Monday, March 3, 2008

Check this out, and tell me if you don't see the same thing.

Every day I go to KTVZ.com and check out the stories. Usually they lead with some horrendous car crash, (pictures of mangled, upside down cars). Or with a bit of random vandalism, (pictures of windows with bullet holes.) Or with various crimes, robberies, burglaries, sex stings, or drug busts,(with lots and lots of mug shots.)

Then I pick up the Bulletin. Go the 'Local' section, turn to the second page, upper left hand corner, and there is a daily 'Local Briefing' section. Exact same stories, only without pictures and summarized in a couple of dry paragraphs.

It's like KTVZ is the Bizarro version of the Bulletin -- or vice versa.

But I do so love the mug shots. Talk about a picture being worth a thousand words. If I have any crusade to change the way the Bulletin does things, it's to urge them to show more
Mug Shots!

A few years back, (well, to be fair, more like 10 years ago) I found out that there had been about 3 burglaries on my little block of stores. I was perturbed at my neighbors for not warning me, but I was also perturbed that this important piece of information for my well-being was not covered by the Bulletin.

I did what I rarely do, I actually picked up the phone to call the people at the Bulletin to complain about them not publishing crime reports. They told me that I could go down to city hall every day and find out myself.

Huh! You're the news outlet. It AIN'T my job.

So, I'll give the Bulletin the credit for coming around a few years ago, and reporting the daily crimes.

Now I want Mug Shots!

It's very strange to me that the Bulletin does so little with the crime scene. Most Metropolitan papers make a very big deal out of it, for the same reason KTVZ does -- it sells.

If it bleeds it leads.

I must say, however, I do appreciate the Bulletin's more substantive content.

Except....they needs more Mug Shots!

3 comments:

The Natives Are Restless said...

I've always said that if you want to know what's going to be in the morning's Bulletin, turn on and watch KTVZ. They must pick up a copy on the way to the studio in the morning, then type the stories into the old teleprompter machine when the arrive.

Bender said...

You can always read the Cascade A&E / Cascade Biz news for up-to-date information and content. Content written by and for the advertisers.

Duncan McGeary said...

Read them last night. Gives me a sense of the zeitgeist of the wannabe rich.