Political Yard Sign Violence/Vandalism

If you watch the local TV news, one would think that political yard sign vandalism only happens to Democrats and only happens in communities outside the city of Fort Wayne. 

The Maven does not doubt that these incidents happen. But the Maven wonders why it's only the supporters of one political party that seem to get the coverage.

Are these people better at involving the media? 

Do the supporters of the other political party not experience this vandalism?

Do incidents of political sign vandalism/violence only happen in areas away from the Fort Wayne city center?

Just seems odd.  

Click-Bait Frustrations

Click-bait is annoying as hell. Click-bait also means revenue. 

Local TV news social media is no stranger to click-bait news stories. Usually, these stories are gut-wrenching tales of death and despair that tug on the heartstrings of even the most hardened viewers/readers. Every time you click on one of them it means more revenue and profits for the out-of-town corporations that own our local TV stations.

WPTA ABC 21Alive seems to be the worst offender, but WANE-15 also runs these stories on their social media platforms. But, WANE-15 deserves credit for offering the reader/viewer a bit more information.

Below, note, that the WPTA ABC 21Alive story, by lack of identification, implies that it occurred here, in Fort Wayne. But that's not true. The story that WPTA ABC 21Alive features didn't even happen in the US. It's from Nova Scotia, in Canada. 

WANE-15 wisely drops a hint to readers/viewers that the story they feature occurred in Kansas. 

Kudos to WANE-15 for helping readers/viewers make wise decisions on what they choose to click on, and what to scroll by. 

Balanced? Maybe, Maybe Not

WANE-15 aired a story a few days ago (October 15) alleging political yard sign vandalism in Van Wert, Ohio.

Here's a link to the story: https://www.wane.com/top-stories/van-wert-residents-targeted-for-having-harris-yard-signs/

It's a standard story during election time. Vandalism to political yard signs has been with us since, well, the first political yard sign appeared back in the 19th century. What made the WANE-15 report curious was that it implied that only signs supporting the Democratic Party presidential candidates were stolen/trashed. The local chairman of the Democrats was featured making comments about the vandalism, including concerns that residents were living in a fearful environment. 

The Maven wonders why no one contacted local Republican party officials to ask if their supporters' signs were damaged or stolen. Does the Republican chairman in Van Wert believe his supporters live in a fearful environment?

The Maven has no issue with the accuracy of the story, but does have concerns about "balance". 

Only interviewing the Democrat Party chairperson, and promoting a local Democratic Party event including time, location and ticket price information seems, in the Maven's opinion, to unbalance the story.

Please note: the ticket price information for the Van Wert Democratic Party event is only mentioned in the "live" report (imbedded in the story) and does not appear in the text of the story as published on WANE.COM. 

Leaving CBS News Behind...

The Maven has struggled with watching CBS News for quite a while.

Something is wrong with the operation. There has been a less-than-subtle shift from doing journalism to advancing an agenda. Reading the article linked below was the final straw. 

CBS News is broken and the Maven is abandoning them. 

Here's the link to The Free Press story:

https://www.thefp.com/p/does-cbs-news-know-where-jerusalem

Being First vs Being Accurate

In the race to be "the first to report..." WPTA ABC21Alive has found a new dodge to insulate themselves from being wrong during "breaking news" situations. 

Just as many local newsrooms abused the word "alleged" or "allegedly", a few years ago, thinking that would provide them legal cover, now the word "apparent" or "apparently" is suffering the same fate.

The most recent "officer-involved" shooting, is a perfect example. A frequent blog reader passed this social media post (seen above) from WPTA ABC21Alive. He wondered if using "apparent" meant they were too lazy to call and get verification. The Maven speculated that it was more like getting it published "first", and getting verification later.

An interesting point to ponder is that most journalists say that being accurate is more important than being first. Here's a link to a Forbes article that seems to bear that out: https://www.forbes.com/sites/tonysilber/2018/04/24/survey-of-journalists-suggests-accuracy-is-more-important-than-being-first/#:~:text=Being%20100%25%20accurate%20is%20more,to%20change%20how%20journalists%20work. 

If the Forbes survey is to be believed, then why do TV stations incorrectly fall all over themselves to be the "first" on every breaking story? Is this driven by competition with rival newsrooms (read: pissing contest), or, heaven forbid, are the marketing and advertising divisions behind this abomination to drive sales, non-traditional revenue, and corporate profits? If that's the case, all those regional Emmys that local stations like to brag about, are merely participation trophies (randomly handed out with the purchase of a new Broyhill bedroom suite)? 

Remember, it was WPTA ABC21Alive who, a few years ago, notoriously embarrassed themselves with a breaking news report of an active shooter atop the East Central Towers with an assault rifle, firing on Three Rivers Festival crowds. The News Sentinel finally set the record straight with a Tweet quoting FWPD's Mike Joiner that there was not, and never was an active shooter downtown. 

When the dust settled, WPTA's, then nightly anchor, Alexis Gray, was quoted as saying that "facts don't matter during breaking news...and that their newscasts saved lives. 

As for Alexis Gray, whoever said that fiction won't win you an Emmy?

 

It Helps If You Read The Fine Print, kids...

The Silver Alert system and those similar to it are proven and effective tools for finding missing kids and others. 

But, they only work if our media gets the information correct from the source/originator. 

Here's a tip: "MW" means white MALE, if that's any help...

WPTA ABC21Alive's confusion aside, the system worked and the missing juvenile has been located, according to the authorities.

