News Media

TV Dope Award

We can’t watch every newscast, but GUARDIAN readers are out there monitoring the local airwaves. Here is the latest nomination for a TV Dope Award from reader “Steve.”

BROOKE HALE: SAT. 4/29/06 (the KBCI channel 2 Anchor ). Her lead off story was about 3rd grade kids who can’t read. Next item about a body found in Palace-ville. In the middle of the 3rd news item she corrected her mispronunciation of Placerville by explaining that she is not from this area. In the following news item she described an event that happened in “Lewisville, Kentucky”.

EDITOR NOTE– Reminds us of the two travelers arguing about “Lewey-vill, Lou avul, or Lewis-ville.” They stopped at a restaurant and asked, “How do you pronounce the name of this place?” The girl behind the counter said slowly, “BURR-GERR KING.”

Take heart Brooke, at least they are watching you!

Comments & Discussion

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  1. Chet Parker
    May 2, 2006, 11:22 pm

    Guardian – the time is right for a new TV Award. May is ratings month!!!! You know what that means. The geniuses at our local stations are doing all sorts of revealing “investigative reports.” 🙂

    7 revealed to us that when Idaho Power sold some old computers on e-bay, they darn near tipped off Al-Queda on how to shut off the power in Boise, Idaho, something Osama has surely been trying to figure out for some time now. Thank God some computer geek bought the units before the terrorists noticed the deal, otherwise we could all be trying to type in the dark right now!! 🙂

    The anchor-kittie on 6 my daughter describes as “real scary” looking, gave us a potential Murrow Award winning piece, revealing that teenagers today are into
    methamphetamines!!!! Oh my, right here in the Treasure Valley!! (be nice to her, she is relatively new to the neighborhood and probably doesn’t realize teens have been into meth for several years now).

    Tonight (Tuesday) 6 revealed the existence of something called the “Deadly Delay Zone” for firefighters. Apparently someone has determined that if the fire trucks don’t arrive on scene within six minutes of getting a call, then the potential for death and disaster just does right through the roof. And, guess what? They don’t always make it. Sometimes traffic gets in the way!!!! Sometimes those windy streets in subdivisions, or maze-style driveways in apartment and office building complexes slow them down!!!

    It’s is just an absolute miracle that any of us are still alive, and in fact, tomorrow night, this “investigation” will continue with new information that will help us realize that any one of us could be living in a “Deadly Delay Zone,” thereby senselessly endangering the lives of our families.

    Wow. I am already ashamed of myself and thinking about calling channel six to send a crew over to let me go on the air and ask forgiveness from my family for being so stupid. Next they’ll be telling me that some of the household cleaners under my sink are also deadly; that the kitchen in my favorite restaurant is not germ free; that the sheets on the bed in that motel we stayed in on our last vacation were probably full of bugs carrying deadly diseases; that I got ripped off the last time I took my car to the repair shop and who knows what other horrible things are lurking out there that I “might be surprised” to learn!

    Shouldn’t certain worn-out phrases be banned from the airwaves? Like, “you might be surprised at what we found.” – “the shocking results of our investiation, at Ten” – “you won’t believe what we found out about ____”

    Come on tv people – the only thing that surprises us is how you just keep getting funnier and funnier, as you continue to lower the standards for what used to be called “journalism.”

    Give us a break. Start your newscast one night during the month of May with something profound, like “We have no phony investigations for you tonight and no sensationalized crap, we’re not going to try to be your mother or anything, we’re just going to report some news for the next few minutes and we hope you’ll find some of the information useful.”

    Naawwww, on second thought, that wouldn’t be any fun to watch. Never mind.

  2. Actually the ch. 6 piece on meth was a VERY revealing look at how LITTLE Idaho is spending on meth treatment/prevention and how much less will be spent in coming years….The feds funding is going to drop 50%….Plus her story looked at how Montana is taking an aggressive stance at keeping children from ever trying the drug. Maybe Chet should actually watch and listen to the stories in context before bashing.

  3. Gotta go with John on the Meth story. I do want to mention one EXPOSE that Chet left out: The “does anybody think there is still prostitution in Boise after a couple of oriental spas were raided?” story. Did anyone watch this thing. Here’s some guy, sacrificing his reputation (or affirming it) actually HAVING SEX on the “massage table” with bare hiney pixilated (sorta), just to prove that there’s still trouble in River City.

    We laughed our tails off. (not that prostitution or the addition or human trafficing that go along are funny) DO they think we’re idiots, because that would be my assumption? Did they have to PAY this guy? Was he a station employee? Were the camerapeople grossed out as bad as I was? Did we learn anything new? Geez, just do the news!

  4. Chet Parker
    May 3, 2006, 5:41 pm

    I watch the stories but I’ve been very aware of the meth problem among teens in Boise since years ago, when our so-called police chief kept insisting there was no “gang/drug problems” in Boise, and yes, John, and Ch 6, the government is and has cut funding for a lot of drug treatment programs. It’s a losing battle and not a popular thing to do with taxpayers dollars.
    If you need a news program in May of 2006 to tell you that, then you should be reading a paper now and then, or maybe even a magazine.

  5. I am not disagreeing with Chet that ALL news (local and national) sensationalizes stories especially during their “ratings period”, but I do have a problem with people who always act like they are all-knowing. I have actually been watching Ch. 6 alot lately, and their “ratings stories” have been good investigations. Last night (Wednesday) “deadly delay” was a telling (although the name was corny)look at how three of the fastest growing cities in Idaho are dealing with slowing emergency response times.
    -Meridian acknowledged they are well below par because of traffic issues….but they are actively pursuing major changes/adding more fire houses.
    -Eagle acknowledged they are well below par and officials giving the city’s residents the choice to vote on building more.
    -Kuna ackowledged the problem and said they are doing NOTHING…..I.E. Never getting rid of the volunteer fire dept (straight from the mayor’s mouth).
    Let me guess….Chet has known for YEARS that there is a problem….AND…..he has all the solutions….Give me a break.

  6. Chet Parker
    May 6, 2006, 12:17 am

    I think my ranting response to the ignorant defense of tv “ratings stories” was accidentally deleted so you’ve been spared on that one….BUT…heres another thought to ponder.
    If anyone out there is really shocked that the number of teenagers doing drugs has, for years, been increasing at a much faster rate than the number of drug treatment centers, counselors, etc. then you really need to get in closer touch with reality.
    Consider this… instead of doing “investigative” reports to report the obvious, wouldn’t it be great TV if some station decided to find out who the parents of these kids are and do a series of reports on them…who are they? what do they do for a living? how and when did they lose touch with their children? Confront the parents and ask them if they think they should be held partially responsible for the financial burden their kids place on society. Now I’d like to watch that story!! 🙂 Pretty safe bet it’ll never happen because God forbid we should “expose” the wealthy, upstanding, good church-goin folks out there who are so busy impressing each other they don’t have time for their own families.
    How shocked would the fine people of
    Boise be if a TV crew set up a hidden camera and taped all the drunken kids on Main street some Friday night between 8th street and 5th, from about midnight until 2:30am !!! Ask the police why they try so hard to keep the younger kids from “cruising” but nobody seems to care that the streets are filled with drunks a couple of hours after the younger kids have been driven away. 🙂
    Would that be too much truth and ugliness for the community to handle?
    Maybe we’d be happier if the media just picked on our firefighters for not being able to keep up with the rapid growth of the community and taking a few seconds longer to get from Point A to Point B, something completely out of their control. Yeah, thats a better use of the media’s precious time.

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