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UNVARNISHED OPINIONS OF THE CHICAGO NEWS MEDIA
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This Issue from John Kuczaj:
• May Sweeps Stories - Lame
• Musings
What the hell is this crap about?
I didn't think the sweeps stories could get any worse than this past February, but with nearly half the May rating sweep past, we might have hit a new low. It just doesn't look like any News Directors are trying anymore--now they're copying each other!
- Want tips on cutting down on stress? Channel 5's Dr. Deanna Lites did a story on May 4th. If you missed that, maybe you saw Channel 7's Cheryl Burton do a story on May 5th.
- Hey! Wanna learn some quick & easy self-defense? Channel 2's Tracy Townsend showed you 4 moves on May 10th and then Channel 9's Robin Baumgarten gave some carjacking defense tips on May 11th!
- Want to see how Air Marshals are trained? Channel 9's Randy Salerno did a story on May 5th. If you didn't see it then, maybe you caught it when Channel 5's Jennifer Mitchell did it on May 10th. Of course, this assumes you didn't see Channel 7's Paul Meinke do it way back on February 18th!
Well, it's obvious that the News Directors at Channels 2, 5, 7 & 9 have the same "Sweeps for Dummies" book to do their jobs for them. Channel 32 doesn't seem to have the cc: problem, but that doesn't exempt them from the realm of the lame sweeps stories-more on that later. Meantime, aside from the "coincidental" (yeah, right) story duplication, we're starting to experience "home improvement overload" as Channel 2 ran with 3 stories and Channel 7 had 2 so far. "The Idiots Guide to Sweeps" must say do the following stories: Home Improvement, health, traffic & women's issues. Apparently, all the stations have the Idiot's Guide.
Through the first 13 days of the 28-day May 2003 sweep, there have been 52 "special segments". Here's a recap, organized by station & relevance (in my opinion):
CHANNEL 2
Excellent (2): Pam Zekman reporting about job hunters getting ripped off, Antonio Mora reporting about a murder mystery at the U of I.
Good Info (1): Tracy Townsend with 4 self-defense moves women should know.
Interesting (2): Vince Gerasole on remodeling your kitchen & on painting a room.
What-ever! (6): Susan Carlson trying to determine if men or women drive better, Vince Gerasole on women's shoes, manicure tips & rearranging the furniture in your home (what the f---?), Mary Ann Childers on the meaning of dreams & the health benefits of laughter.
CHANNEL 5
Excellent (3): Renee Ferguson exposing the illusion of airport security, Dave Savini on safer IV lines not being used in hospitals & talent scout scams.
Good Info (4): Anna Devlantes on testing the quality of your tap water & trend of insurers dropping more and more homeowner policies, Nesita Kwan on curing childhood obesity, Lisa Parker on shopping cart dangers for children.
Interesting (2): Dr. Lites with your health IQ & cutting down on stress.
What-ever! (2): Rob Elgas on police property room auctions, Jennifer Mitchell goes inside Air Marshal training.
CHANNEL 7
Excellent (1): Kevin Roy on the growing problem of women addicted to gambling.
Good Info (3): Rob Johnson on Reservist families and employers coping during the war, Ron Magers and the SBC vs. AT&T/MCI phone feud, Alan Krashesky on how to get bargain travel.
Interesting (5): Sylvia Perez on choosing vitamins, Janet Davies on low-cost remodeling tips, Tracy Butler on dangerous lightning, Cheryl Burton on stress, Roz Varon on Chicago traffic shifts and what's being done.
What-ever! (2): Burton interviews Oprah, Davies goes shopping for furniture.
CHANNEL 9
Excellent (1): Dina Bair on Seniors getting cheaper drugs from outside U.S.
Good Info (3): Steve Sanders on the Cook County cold case investigators, Judie Garcia on mercury in vaccines possibly causing autism, Robin Baumgarten on carjacking self-defense tips.
Interesting (3): Robin on the cell phones at gas stations email hoax, Joanie Lum on old Sears catalog houses in Chicago, Tom Skilling on weather affecting the Sears Tower.
What-ever! (3): Allison Payne profiles Donald Rumsfeld, Robert Jordan profiles a slow eating food club, Randy Salerno goes inside Air Marshal training.
CHANNEL 32
Excellent (1): Larry Yellen reports on the arsenic problem in Naplate, IL
Good Info (2): Mark Saxenmeyer reports on Catholic priest with alleged stigmata, Fox Files report on smoke detectors not waking kids.
