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December 11, 2021 7:48 pm  #1


CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

It's one of the most unusual weather days in Toronto history - a record breaking high temperature that quickly plunged, followed by wicked winds that have left thousands in the dark, caused havoc on the roads, scattered debris everywhere, and is the first real major storm of the season. 

And what did CFTO lead with? COVID-19. Yes, again. The exact same story that's essentially been the lead for over two years. Not that there was much new - another warning about Omicron spreading fast and a new high in cases. In other words, yesterday's headline. 

I was stunned that they didn't lead with the windy weather that's hitting the GTA, some of which is just under hurricane force winds. (Those clock in at 118 km/h in Canada - we hit gusts up to over 90 on Saturday.) True, Global also chose a COVID lead for reasons I can't fathom, but the storm was at least their second story. 

CFTO didn't bother getting to the outside environment until 6:11 - a full eleven minutes into their newscast. Apparently, a few hot shots (an accident and a murder arrest) and a not-well-attended Indigenous protest downtown were deemed more important.  

When they finally did report on what I would have picked as the number tale of the day - often judged as the thing most Toronto viewers would be talking about that night - the reasons for the delay became abundantly clear. It was anchor weather, with Rahim Ladhani trying to get through a forecast he seemingly knew little about. 

They knew this storm was coming. Their own weather people told them on Friday. Yet they didn't bother to get an actual weather person in to cover it. And there was not a frame of viz of any damage or downed lines outside. They should have at the very least called in someone - anyone- to act as a weather person for the day. Maybe ask Michelle Jobin to work a sixth day. Or bring back Jessica Smith. Even Saron Fanel, who clearly knows nothing about weather, was absent. 

What an embarrassment that the #1 newscast in the major market in Canada couldn't find someone to cover a big story. Kudos, on the other hand, to City TV, which not only led with the story, but went straight to their weather person with an entire package.  

CTV may still call itself Toronto's #1 Newscast. But at this rate, it won't likely stay there for much longer.  And Bell will have no one to blame but itself.

 

December 11, 2021 9:37 pm  #2


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

Toronto could be hit by an EF5 tornado and CFTO would still lead with Covid-19. CTV’s hyper-obsession with the pandemic above all else is why I no longer watch any of CTV’s news programs, even where I live. (To be clear, it is a major newsworthy issue that should get coverage, but I believe it is handled much better by other Canadian media outlets.)

I still remember when Tom Gibney died, they buried his death in a token mention at the end of the newscast, which was otherwise all Covid news. It felt disrespectful to his memory and legacy.

Last edited by MJ Vancouver (December 11, 2021 9:40 pm)

 

December 11, 2021 10:03 pm  #3


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

Ok. Let's not talk about COVID. Stop talking about COVID. Just stop. Right now. Nobody wants to hear about it anymore, so stop talking about it.

 

December 11, 2021 10:06 pm  #4


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

My problem with the COVID coverage in general is the context. If you remember when it first started, the key stat was how many people were taking up beds in local ICUs. There may be over a thousand cases in Ontario, say, but if there are only 170 people in hospital, as strange as it is to say, that's actually good news. But it's never reported that way. And we are rarely given those numbers.

Also, we hear today there were about 1,600 new infections reported in the province. Then they do a GTA breakdown, including Toronto, which might have 205 cases. In an area of around 6 million, with a highly contagious virus, 205 cases really aren't that many. We then see York Region, Peel, Hamilton etc. None of those numbers combined ever comes close to 1,600. So where are all those other cases coming from? We never find out. 

There is a lot of fear mongering going on, which is sad. It gets people tuned in, of course, which is the point. But it's also somewhat misleading. Yes, this is a dangerous and highly spreadable virus and we need to know everything we can about it and its various variants. But we also need more factual reporting. Because we don't often see the whole story. 

     Thread Starter
 

December 12, 2021 12:12 am  #5


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

The fear mongering is from the news media.  A month ago when the new variant came out of South Africa, some Toronto (which also means national) media started to speculate immediately about another lockdown.  Not only is that irresponsible since they had no information or facts on the new strain but all the speculation confuses people.  Some newspapers are always complaining about  lack of testing.  Hey if you want a test, you need to go get one, they don't come to you.

The Toronto media in particular have not treated the conservatives fairly in my opinion and are always trying to trip up the premier, health and education ministers.  This is getting stale and very predictable during news conferences.  Oddly CBC is often not the worst offender but rather City News, The Star and CTV from what I see.   No class, and this adversarial approach is not serving the public and make some of the reporters look like biased hack journalists and broadcasters. 

Other than Australia and Japan who are both island countries and more isolated geographically, Canada has the lowest COVID infection rates and death rates by far in the G12.  And within Canada Ontario is one of the lowest.  But our news media never talks about this and would rather talk about about a street or apartment in downtown Toronto where people feel they are being ignored by the government.   Please...enough of the COVID hand wringing. 

 

 

December 12, 2021 12:19 am  #6


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

Jill Taylor (no relation) the weather person at formerly 680 news, now City, does a terrific job on Twitter informing people about the weather changes while skillfully linking her followers to her radio station.