Two Good Ones Get Away...

Two outstanding individuals who added a good dose of professionalism to an otherwise desert of media mediocrity are leaving town for a larger market. 

The Maven bids a sincere farewell to WANE-15's Emily Dwire and Rex Smith.

 

The Maven has never had the pleasure of meeting Rex, but has talked with Emily on the phone a few times. She was always bright and helpful. Rex's work on air and in the anchor chair was always top-notch.

The Maven wishes Emily and Rex much success in the next chapter of their lives and careers. 

Another Writing Crutch from the kids at WPTAABC21Alive

For reasons unknown, the crew at WPTAABC21Alive has stumbled upon another annoying writing crutch. 

SHARE has now become the word-du-jour in many of their news stories. The Maven is unsure why this has happened...perhaps one or all of those who write the news have been attending self-help or 12-step programs and the desire to SHARE has just filtered over to their news copy. 

Prior to SHARE, the word LEADERS held down in the number one spot:

Not A Current Photo

The kids at WPTAABC21Alive have done it again. 

Either a lazy or ignorant staffer was told to pull up a photo of Fort Wayne City Council to accompany a story about Sharon Tucker's ascension from Council to the Mayor's chair.  

Well, they found a photo...except it was NOT a current photo. 

Please note, that Mr. Didier and Mr. Hines both left office on January 1, 2024. 

Apparently, the kids in the WPTAABC21Alive newsroom have not caught on.

Standardized Weather Graphics, Please!

For the most part, local TV weather people have worked hard to tone down the hype and to increase calm and reliable forecast presentations. Gone are the days of trying to outdo the competition to panic the audience into the belief that their world would end if viewers dared to switch the channel. 

One thing that the purveyors of meteorological data could do to further improve public confidence and understanding of weather data and forecasting would be to somehow standardize the colors and terms they use on their graphic presentations. 

Here's how Indiana Homeland Security, using a National Weather Service graphic, sees today/tonight's weather:

The Weather Channel with their TORCON (whatever that means) offers this:

And, WPTA ABC 21Alive offers this:

Do you understand why those of without a degree in Meteorology might be a bit confused?

Standards Have Changed?

A letter to the editor in today's Journal Gazette caught the Maven's eye. 

Making no judgment about the letter writer's arguments, referring to a US Senator and candidate for Indiana governor as Senator BLOWHARD, seemed out of place.

The Maven has blurred the name and hometown of the letter writer because that is not the issue here.

The issue is that the Journal Gazette seems to have relaxed its Letter To The Editor standards to allow name-calling and ad-hominem attacks.

Many years ago the Maven, writing under his legal name, penned a caustic letter regarding a "blowhard" member of the Fort Wayne City Council. I called the man "Councilman Blowhard". The letter was rejected, noting that calling someone a "blowhard" and "idiot", constituted an ad hominem attack on the individual, and could not be printed. 

So, the question is: Has the JG changed its rules? 

Whatever Ever Happened To...

It's pretty common knowledge that the Federated Media stations, WOWO, WMEE, K105, et al are moving offices and studios to a central location in the Coventry area. The Maven wishes them well.

However, that's not the only operation that's moving. Or at least had plans to move. 

You may recall that Northeast Indiana Public Radio Inc, WBOI 89.1's parent company had purchased the old Odd Fellows Building at 210 East Jefferson downtown with plans to develop a state-of-the-art broadcast facility. 

If you drive through downtown, chances are you've seen the building, next door to Subway and across from Wendy's.

.

Here's the announcement:

Cool stuff. Here's the architect's rendering of what the new facility might look like:

So, why does this building still sit empty? 

Northeast Indiana Public Radio Inc, WBOI's parent company, continues to own the property. A search of the records is here:

So, the mystery remains. Whatever happened to WBOI 89.1 moving into these fancy digs? Or are they just another passive real estate investor with plans to "flip" the property to a fast-food operator, tobacco store, or fireworks stand?

 

Those Rand McNally Moments

Many reading this blog will have no idea who the gentleman in the meme is, but his message conveys the frustration of many in the mass audience. If you work here, you should, at the least, have a handle on local geography. 

Besides jumbling facts and figures (which they contort and confuse regularly), it appears those young "journalists" on our nightly newscasts, er, shows (sorry), seem to have no understanding of local geography. 

The Maven has a few examples:

The intersection of Broadway and Taylor, in the shadow of the transformative Electric Works project, wreaks havoc with the kids in the newsroom. Some say it's downtown, south of downtown, or west of downtown. A map would have been helpful on this one. Hint (it's southwest of downtown).

It's not just Fort Wayne geography that confuses the newsrooms. Hoosier state geography is also a mystery. Linton is a pleasant little town southwest of Indianapolis.

The Journal Gazette, a fixture in downtown for more than a century, is also confused about what downtown means. For the record, 2213 Fox Avenue is southwest of downtown.

What is it about Broadway that confuses these young skulls full of mush? It's still southwest. Hasn't changed in years.

Another example of misidentifying location. The 400 block of Poplar is South of Washington/Jefferson, and West of Calhoun (the traditional divisions on NE, SE, SW, and NW as used by the City of Fort Wayne). This makes it Southwest...but, apparently WPTAABC21Alive has other ideas...

So, what's the big deal you say. Besides the property damage caused by irate viewers hurling the shoes, dentures, and small animals at TV screens across the tristate region...these "errors" chip away at local TV's already dwindling credibility.