tyrannical bastard 3443 Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 By now, you've all heard of this thing called Ebola.... How's it being covered in your neck of the woods? Is it really trying to put the facts out versus spreading fear and uncertainty through excessive media coverage? It's being ran into the ground on the cable news channels, so this thread is intended to discuss local coverage and how it's doing good or bad.... Does your local station go wall-to-wall if someone is SUSPECTED of Ebola checking into a local hospital? (and later it's not Ebola at all) WALA did this the other night and basically shot themselves in the foot halfway into their 9p newscast when it was determined that the patient was not showing the proper symptoms...they had blown out an hour of prime time programming to cover this while the other stations broke in momentarily and provided occasional updates... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkolsen 1675 Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 Locally there hasn't been much coverage other than a segment in most newscasts and they generally appeared in the B block or during normal health reports. The only time they were in the A block or lead the newscast was when the patient died or there was a conference on infectious diseases at Johns Hopkins. I haven't seen any fear mongering on WBAL or WJZ (I don't watch enough WMAR or WBFF). Most of the locally produced stories dealt with how hospitals in the region are prepared to handle a situation otherwise they relied on packages from their networks or CNN. Edit: There has been a suspected case in the Maryland suburbs of DC at the NIH But no station here at least broke into programming or ran a crawl when the patient I believed lived in Baltimore's DMA. This was mentioned as the second or third story of the night but they said at the time it was a case of the flu. Now if I lived in Dallas, Atlanta or in Nebraska I would under stand completely if there were more reports seeing as their are cases in the region. I would also expect the affiliates to be camped out front of the hospital providing updates to local viewers, the networks, and their sister stations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skbl17 188 Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 A couple of days ago, someone in the NO EMOTION BOX mentioned that Gannett stations are using a #FactsNotFear campaign. It's not just Gannett, I know of at least one Meredith station that's at least occasionally doing the same: WGCL. (Oh, and apparently, they have a noon newscast again, so that's good). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jess 1110 Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 Ebola has led, or been in the A block of, all major newscasts in the Philly market for the past week. I haven't seen WTXF's coverage enough to judge, but the other stations take differing tones. On the October 13th 11pm newscast, KYW was using quite an alarmist tone - "Nurses here say Philadelphia is NOT READY FOR EBOLA". Chyrons say "FEARING THE WORST" in Gotham Black (granted, that's not intentionally their fault). WPVI focused more on the national story on their 10pm news for WPHL, and didn't really sound the alarm. WCAU didn't even lead with Ebola - it led with weather and a VO/SOT about a shooting, then to a report that had the same general gist as KYW's, only delivered much calmer and by one of their best reporters (George Spencer). --- WCAU has sent not one, but two reporters to Dallas - Chris Cato and Christine Maddela will be filing reports. And at least Cato is doing reports for sister station KXAS as well. KYW and WPVI have been using their health reporters, and WPVI is also having Random Anchor Sharrie Williams do reports from the SatCenter and Big Board... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NEOMatrix 1295 Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 The Youngstown stations have had team coverage from Kent State, Cleveland Hopkins Airport, and Akron area when that nurse with Ebola had flown to Cleveland and visited her friends and family. I don't know what the Cleveland stations are doing but I bet it's wall-to-wall. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PelicanGuy 117 Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 Not a lot of hype in New Orleans...though WVUE and WDSU seems to want to go there. Earlier this week, a woman did go to a hospital in suburban New Orleans sick...it was treated as breaking news a good part of the day. It turned out it was a false alarm. Then they focused coverage on the La. attorney general issuing a restraining order against a company who was bringing Mr. Duncan's stuff (the guy who died in Dallas) to the state for incinerating. He was making a stink of it, but the news stations weren't overblowing it. EDIT: Wednesday morning, WWL did a Q&A session online with the #FactsNotFear hashtag. