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Protest/Riot Coverage in Los Angeles


CalItalian2

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Very impressed with Fox 11. They've come a long way since the Borderline mass shooting & Woolsey fire fiasco. Doing extensive coverage Saturday afternoon (as of this posting KCBS, KNBC, KTLA, KABC and KTTV have commercial free coverage).

KTLA, on the other hand, seems to be going in the opposite direction. Their coverage has been much poorer. On Friday night, KTLA didn't get into coverage of the looting until 11 PM. Fox 11 added a half hour at 11 PM. KCAL 9/CBS 2, had the best coverage on Friday night, though and dumped Sports Central which KTLA didn't drop their 15 minute sports segment at 10:45 PM.

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Been channel flipping LA TV all afternoon. Surprisingly, KCBS/KCAL has been a formidable competitor, despite dumping well known anchors Sharon Tay and Jeff Michael earlier in the week. I have to agree with the commentary on KTLA. Shocked they are taking commercial breaks. KTLA has Cher Calvin and Morning News lead reporter Eric Spillman at the helm of their coverage. A decent team, especially since Eric covered the riots for the station in 1992. KNBC has Kathy Vara and Colleen Williams...they are market veterans, especially Colleen. Doing a fantastic job. KTTV has Elex and Christine. It sounds like Christine is back in the studio, but I can't confirm. As noted, their coverage is surprisingly strong. Noon anchor Bob DeCastro is reporting live from The Grove in jeans and a t-shirt.

 

Loving all the experience I am seeing on air this evening- KTLAs Eric Spillman was in LA during the 1992 LA Riots. Same goes for KNBCs Colleen Williams and KTTVs Christine Devine.

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7 minutes ago, FiveNews said:

Been channel flipping LA TV all afternoon. Surprisingly, KCBS/KCAL has been a formidable competitor, despite dumping well known anchors Sharon Tay and Jeff Michael earlier in the week. I have to agree with the commentary on KTLA. Shocked they are taking commercial breaks. KTLA has Cher Calvin and Morning News lead reporter Eric Spillman at the helm of their coverage. A decent team, especially since Eric covered the riots for the station in 1992. KNBC has Kathy Vara and Colleen Williams...they are market veterans, especially Colleen. Doing a fantastic job. KTTV has Elex and Christine. It sounds like Christine is back in the studio, but I can't confirm. As noted, their coverage is surprisingly strong. Noon anchor Bob DeCastro is reporting live from The Grove in jeans and a t-shirt.

Yes, Christine is in the studio. Elex isn't very good, though. I hope Fox 11 brings back Jeff Michael. He knows L.A. and would be much better with Christine Devine on this special coverage. 

KCBS/KCAL are reporting well but they could use more people reporting on the ground. That's one thing Fox 11 has really had plus their two choppers for this. KNBC and KABC look as professional as always. KTLA is the one I so shocked at. New ownership doesn't understand how you cover an emergency riot. 

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26 minutes ago, CaptainNews said:

What I’ve learned about all this is... the LA DMA is too big. Poor coverage for what has happened in the south land tonight. Too hyper focused on Los Angeles.

 

That's a Denver problem too.

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48 minutes ago, CaptainNews said:

What I’ve learned about all this is... the LA DMA is too big. Poor coverage for what has happened in the south land tonight. Too hyper focused on Los Angeles.

There isn't much going on outside of Los Angeles. ALL the action is in the area from Downtown Los Angeles to Century City. I live in Riverside County and the only protest was in Temecula. It was broken up by the Sheriff after a car that a protester was driving went out of control and hit a baby and mother. In the OC, there is a protest in Santa Ana tonight. Fox 11 just covered it. I am not aware of any protests of significance in Ventura County. 

 

I don't see anything poor about the coverage except KTLA with its commercial breaks. KTTV looked much more professional on the flip side.

1 hour ago, ED2 said:

I'm watching CBS2/KCAL and KTLA. I think 2/9 and 5 are sharing a helicopter this evening.

Fox 11 has 2 choppers up and at least one of them is feeding video to CBS2/KCAL 9. There may be other sharing going on as you say. 

Colleen Williams just announced Today in L.A. on NBC 4 will start at 5 am on Sunday, 2 hours early. Everyone is still on but it's only 11 pm. 

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15 minutes ago, fan of la tv said:

Interesting. I found KTTV coverage poor on Friday. They had no coverage at 10:30 pm. They ran their news special as always on Friday nights. However, they seem to be better on Saturday.

They came back on at 11 PM on KTTV for another 30 minutes on Friday. CBS 2/KCAL 9 had the best coverage on Friday (everyone ended by 11:35) although I found everyone somewhat lacking. Coverage was excellent today except KTLA primarily because of their commercial breaks which were quite long.

ABC 7 ended coverage just before Midnight Saturday night. KTLA, CBS 2 & KCAL 9 at Midnight. NBC 4 and Fox 11 is STILL ON after 12 Midnight. Kudos to both of them!

The one thing I've noticed all the reporters talking about on air is the security they have with them. Something nobody had in 1992. 

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I agree with what @CalItalian2 said. Everything was going on in within LA County or the city of LA. I live in San Bernardino County (next to Riverside county, these two counties make up the Inland Empire, aka the IE). No significant looting or rioting out this way. 
 

