Humor
Correct Numbers, Wrong Name Intersection
May 2, 2016 
Jeff Platt of KBOI-TV is the latest winner of a coveted Dope Reporter award for an innocent mistake last week. He was nominated by GUARDIAN reader Eric Oden.
While standing at HORSESHOE BEND ROAD and STATE street he reported on plans for the modification of an intersection more than a mile away at EAGLE ROAD and STATE.
Platt was talking about an INNOVATIVE DESIGN by the Idaho Transportation Department, but he apparently used a GPS to reach his location.
While his location was “HWY 44 and 55,” the intersection in question (Eagle and State) is also HWY 44 and 55, but NOT Horseshoe Bend Road. Honest mistake, but difficult for viewers.
911 Dispatchers also get calls for the “Orchard exit on the freeway,” which could be near Gowen Field or 15 miles east at the Orchard military training range near the Stage Stop. To add to the confusion on that one, Gowen Road crosses the freeway twice as well at either end of the airport.
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Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
May 2, 2016, 3:05 pm
Since most corporate media sites have dropped or effectively hidden their comment sections, readers can’t point out these and other errors. KBOI, KTVB, and KIVI often have glaring spelling or content errors, and their “facts” are often highly questionable.
Also, when was the last time any of the local “free press” (propaganda tools) did an investigative story concerning criminal activity by our politicians, bankers, or the rich folks?? Every peasant who steals a loaf of bread these days gets a jail picture and a story, but the connected folks are either saints, or getting selectively ignored.
May 2, 2016, 5:08 pm
Your Orchard example reminds me of the THREE Franklin exits on I-84. I had someone who came into town visiting, and he said he was staying at a hotel off the Franklin exit. I had to ask him which one, he laughed and said “The third Franklin exit. Don’t worry, we got confused too.”
May 2, 2016, 5:13 pm
I’ve concluded the roads in that area are poorly named and poorly labeled. Is difficult to give directions to someone because the signs all have two possible routes. A road should not have two or three official names. Also, it should not be new or old such and such. Just a bunch of hillbilly hick stuff the way it is now.
The reporter is probably a liberal from out of town and the screen on his GPS was too small to read the writing.
May 2, 2016, 5:40 pm
…or even the Orchard training range near the Stage Stop.
May 2, 2016, 8:41 pm
Got me confused now … State St intersects Eagle Rd in downtown Eagle. Hwy 44 is the bypass south of town. So on which is the project?
May 3, 2016, 8:45 am
Tom.. the really unfair thing is that when the peasant gets his picture broadcast or published it’s because he is *accused* of stealing the bread. And there is seldom any followup to those stories to let us know whether or not he actually did it and, if he did, what happened to the case. Too much work. It’s much easier to pull the mug shot from the sheriff’s web site and move on.
May 3, 2016, 9:16 am
When the super growth spurt that COMPASS totally missed in the 90s began to fill out the valley with the rapid influx of newcomers, ACHD and ITD had to scramble for road engineering solutions that they didn’t have time to think about in a normal predictive fashion. This after-the-fact planning and building frenzy has yielded all kinds of cram and slam facilities like the bypass in Eagle and the Y interchange nightmare. Franklin Rd is still under construction. We are still shy all of the north-south connections we need in key locations. Look for the Star/Eagle area to swell in new transplants soon, with a major focus on developing that area’s road systems.
May 3, 2016, 9:21 am
I’m not sure who is confused-but road situation certainly is- thanks ITD:
-“While standing at HORSESHOE BEND ROAD and STATE street he”
-“While his location was “HWY 44 and 55,”
The video does not show him standing at Horseshoe Bend Rd at all.
Horseshoe Bend Rd has the Stinker Station.
He is next to the Home Depot, on 55 with the camera pointing right at the concrete business. That is not Horseshoe Bend Rd.
So someone is saying he should be next to the Albertson’s store intersection?
How do we know that? Clearly, there are two 55/44 intersections. I don’t see anything in the report (or on ITD website) clarifying which intersection they are discussing.
May 3, 2016, 11:06 am
I guess that if you are not confused these days, you are just not paying attention.
May 3, 2016, 5:14 pm
Sorry, gotta give a Dope Guardian Award here.
Gowen does NOT cross the freeway twice — the road’s name changes to Orchard before it hits 84 (it actually forks off and winds around before it dumps off on Victory… but at no point does it recross 84).
Following on my comment on the last Dope Reporter award… everyone makes mistakes.
https://www.google.com/maps/@43.558141,-116.2439064,16.25z
EDITOR NOTE–We will humbly take the hit, but we also want folks to realize the award is intended to be FUN, not a nit pik. Gotta admit doing a stand up at a “T” intersection to report on a 4-way intersection makes about as much sense as sending reporters into the dark of night to report on something that took place hours earlier or standing in floodwater holding a microphone.
May 3, 2016, 9:00 pm
I don’t know Jeff, but other reporters who have been maligned with this treatment have found it anything but “fun.”
EDITOR NOTE–When a KTVB reporter stood at Garden Valley and said, “The fire has died down, but if we are lucky it will start up again,” that was considered by staff as FUNNY.
May 4, 2016, 3:42 pm
What is not funny is that all mainstream corporate news reporters should be considered “dopes”. They allow themselves to be used by “news” organizations to distract the public with nonsense stories and fluff, while largely ignoring their job of scrutinizing and exposing corruption in our government, and protecting our freedom. Even calling them reporters is misleading, they should be called Infotainers.
May 4, 2016, 11:14 pm
Local news TV productions suck. Thank goodness for hot young women on the shows, little other reason to watch.
Guardian is doing real reporting in all but the few stories that he picks on the sorry sad state of local news/entertainment product.
Every show in Boise could be done from a studio in LA using old footage without a hint.
BTW: Trump is gonna win.
BTW: I’ll never forget the News station infomercials for the new ski resort about 10-12 years ago… full court press by the anchor during the evening “news” right up until the day the Frenchman sang.
May 5, 2016, 7:11 am
Don. Yes, everybody makes mistakes. However, journalists should correct them. In this case Channel 2 was informed of the mistake before this blog post. No response. No correction. As a matter of fact, the incorrect story is online and wrong. Don’t be “on my side.” Don’t “look out for me.” Just tell me the news. Avoid the hype. And if you make a mistake, correct it.
May 5, 2016, 4:33 pm
Well erico49, in that case — it’s pretty dopey. I too stand corrected.