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ToriElectra 291 Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 I saw Dr. Richard Besser on WABC's First@Four; he was in Dallas, broadcasting from WFAA's newsroom. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MidwestTV 1173 Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 Kansas City has been giving a decent amount of coverage to it because of the patient or two that was feared to have it at the University of Kansas Hospital. Also, since it's the University of Kansas Hospital and they're in the news basically every month, it was gonna get coverage regardless. KSHB at least has been streaming any press conferences about it online. If it wasn't for the Royals(!) making it to the World Series(!) and the 4 stations dedicating practically their entire newscasts to baseball, Ebola would probably get more coverage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrtraveler01 737 Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 If it wasn't for the Royals(!) making it to the World Series(!) and the 4 stations dedicating practically their entire newscasts to baseball Same with St. Louis even though we've been in the NLCS for 4 years in a row now. But if it wasn't that, it's all the Ferguson stuff. Ebola barely makes a dent in the news coverage right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24994J 5269 Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 Shepard Smith for the win... [yt]Z2KBfynW09I[/yt] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skbl17 188 Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 Shepard Smith for the win... [yt]Z2KBfynW09I[/yt] While I like how Shepard Smith tells off the media, he should also know that his network (Fox News) also engaged in the same overhyping. Has he told his bosses yet? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Big Country News 435 Posted October 16, 2014 Share Posted October 16, 2014 Shepard Smith for the win... The voice of reason, reminds me of this... [yt]ExBngMmfXvw[/yt] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnya2k6 171 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 A couple of days ago, someone in the NO EMOTION BOX mentioned that Gannett stations are using a #FactsNotFear campaign. It's not just Gannett, I know of at least one Meredith station that's at least occasionally doing the same: WGCL. (Oh, and apparently, they have a noon newscast again, so that's good). Meanwhile, as far as the other Atlanta (home of the CDC) stations are concerned... Decent amounts of coverage on the aforementioned WGCL, WAGA, WXIA, and of course WSB; WAGA on their YouTube page live streamed the fourth Ebola patient sent to Emory University Hospital: [yt]i6-i_pNFbsg[/yt] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HowardSalwasser 28 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Most of the coverage here in the Twin Cities has focused, mostly, on local preparedness and reaction, almost always as the top story(though WCCO today during their 5 PM news lead off with the gorgeous weather we had today as a change of pace). The tone on all channels has been very calm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sanewsguy 509 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 The stations here have buried it in their newscasts. I honestly think the news needs to overhype it, Ebola is a scary reality and of course the government has handled this poorly. The media is actually doing their job for once... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rusty Muck 4164 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 While I like how Shepard Smith tells off the media, he should also know that his network (Fox News) also engaged in the same overhyping. Has he told his bosses yet? It could be why he lost his nightly newscast at 7pm and now has to anchor in the laughable "Fox News Deck." Unsurprisingly, some conservatives are ripping Shephard for what he said. (Can't figure out what is more painful: the actual post, or the tinfoil-hat-wearing commenters.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TresGriffin 138 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 Seeing as the CDC and the "special hospital" where the patients are being flown to are right here in Atlanta, there's been quite a bit of coverage here. It's more or less the Top Story on every newscast at every station. