1 of 1- RadioActive
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CTV Does It Again, Leaving Out A Key Piece Of Info In Their Lead Story
To paraphrase Britney Spears, "whoops, they did it again." On the lead story of their noon show Monday, CTV Toronto featured a story on three buildings that were shot at in the city's northwest. Fair enough. They then threw to reporter John Musselman for a live hit, who talked about what happened in the building behind him, which we could see on camera.
He went on to explain there were other buildings that seemed to suffer a similar fate and police were investigating. His story went on for at least 90 seconds, before he threw back to the studio.
So what was wrong? It wasn't until the very end of his story when he signed off that viewers learned exactly where this happened. Not once did either the anchors or the reporter bother to indicate where he was reporting from or where the "building behind me" was during his story. Which is kind of important.
One of the basics of journalism is the proverbial W5 - Who, What, When, WHERE, Why. By not indicating where this mysterious building (or the name of the business involved), viewers had no real idea whether this was in their neighbourhood or who was really affected.
It wasn't until the end of the story, as he was throwing back to the studio, that Musselman indicated he was "Reporting live from Kipling and Belfield" that we found out where this actually happened. I've noticed this kind of sloppiness at CFTO for a while and it's pretty concerning for "Toronto's #1 News" to leave out such a salient fact.
- Radiowiz
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Re: CTV Does It Again, Leaving Out A Key Piece Of Info In Their Lead Story
The disturbing thing here is, it's not even a cost cutting factor.
The anchors are there and paid no matter what.
To simply say "we go live now to Kipling and Belfield..." costs absolutely nothing for Bell to allow them to simply say.
This is not a cost cutting factor. This is carelessness.
- Shorty Wave
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Re: CTV Does It Again, Leaving Out A Key Piece Of Info In Their Lead Story
Citytv and its spawns were well versed at telling the viewer where they were off the top of the piece. In news, the talent would also say the location and in show segments, it was often keyed.
Znaimer was big on establishing shots, “show me where” was important at the time, things have got pretty sloppy since then, and I don’t think it’s all financial related, just poor directing/producing.
- RadioActive
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Re: CTV Does It Again, Leaving Out A Key Piece Of Info In Their Lead Story
I can relate. As someone who started out in TV doing keys (also called supers) I used to have to run all over the newsroom asking reporters, assignment editors and camera people where they shot all their footage. I drove them crazy, but it was part of the job and I couldn't get it any other way.
Then, in addition to putting someone's name and title on the screen, I would have to put up a location of where each bit of footage had been shot.
Boy, have things changed since I stopped doing that. While they still super a speaker's name, so you know who's talking, today's keys are simply a headline that stays on the screen for the full story. That would have made my life so much easier, but we didn't do it that way back then.
As big a pain as it was, there were good reasons to put up locations. It instantly told viewers where something happened and it meant the reporter didn't have to say it in his/her story, because the audience would see it on screen. It would have helped with CFTO's issue on Monday, but as noted, no one seems to do it that way any more. Maybe they should.
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Thread Starter- Easily Amused
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Re: CTV Does It Again, Leaving Out A Key Piece Of Info In Their Lead Story
The '5 Ws' were part of my elementary school grade 7 education, even though the vast majority of us were never destined to report the news.
I wonder if a lot of this new sloppy journalism is the fact that the television news staff assumes that viewers will consult the station's website for further information. Quite often, the website story is just the text of the broadcast story.
Stealing from Richard Bissel's comic novel 'Goodbye Ava', a character relates why he prefers the newspaper over the radio. The character appreciates the fact that when some ornery SOB bludgeons his wife, the newspaper will even tell you where, when, why, and how...and even tell you the brand of the shovel he used to commit the crime.
- RadioActive
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Re: CTV Does It Again, Leaving Out A Key Piece Of Info In Their Lead Story
By the way, to get back to the original point of this thread, I noticed that they fixed the issue on their 6 PM newscast, pointedly adding the location of the incident in the throw to the story off the top of the show.
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Thread Starter- Easily Amused
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Re: CTV Does It Again, Leaving Out A Key Piece Of Info In Their Lead Story
RadioActive wrote:
By the way, to get back to the original point of this thread, I noticed that they fixed the issue on their 6 PM newscast, pointedly adding the location of the incident in the throw to the story off the top of the show.
I can just picture the conversation at CFTO.
"Hey, that lippy ex broadcast pro is on our arses again! Make sure you clean the story up for the 6 P.M. broadcast!" 😡
It's nice to be noticed. 😁
- The Weed
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Re: CTV Does It Again, Leaving Out A Key Piece Of Info In Their Lead Story
For the visually impaired and aurally impaired, location both off the top of the story or in the throw to the reporter as well as on the screen are very important.
- RadioActive
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Re: CTV Does It Again, Leaving Out A Key Piece Of Info In Their Lead Story
By the way, to get back to the original point of this thread, I noticed that they fixed the issue on their 6 PM newscast, pointedly adding the location of the incident in the throw to the story off the top of the show.
I can just picture the conversation at CFTO.
"Hey, that lippy ex broadcast pro is on our arses again! Make sure you clean the story up for the 6 P.M. broadcast!" 😡
It's nice to be noticed. 😁
I doubt we played any role in it. I think they realized their mistake and fixed it.
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