1 of 1- RadioActive
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A Tale Of 2 Countries: Where Would You Have Put This In Your Newscast?
This isn't meant so much as a criticism but rather an observation. I was amazed to see how newscasts in the U.S. and Canada handled the story of the mysterious object the P.M. ordered shot down over the Yukon on Saturday.
All the Toronto newscasts led with the sorry Tory story, of course, but on the main station I watched, CFTO, it took until 6:23 PM for them to get to this yarn.
At 6:30 PM, all the American network news shows - NBC, CBS and ABC - lead with it, even though there were very few details and almost no viz. Not even CBC played it higher, which you might expect they would do.
I just thought it was interesting the priority in which one country put the story - where it was almost buried - versus the other, which made it the lead across the nation.
There isn't a lot of information yet, but I personally would have played it a bit higher here had I been producing, considering it's not every day a U.S. war plane shoots down an object over Canadian airspace.
- paterson1
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Re: A Tale Of 2 Countries: Where Would You Have Put This In Your Newscast?
The difference may have been that the newscasts at 6pm here were local, and at 6:30 the American newscasts were network broadcasts. Global National at 6:30 led with the object being shot down. Our version of the CBC news at 6pm on Saturday is only seen in Ontario.
All of the local casts were into the John Tory story in detail and some likely had this for the first 12-13 minutes. The next story for many was the upcoming Toronto budget which is being voted on this week. The three national US casts and Global National at 6:30 would logically lead with the shoot down.
Earlier in the afternoon all of the TV news networks had extensive coverage of the downing and shooting of whatever this thing was. All had the press conferences with analysis.
I do agree that CFTO/CTV Toronto not getting to other news for 23 minutes is slow. However the John Tory situation and all of the ramifications would be more top of mind for most viewers. So I don't think it was so much a tale of two countries, but rather a tale of local and network news.
Last edited by paterson1 (February 12, 2023 11:48 am)
- mic'em
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Re: A Tale Of 2 Countries: Where Would You Have Put This In Your Newscast?
I have to wonder if these objects are designed as probes to test our air defense systems. There were reports recently of joint Russian-Chinese co-operation in certain areas.
- ED1
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I'm not surprised the John Tory story led all the local Toronto newscasts. And the story did only break the night before so this might have been CFTO's first real crack at presenting comprehensive coverage on it. My issue is the national news channels for CBC and CTV endlessly talking about the John Tory thing. It may be a juicy story, but I don't see how this affects anyone outside of the GTA.
Out here in western Canada, many of the local newscasts led with the spy balloon being shot down, and Global National aired the defence minister's press conference live.
Last edited by ED1 (February 12, 2023 12:48 pm)
- paterson1
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Re: A Tale Of 2 Countries: Where Would You Have Put This In Your Newscast?
I agree ED1, both CBC and especially CTV news channels tend to be too Toronto oriented. I remember when CBC News Network (then Newsworld) first went on the air. Much of the broadcast day was from Calgary on the network. Even CTV's channel had studio segments and roundtables live from Vancouver.
Now almost everything is out of Toronto or Ottawa. During COVID both networks spent too much time focusing on Toronto and what Ontario and Premier Ford were doing. I thought to myself many times why would anyone in Western Canada or the Maritimes care when CTV News Channel had all day live reports from a Toronto beach because people were sitting and playing close together and almost nobody was wearing a mask. I am sure this was happening at almost every beach across the country.
- RadioActive
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Re: A Tale Of 2 Countries: Where Would You Have Put This In Your Newscast?
I have the same reaction to iHeart's "Newstalk Tonight," which also goes nationally, but is heard here on CFRB. Almost all of Jim Richards' topics seem to be either something going on in the GTA or some story happening in Ontario. If they were doing stories about Vancouver's City Council or some local issue involving not getting garbage picked up there or a bridge in need of repair, why would anyone here care? I'm guessing the reaction has to be the same out west.
The same goes for Jerry Agar's show, which is very Toronto-centric but airs on CKTB and CJBK. Does anyone in London really give a you-know-what about the trees at Osgoode Hall?
Alex Pierson's program on 640, also heard on CHML and CFPL, often falls into the same trap, but at least not as often.
The fact is, far too many of these shows are just an excuse to not have to hire anyone in those smaller markets, so anyone listening there hears what's happening here. And I can't imagine why they would care.
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Thread Starter- ED1
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Re: A Tale Of 2 Countries: Where Would You Have Put This In Your Newscast?
On a related note, I noticed last year that when trying to cover a breaking story out west, CBCNN goes to a reporter in Toronto (or better yet, a reporter at calling via zoom from their apartment in Toronto). This might have been a product of the pandemic, but it just seemed bizarre to me for CBC to go to someone in Toronto than to their own reporter in the field covering the story. I haven’t noticed if CTV was doing this on their news channel.
And with CTV News Channel, Bell has CP24. Let CP24 go wall to wall with John Tory and let your NATIONAL news channel cover the rest of the day’s news.
- MJ Vancouver
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Re: A Tale Of 2 Countries: Where Would You Have Put This In Your Newscast?
paterson1 wrote:
I agree ED1, both CBC and especially CTV news channels tend to be too Toronto oriented. I remember when CBC News Network (then Newsworld) first went on the air. Much of the broadcast day was from Calgary on the network. Even CTV's channel had studio segments and roundtables live from Vancouver.
Now almost everything is out of Toronto or Ottawa. During COVID both networks spent too much time focusing on Toronto and what Ontario and Premier Ford were doing. I thought to myself many times why would anyone in Western Canada or the Maritimes care when CTV News Channel had all day live reports from a Toronto beach because people were sitting and playing close together and almost nobody was wearing a mask. I am sure this was happening at almost every beach across the country.
I find CTV News even more Ontario-centric than CBC. CBC at least seems to include some Western Canada content in their national coverage, they even have The National from there a couple days a week when Ian Hanomansing anchors.
I also don’t think this is anything new for CTV. As I understand it, CTV National News has long lagged Global National (and earlier, Canada Tonight) in the ratings in western Canada, and Canada AM barely registered there as well when it existed. I also understand CTV’s East-centric programming was a longtime bone of contention for BCTV when it was a CTV affiliate.
Since moving to BC I almost never watch CTV for news anymore, unless I want to follow an Ontario-related story such as John Tory’s resignation.
Last edited by MJ Vancouver (February 12, 2023 7:13 pm)
- newsguy1
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Re: A Tale Of 2 Countries: Where Would You Have Put This In Your Newscast?
I saw an interesting video on Youtube that showed how these cooking shows are made and they are largely staged and pre-arranged nonsense.
For instance the video revealed the cooking shows all have pre-arranged results.
Also there is no "deadline" where the chefs have to finish their dish -- or else.
Also the dishes have already been tasted off camera and the conclusions as well as the judge's "remarks" are all written ahead of time.
Even a seemingly simple show like Cake Boss is phony.
The video showed that the cake teams are not even making real cake orders at all.
It's all faked.
The "events" that they are making cakes for are fictitious.
Nobody ever actually ordered the cakes but people are paid to act out the parts.
As a sidebar there's also a video about how home buyer's shows are faked.
In one instance the house was already bought ahead of time and the buyers' agonized hand wringing about which home they should choose are all scripted.
Now let's not get started on those so-called "survival" shows.