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skbl17 188 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 The stations here have buried it in their newscasts. I honestly think the news needs to overhype it, Ebola is a scary reality and of course the government has handled this poorly. The media is actually doing their job for once... I get where you're coming from, but it's possible for the media to "do its job" without overhyping something. Yes, Ebola is a very scary disease and should be treated with caution. Yes, there has been a bit of carelessness on the part of some hospitals and the government. However, I also remember what PelicanGuy posted; two stations in New Orleans ended up treating the story of a woman getting sick and going to the hospital as breaking news for hours and hours on end. Eventually, stations will have to face the reality that if they cry "EBOLA! EBOLA! EBOLA! EBOLA!" at the start of every newscast, every day, for the rest of the year (and into the next), yet nothing happens outside of a few isolated cases, people will eventually start ignoring them, in a sort of "crying wolf" effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AaronQ 259 Posted October 17, 2014 Share Posted October 17, 2014 A couple of days ago, someone in the NO EMOTION BOX mentioned that Gannett stations are using a #FactsNotFear campaign. It's not just Gannett, I know of at least one Meredith station that's at least occasionally doing the same: WGCL. (Oh, and apparently, they have a noon newscast again, so that's good). I've seen that a lot on WCNC's Twitter page lately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zer0number 1 Posted October 21, 2014 Share Posted October 21, 2014 I get where you're coming from, but it's possible for the media to "do its job" without overhyping something. Yes, Ebola is a very scary disease and should be treated with caution. Yes, there has been a bit of carelessness on the part of some hospitals and the government. However, I also remember what PelicanGuy posted; two stations in New Orleans ended up treating the story of a woman getting sick and going to the hospital as breaking news for hours and hours on end. Eventually, stations will have to face the reality that if they cry "EBOLA! EBOLA! EBOLA! EBOLA!" at the start of every newscast, every day, for the rest of the year (and into the next), yet nothing happens outside of a few isolated cases, people will eventually start ignoring them, in a sort of "crying wolf" effect. Ebola is the new Severe Weather Alert. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NYNewsCoverage 257 Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 Well we pretty much have our first case of Ebola in NYC, although the CDC hasn't confirmed anything yet. Mayor DeBlasio and Govenor Cuomo spoke in a news conference at around 9:45 or so. WLNY ran it during the tail end of the News at 9 and continued until 10:30. WNBC broke in and covered it until around the same time when it ended. WPIX broke in around the same time and covered it right until 11:00. WNYW didn't cover it until their 10pm newscast, but they did join the press conference in progress, did some news, and ended at normal time. I believe WCBS ran a ticker (I think if they didn't have football on they would've broken in), and WABC didn't provide much coverage, except for brief updates in between commercial breaks, and then ran their 11pm newscast. I was kind of surprised WABC didn't really cover it, but I don't think it was necessarily a dumb thing to do, as people could've gotten coverage on many other stations. Sorry if this is too detailed and local for this national Ebola thread. I may create a thread called "NYC Ebola Coverage" for coverage of Ebola in NYC if necessary. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
24994J 5269 Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 Well we pretty much have our first case of Ebola in NYC, although the CDC hasn't confirmed anything yet. Mayor DeBlasio and Govenor Cuomo spoke in a news conference at around 9:45 or so. WLNY ran it during the tail end of the News at 9 and continued until 10:30. WNBC broke in and covered it until around the same time when it ended. WPIX broke in around the same time and covered it right until 11:00. WNYW didn't cover it until their 10pm newscast, but they did join the press conference in progress, did some news, and ended at normal time. I believe WCBS ran a ticker (I think if they didn't have football on they would've broken in), and WABC didn't provide much coverage, except for brief updates in between commercial breaks, and then ran their 11pm newscast. I was kind of surprised WABC didn't really cover it, but I don't think it was necessarily a dumb thing to do, as people could've gotten coverage on many other stations. Sorry if this is too detailed and local for this national Ebola thread. I may create a thread called "NYC Ebola Coverage" for coverage of Ebola in NYC if necessary. That's the beauty of it. This isn't a national thread, so you're fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ns8401 846 Posted October 24, 2014 Share Posted October 24, 2014 That guy in NYC was from Detroit originally and went to school here. WXYZ spent the first 6 minutes of the A block on it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrtraveler01 737 Posted November 1, 2014 Share Posted November 1, 2014 Our favorite station group just hosted a Town Hall on Ebola just this past week from WJLA/Newschannel 8: http://www.wjla.com/articles/2014/10/abc7-newschannel-8-town-hall-panelists-agree-ebola-is-a-concern-but-let-s-not-overreact-108472.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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