News Media

TV News Dope Reporter Award

We are hearing reports at 8pm Wednesday evening of flooding in Idaho City, Weiser, and now Eagle.

The GUARDIAN wants to serve notice here and now that any TV news reporter caught on camera standing in floodwater will be subject to public ridicule and shame. The only thing worse is to sit in the studio during fire season in a dirty yellow shirt.

All your mommas taught you better than to play in the water wearing your good clothes!

Award winners will be posted below and we accept nominations by name and channel call letters.

WE HAVE A WINNER!!

BRANDI SMITH of KIVI at “TODAY’S 6” is the first DOPE REPORTER AWARD winner. She was nicely dressed in a blazer and skirt caught standing in dirty flood water up to her bare knees not even wearing boots in Eagle. What a brave reporter to take off her shoes and wade in the flood water for the camera! Congratulations Brandi as the first dope reporter award winner this season. 10 Pm Wednesday show.

SCOTT LOGAN of KBCI Channel 2 confessed that he too had been caught on camera wading in floodwater. Apparently Guardian readers don’t watch that station–despite intellectual coverage for the most part–because no one reported his misdeed. He claims to have slogged on camera to reach people he interviewed. Probably worth the DOPE AWARD for being on camera, but BRANDI still is our leader. Wading is OK, just don’t do it on camera.

A Reader nomination:
Ysabel Bilbao, Idaho Snooz Channel-7, was seen crossing the ‘raging flood waters’ to get an interview with a man whose house was “on an island.” She even looked back at the cameraman while she was making her way to the interview while carrying the tripod. What a trooper. In her good clothes too!

Comments & Discussion

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  1. Chet Parker
    Apr 5, 2006, 10:46 pm

    Yea Brandi…you are a true TV “reporter”. 🙂

    I would just suggest there should also be awards for the news directors who send their Dope Reporters out to do these stories. Some Dope News Director back in the days when “live reporting” first became a reality, decided it would make his stations newscast “better” and more “meaningful” if he sent reporters out to do live reports at 10pm about events that happened anywhere from 2-3, up to 24 hours earlier.

    These Dope News Directors believe that we viewers are so stupid we will believe we are hearing something “new” if the reporter is standing in front of a dark, empty building at 10pm.

    I would suggest that we deserve something far better than we’ve been given by our local stations in terms of quality “news programming.” General Managers and News Directors apply the same philosphy to designing their news programs that the network executives use to design prime time programming…that you must appeal to the lowest common denominator to have success. What that means is that the majority of people sitting on their couches watching mindless tv shows like Everybody Loves Raymond, are the least educated people in America, and they are the majority. They have nothing better to do with their lives than watch the crap on the tube. But, they make up the numbers, or “ratings”, that drive the networks to keep dishing out more and more crap. The same mentality is used by the Dope News Directors who think we’re all stupid enough to believe we’re getting “updated” information because its “live” at 10pm.

    Citizens of the Treasure Valley should be calling, writing, e-mailing, picketing…something…to express their anger at being fed crap by Dope News Directors and children playing the parts of reporters on TV…and the General Managers who hire them. WE DESERVE BETTER THAN THIS.

  2. In case you want to see what Dave’s talking about:

    ED NOTE–John is a true blogger and a great resource! Statesman’s Darin gets credit too for the image.

    http://www.idahostatesman.com/apps/pbcs.dll/gallery?Site=G0&Date=20060405&Category=NEWS01&ArtNo=405007&Ref=PH&Params=Itemnr=3

  3. Brandi looks as if she is auditioning for a part in the made for television movie “Oliver Twist builds an Ark”…..”Please sir, may I have some more”. Dope!

  4. I can’t believe you people…making fun of a “serious” news reporter out in the elements risking her life…can’t you see that she’s seconds away from being swept up by the rapid knee deep current? I don’t think its funny at all…you should be commended Brani! Good work.

    Remember when Carolyn Holley was electrocuted during the floods of ’95 or ’96? Carolyn set the bar high and Brandi just raised it!!!

  5. ACTUALLY, I sort of like Brandi, (She’s cute, young looking and she rally does act naive.)
    BASICALY can’t you just almost hear that nasty camera “dude” making her back farther into the river for a better shot? “Back just a bit more – – – c’mon, just one more step- – – really just a bit more- – – Trust me now- – –
    Do you suppose that she would have been SHOCKED or STUNNED had she taken that one last step into belly button deep water?
    (Carolyn Holly’s act, with the lightening getting closer and closer just before the KAPOWW and her sudden disappearance, was classic local T.V. news. Thanks for the rememberance chuckle.)

  6. Here’s an idea. Quit watching. I did years ago. Thanks to the internet, I can get my local, state, national and international news in five to ten minutes, bypassing the twenty minutes of adverstising and banal comments from pundits who will never earn my respect. This leaves me scads of free time to comment on insipid posts about the ridiculous antics of uneducated, archaic “news” reporters. As Chet points out, its all about the ratings. But if you complain they know you’re watching. Instead of picketing, vote no by turning it off.