Interesting (1): Saxenmeyer on grass-roots sales techniques for vodka in clubs.
What-ever! (5): Saxenmeyer gets dirt from ex-American Idol contestants & an A Capella group singing Simpsons dialogue. Danielle Serino on Hip-hop dubbed Kung-Fu films, NeighborHoodies, Romance via text messaging.
What's the deal with the lame showing thus far?
A big reason is two months worth of war coverage. Money & resources were diverted to cover the war, and it appears the I-Teams took most of the hits (except at Channel 5 apparently). Over on Channel 7, I-team leader Chuck Goudie was in Kuwait during the war, so he didn't have any time to work on any investigations for May. Okay, so I give all the NDs some slack for having stressed out budgets and little time for time-intensive investigations.
I refuse to give any slack for presenting lame shit as a "special report" or a "special segment". Manicure tips? Slow food? NeighborHoodies? Hyping those stories as a special report is a joke. Let me clarify that I find nothing wrong with the stories. Soft features are fine and yes, they have a place on a newscast but to hype them as a major story is retarded. I'm still amazed that NDs don't believe promoting soft features or anchors goofing off on-air affects their news credibility. A promo that says "Tonight on the Channel 2 News, Vince Gerasole shows you how to beautify your house by rearranging the furniture" actually says to me "Forget the real news, have some candy!" I KNOW I'm not alone in that opinion.
Channel 32 has a history of odd sweeps stories, though to be fair, they are trying to appeal to the "Fox viewer". Larry Yellen gives us the hard-hitting I-Team investigations, Mark Saxenmeyer goes for the quirky & sometimes serious stories, Sundays we get a Fox Files report produced by another Fox affiliate, Danielle Serino kicks ass with the Bottom Line, and then we get the obligatory health reports. Problem is: The Fox Files reports are not localized, so their impact is minimized; the Bottom Line reports are really not strong enough to warrant "special" status and the health reports on any station are generally not that strong either. So, most of 32's "special reports" were obvious after-thoughts (gee, we need something Friday---how about that thing about Hoodies!!!). Again, the reports themselves weren't bad per se, just not worthy of "special report" status. To put it another way, is Larry Yellen's "Arsenicville" just as important as an A Capella group that sings Simpsons dialogue? They were promoted equally as strong.
My last specific beef with the sweeps stories thus far focuses on Cheryl Burton's one-on-one with Oprah Winfrey Monday, May 3rd. First, let's acknowledge that this interview had nothing substantial going on and was done solely to pump the ratings on that night. Second, let's prove that point by pointing out that Oprah just announced that she'd stay with her show through 2008-a major TV news tidbit that Cheryl didn't get. Third, let's point out that whenever a prominent African-American is to be interviewed on a newscast, the NDs invariably use one of their African-American anchors to conduct the interview. If it's a cultural thing, then I'm stumped as to why there's a double standard for other ethnicities. It's stupid and it's wrong. In this case, Janet Davies is the most qualified to interview celebrities on Channel 7.
Check out the sweep story breakdown
Okay, I've said enough...let's see if the sweep stories get any better.
Musings
On Tuesday's Fox News in the Morning, Tamron Hall interviewed Halle Berry.
Or was it a Halle Berry look-alike interviewing Halle Berry?
Or was it Tamron Hall interviewing a Tamron Hall look-alike?
(Just trying to see if I can confuse Robert Feder with circular references)
Nice to see Fox Sports Chicago finally using "CUBS" instead of 'CHC" in their "Fox Box" scoreboard during the Cubs games. Makes the games seem local.
The Sun-Times has quietly started running Bill O'Reilly's syndicated column on Tuesdays. I e-mailed them last year suggesting that even if they disagreed with his ideology, the column would probably bring O'Reilly fans to the Sun-Times. I just don't understand why they made such a huge deal about the irrelevant comic strip "Beetle Bailey" coming to the paper, but they haven't done even a small page 1 blurb promoting O'Reilly. Weird.
IN THE CURRENT CHICAGO RED FACE:
- Blago's Buddies All Hot and Bothered
- COMPLETE COVERAGE! WAR ON IRAQ
- Ozzy Osbourne visits White House, Bites off President's Head
- "Meig the best of it" contest winners announced
- I'm wearing a cap, cuz I'm cool
- STEED
- Sox restrict access for upper deck
- JAY MERRYMAN: Bears Blow Draft, Doomed Forever
- Jay Merryman interviews Byron Leftwich
- Cool Again: Chewbacca
Check it out at: www.chicagoredface.com.
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