive.com/news/local/Noble-County-Candidate-Arrested-For-Child-Sexual-Abuse-281523711.html