  7. But Sis, if we didn’t watch what would we have to chortle about? If I couldn’t poke fun of the way Carolyn Holly masacres EVERY ethnic name she attempts…gee I really miss Heidi Bodine…she was more entertainment than news. It was like dinner and a show every time. I can’t recall the name of that guy during the foothills “flood” several years ago who went wading and interviewing toothless homeowners, but that was pretty comical. Today my chuckle comes at the report that Jay Friday, resident of Brookwood subdivision ruined his “Nordstrom pants” to rescue his “Audi” from the raging Dry Creek. What a pity…I’ll bet those pants were good ones, too! (hehehehehehehe)

  8. Chet.Parker
    Apr 6, 2006, 11:59 pm

    Hey Dave – As you may or may not know, I’ve just recently discovered your great little contribution to the cyber world and I have a question for ya.

    Would you consider a page dedicated to the silliness that our local tv stations call “news”?
    I believe there are a lot of others out there who, like me, make a sort of game out of flipping around the local channel to see who has written or ad libbed the goofiest thing each day. It’s far better than most sitcoms and I think it would be great to have a place to share the laughs with others who’ve discovered this hilarious little game.

    It would really be great if the site served to start a drive to boycott all the local news programming until someone actually starts offering “news” in their “newscast”… but thats probably unrealistic.

    Anyway, thanks for all your hard work on this, it is really great and a wonderful source of information and entertainment.
    Chet

    ED NOTE– We can accept nominations anytime. Just make sure they are accurate. Hate to give TV dope awards not deserved.

  9. Chet said, “WE DESERVE BETTER THAN THIS.”
    Nope, Buddy, if you’re actually sitting there watching that crap right along, you probably *don’t* deserve better.
    Spend your time on something useful — like sitting here B.S.ing with the Boise Guardian, or reading Boise Weekly, or working crossword puzzles — all more entertaining and infinitely more educational than most of the TV “news,” both local and national (or so I’ve heard; I haven’t actually seen any of it for four or five years, but I love to eavesdrop in coffee shops, bars etc. (also very educational somtimes).
    — gp
    P.S.
    Fraz: I hope you’re not going to limit your Dope awards to the flooding. Seems likely they could be a good year-round activity with plenty of material and competition.
    — gp

  10. Are you suggesting a reporter covering a flood should not get his or her feet wet?

  11. Now hold on, Ysabel Bilbao, Idaho Snooz Channel-7, was seen crossing the ‘raging flood waters’ to get an interview with a man whose house was “on an island.” She even looked back at the cameraman while she was making her way to the interview. And she was carrying the tripod too! What a trooper! She gets my vote!

  12. Chet Parker
    Apr 9, 2006, 7:57 pm

    Gordon. Yes, we do deserve better. This is the largest city in the state, our Capital City, (or is it Capitol?) and constantly growing. You say you quit watching the news years ago and that is exactly my point. If car and bicycle manufacturers produced cars and bikes as poorly as our local stations produce newscasts, would you just say “well, lets just walk or ride scooters and everyone will be happy? Apathy is why our government is full of liars and crooks and why television stations can keep shoveling crap onto the airwaves… because nobody complains and demands better.

  13. Chet Parker
    Apr 9, 2006, 8:16 pm

    Logan,
    I think you’ve missed the point. Nobody is suggesting reporters shouldn’t cover floods. We appreciate reporters covering such events, we just don’t like being treated like idiots who need to see a reporter standing in 3-4 inches of water to “illustrate” to us that there is water on the ground. See, we know when it rains. We know when it rains a whole lot. We drive to work in that water. We drive home from work in that water. We look out our windows and see all that water. What we look for from the “news” is what sort of damage that water might be causing.

    The reporters job, or I should say the photographer/reporters team’s job is to show us pictures of the damage, report the damage assessment, and if warranted, tell us what the authorities say about when things will be back to normal. What we definitely do not need, is a reporter who thinks what we really need to see is her, or him, standing in the water. To see some fool standing in the water is totally meaningless to me. It tells me nothing. It shows me nothing other than a fool and it has no news value at all.

    Now, in a real flood, where the water is chest deep and running at high speed, a reporter might want to jump in after saying something like, “watch how quickly this raging water will wash me completely out of sight.” That would illustrate a grave danger. Standing in a few inches just doesn’t have that sort of dramatic impact. 🙂

  14. I’m already planning my next flood standup. I’ll have children’s water wings on my arms,plus a snorkel and dive mask…and I’ll have on my firefighter’s helmet and yellow nomex shirt. You’ll have to create a new award for that, Mr. Guardian.

  15. Well, since quality news reporting is a thing of the past… how about one of the so-called “news” directors just getting real honest about the fact that it’s all about having cute little girls on the screen. Next time theres a few inches of water on the street, have one of them appear in a bikini, or better yet, a thong … laying in the street in a Sports Illustrated style pose…maybe doing hourly updates on whether the water is any higher than the hour before.
    No offense to Mr. Logan, but I’d prefer NOT to see his water wings. 🙂

  16. As evidence of the “cute little girls” theory; anybody remember the sweetie they hired a few years back? I think they plucked her from the Clinique counter at the Bon. She didn’t do anything well, but looked way cute not doing it.

  17. And if you think local is bad try checking out cable news. Fox “News” is still talking about some girl who disappeared in Aruba last year and pretend to have new information where there isn’t any.

    Also, it is ok if you are a male “reporter” to look like hell warmed over, but the females all have to have perfect skin and wear about a half inch of lipstick. I don’t know how they do that. Perhaps they have all had collegin injections as a condition of employment. I think it is creepy.

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