The coverage of Covid is why a lot of us have stopped watching tv news, and listening to so much talk covidcovidcovid radio.

Twitter can't be beat for keeping on top, up to the minute, heck, up to the second on what's going on with the weather, and traffic, power outages, police and even fire calls, thanks to Ian Grant's Toronto Fire Twitter accounts. (Thanks Ian, always useful and stress reducing to know where those sirens we hear are headed and you tell us first) Where to get a booster shot? Check Twitter.

If CFTO's viewers rose up and called them out and embarrassed them on social media things might change. It almost feels like the tv channel knows their role in keeping the community informed on urgent matters has expired.

I agree with you RadioActive the Omicron variant news is crucial, but most of the media hosts I hear talking about it have very little that's useful to say. There hasn't been much discussion on how to make things easier for your kids who need to get the vaccine, how to deal with the grief and loss, it's the same ol' stuff and even tho the radio hosts sound concerned and unnerved, they mostly sound fed up and bored and a bit lost.

Last edited by betaylored (December 12, 2021 12:21 am)

 

December 12, 2021 2:52 am  #7


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

RadioActive wrote:

My problem with the COVID coverage in general is the context. If you remember when it first started, the key stat was how many people were taking up beds in local ICUs. There may be over a thousand cases in Ontario, say, but if there are only 170 people in hospital, as strange as it is to say, that's actually good news. But it's never reported that way. And we are rarely given those numbers.

Also, we hear today there were about 1,600 new infections reported in the province. Then they do a GTA breakdown, including Toronto, which might have 205 cases. In an area of around 6 million, with a highly contagious virus, 205 cases really aren't that many. We then see York Region, Peel, Hamilton etc. None of those numbers combined ever comes close to 1,600. So where are all those other cases coming from? We never find out. 

There is a lot of fear mongering going on, which is sad. It gets people tuned in, of course, which is the point. But it's also somewhat misleading. Yes, this is a dangerous and highly spreadable virus and we need to know everything we can about it and its various variants. But we also need more factual reporting. Because we don't often see the whole story. 

I can’t speak for Global in Ontario, but Global BC has been handling this well over the past few months. While they mention new cases and deaths, there’s always discussion of the number of hospitalized and in ICU, and also the number of vaccinated. There’s usually also a good analysis from Keith Baldry from the capital bureau, who will often do a regional breakdown for the whole province and even occasionally compare with Washington State. They rarely lead with the pandemic, and at times the pandemic doesn’t even get mentioned until 25-30 minutes into the News Hour; on some days, even in the past month, the pandemic takes up only a minute of the hour. They stick to the facts, and usually stay away from speculation.

And, unlike CBC, there’s no scary music to introduce the Covid segment.

When I was in Ontario for a few days in August, I watched a press conference with Christine Elliot. The tone of the questions from the media was completely different than what I’m used to on the west coast. It sounded more combative, more “gotcha”. And I agree, it’s not CBC doing this, it’s the other outlets.

Last edited by MJ Vancouver (December 12, 2021 2:56 am)

 

December 12, 2021 4:10 am  #8


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

MJ Vancouver wrote:

When I was in Ontario for a few days in August, I watched a press conference with Christine Elliot. The tone of the questions from the media was completely different than what I’m used to on the west coast. It sounded more combative, more “gotcha”. And I agree, it’s not CBC doing this, it’s the other outlets.

Not to sound too political, but check back after Ontario's June election and see if you still get the same feeling.
 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

December 12, 2021 6:48 pm  #9


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

RA wrote: Also, we hear today there were about 1,600 new infections reported in the province. Then they do a GTA breakdown, including Toronto, which might have 205 cases. In an area of around 6 million, with a highly contagious virus, 205 cases really aren't that many. We then see York Region, Peel, Hamilton etc. None of those numbers combined ever comes close to 1,600. So where are all those other cases coming from? We never find out. 

This can easily be found out by going to:    https://covid-19.ontario.ca/data/case-numbers-and-spread

Scroll down to: Compare cases by Public Health Unit Select::Table and whichever time frame you want to compare and all the daily data is there by Public Health Unit.


 

Last edited by Calhame (December 12, 2021 6:49 pm)

 

December 12, 2021 10:15 pm  #10


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

Calhame wrote:

RA wrote: Also, we hear today there were about 1,600 new infections reported in the province. Then they do a GTA breakdown, including Toronto, which might have 205 cases. In an area of around 6 million, with a highly contagious virus, 205 cases really aren't that many. We then see York Region, Peel, Hamilton etc. None of those numbers combined ever comes close to 1,600. So where are all those other cases coming from? We never find out. 

This can easily be found out by going to:    https://covid-19.ontario.ca/data/case-numbers-and-spread

Scroll down to: Compare cases by Public Health Unit Select::Table and whichever time frame you want to compare and all the daily data is there by Public Health Unit.


 

Be that as it may, not all viewers would know to do that.

My mother, in her 70s, watches plenty of TV but has very low computer literacy, and has never used a cell phone. She wouldn’t know that this data exists, or how to find it. She relies 100% on TV news and the printed newspaper for Covid information, and most of her info comes from CTV London and CTV News Channel.

She’s freaked out by the current case numbers in Ontario, even though she’s fully vaccinated. Because there is no context to the numbers presented. Nobody is saying that cases per capita among the fully vaccinated are much lower.

She can’t be the only one, especially among the 65+ population.

Last edited by MJ Vancouver (December 12, 2021 10:18 pm)

 

December 13, 2021 11:05 am  #11


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

While I'm not going to get into the COVID discussion because like in most places online, this chat is filled with assumptions from non-experts, opinion on a medical topic much better to be left to the medical experts who don't call themselves such online, but in real life.  Twitter and other social media is filled with garbage news, and unless you know how to weed out the garbage from the credible, you can see why so many get mislead down a path.    You do not have to agree with facts in a story...  Facts are not something to be debated when the source is credible.   I see this too often where someone who doesn't agree with the facts, argues it's fake news or "media sensationalism".   Sadly we do have some government officials, who get caught either over driving an issue OR under driving it and getting caught.   Mr. Ford has done this mistake over and over. 

I will comment that I have for a while had a real issue with CTV's approach to coverage on many things...  many breaking stories do not get covered as they should or at all, even though CP24 will have running them as leads, non-stop.   Way too many pointless live shots for things that are not LIVE on the scene worthy. (nighttime standups outside some random building with nothing happening).  I have also noticed, they will lead with some out of town fluff story while a huge local breaking news story is way down in the cast.     There is many stories that get missed, while others that do get covered are so not worthy of the coverage they get. Many times they seem to be out of touch with what's happening.   I have to wonder if Bell has anyone left with experience leading CTV News in Toronto.  It feels like the rundown at times is done many hours before the cast, and is unable to adapt to changing news situations. 

All assumptions on the innerworkings at CTV Toronto but based on what I see, there is for sure something more in play here.  It does feel weird when their own station (CP24) is actually covering things better for local breaking stories as their lead, while CTV Toronto is worried about some pig farm in Peterborough. 

 

Last edited by radiokid (December 13, 2021 11:14 am)

 

December 13, 2021 11:44 am  #12


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

Back to the original thread about CTV not having weather people in when there was a major storm going on, one meteorologist defends the need for his kind on TV newscasts, noting that it's still one the main reasons people tune in. 

And he adds that forecasting has vastly improved. 

"...a seven-day forecast is accurate about 80 percent of the time and a five-day forecast is on target about 90 percent of the time. Advances in our understanding of the dynamics of the atmosphere, deployment of new radars and satellites, and, most importantly, improved computer power, have allowed weather forecasters to be remarkably precise, even several days in advance."

CTV has never had an actual meteorologist on staff in the past few years - Tom Brown and Anwar Knight had no degrees, and neither do those who've followed them. (I believe Dave Devall did have some real training, and he could write backwards, too!) But at least there was someone there who could explain what was happening and what was coming next. Anchor weather just doesn't cut it. 

I hope CTV decides to fix this problem once and for all, perhaps even before Lyndsey Morrison returns from mat leave, which is still a while away. When it comes to necessities on an old-fashioned TV newscast, to me, it's the way the wind is blowing. 

Not just the weather: How TV meteorologists influence the public’s views on climate

     Thread Starter
 

December 13, 2021 12:45 pm  #13


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

Global Toronto has been running a promo for a while now regarding their weather coverage.  They have 2 meteorologists and two weather specialists on staff.  In some ways Anthony Farnell has become Toronto's weather forecaster, similar to Dave Devall years ago.  

I agree it is pretty sad when Toronto's most popular newscast on the most popular station makes a mess of weather and have their news people stumbling through the forecasts.  CHCH in Hamilton does a better job on weather (and sports) than CTV Toronto in their news broadcasts.  And CHCH is still broadcasting from a temporary makeshift studio.  

 

December 13, 2021 2:29 pm  #14


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

paterson1 wrote:

 CHCH in Hamilton does a better job on weather (and sports) than CTV Toronto in their news broadcasts.  And CHCH is still broadcasting from a temporary makeshift studio.  

I'm not sure about 2021, but back when Channel zero originally bought Channel 11, they were making good money with revenue from Adult entertainment sources.  That might not be the case today. 

 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.

 
 

December 13, 2021 8:45 pm  #15


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

I wonder if someone at CTV has read some of the comments in this post. In tonight's 6PM newscast there was no Covid stories until after the first weather brief which was almost 6:15. The lead story was about Durham region politicians wanting tolls removed on Hwy 412 and 418 to reduce local road congestion followed by one on a drug overdose death of a 14 year old girl.

 

December 14, 2021 2:35 am  #16


Re: CTV News Toronto Should Be Embarrassed By Their 6 PM Sat. Show

mace wrote:

I wonder if someone at CTV has read some of the comments in this post. In tonight's 6PM newscast there was no Covid stories until after the first weather brief which was almost 6:15. The lead story was about Durham region politicians wanting tolls removed on Hwy 412 and 418 to reduce local road congestion followed by one on a drug overdose death of a 14 year old girl.

That might be fair to guess, but CTV may also be fixing themselves back up now that CityNews has some new billboard ads:





 


RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person. 
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.