 Most stations have an IE reporter or IE bureau and can cover the IE fairly well. 

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I was watching KABC yesterday and thought they did a terrific job.  Ellen Leyva was on from about 3:30 until midnight, initially with Veronica Miracle and then later with Marc Brown. The latter team was great, both strong anchors with market experience.  They had Carlos Grande and Leanne Suter I the field both of whom are strong.  I’m glad they had Chris Christie in Air 7. I briefly checked in with KCBS to see who was anchoring coverage and was irritated they didn’t have anyone available to them; that’s unacceptable in this market. Chris Christie provided eyewitness details and told us exactly what was happening and where; KCBS couldn’t do that.  I was bummed however when KABC ended coverage at midnight as looting was still occurring on Melrose.  I felt with their deep lineup of anchors and reporters, they could’ve had additional live coverage from midnight on with a new, fresh team until John and Rachel came in for their regularly scheduled 5 am show. 
 

Right now, I tuned in to watch “The Last Dance” which was correctly preempted last night, but KABC is live with David Ono and Veronica Miracle. Now that the National Guard is in town, hopefully things aren’t out of control as it was yesterday.   

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Oh, I almost forgot.  I tuned into KTTV after KABC signed off at midnight just to see what their coverage was like. I hadn’t watched a broadcast on that channel in years and was totally impressed by Elex (in studio) and Christine (in newsroom) and Bobby D in the field. Btw, what I loved more than anything were their graphics.  It seems most stations still have things centered on the screen, whereas KTTV took up the entire width which looked at lot cleaner versus cramming everything into a smaller, centered space.  At the end of their coverage, Elex mentioned Laura Diaz, Phil Schuman and Christina Gonzalez; I'd forgotten about all of them, but glad Laura is still around.  

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Fox 11, ABC 7 and KTLA are covering the protests and looting in Santa Monica and Huntington Beach (no looting in that city) this afternoon. 

I noticed KTLA and KTTV were sharing the same helicopter video but they've also each had another helicopter of their own with their own reporter on at that same time. 

KTTV has been doing the most on the ground reporting and it's been the best of all stations this weekend. When the looting began, they were able to walk blocks away live on the air to the looting which no other station has been doing. 

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Lots of LiveU's i'm sure! Surprised mobile networks are holding strong with all the media and people posting/streaming independently. LiveU/TVU and others must be making a fortune right now.

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4 hours ago, bogusabc7breakingnews said:

Oh, I almost forgot.  I tuned into KTTV after KABC signed off at midnight just to see what their coverage was like. I hadn’t watched a broadcast on that channel in years and was totally impressed by Elex (in studio) and Christine (in newsroom) and Bobby D in the field. Btw, what I loved more than anything were their graphics.  It seems most stations still have things centered on the screen, whereas KTTV took up the entire width which looked at lot cleaner versus cramming everything into a smaller, centered space.  At the end of their coverage, Elex mentioned Laura Diaz, Phil Schuman and Christina Gonzalez; I'd forgotten about all of them, but glad Laura is still around.  

Elex is an idiot. He just said 2 million people live in Long Beach. I could fill a page with all his mistakes. He should NOT be a Los Angeles tv anchor.

What I really love about Fox 11 is their ground shots. They don't stay stationary while on live which gives a great perspective of the entire area in the shot. I hope they keep improving as they have shown during their live coverage this weekend.

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Like Saturday night, all stations are suspending regular and network programs in Los Angeles. KTLA has been broadcasting commercial free today and it makes a big difference in their coverage. Spectrum News 1 has also been extensively covering the protests/riots/looting live - especially press conferences. They've been using someone's helicopter video, too.  I watched them for a bit but they really can't bat with the big boys. Most stations have been on non-stop since Los Angeles Mayor Garcetti's 12 noon press conference. 

 

 

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Elex Michaelson really pissed off the Long Beach Chief of Police on air tonight. He even made reference to it in his press conference. 

Fox 11 was again the last station to end coverage on Sunday at 12 midnight. 12 hours of coverage. After 10 PM, they did have some commercial breaks.

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KCBS/KCAL coverage has been surprisingly good all weekend. I watched a good 90minutes of their coverage. First anchored by weekend anchors Sara Donchey and Chris Holmstrom. Then weekday anchors Jeff Vaughn and Suzie Suh took over for a bit. It seems like KCAL/KCBS anchors anchor for two hours then take a break and rotate with another team.

 

KNBCs Colleen Williams anchored again Sunday night. Cool, calm, collected and knowledgable. Truly the best female anchor in LA.

 

Not sure what Elex did, I didn't see, but Christine Devine anchored as well and her market experience definitely shined thru.

 

Saw KTLA for a bit after the mayor's presser. Courtney Friel was anchoring...seemed as if she was solo anchoring for the time being, didn't confirm. KTLA Weekend Morning News started at 5am so Mark and Lynette had left the station by time the mayor's press conference took place.

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Christina Gonzalez on Fox 11 just had the most amazing live shot I've seen in years. ALL LIVE. Black store owners in Van Nuys trying to protect their property and trying to stop looters from breaking into a neighboring business, flagging down approaching police that turned around but then the black store owners get handcuffed and Christina Gonzalez tries to sort out the chaos with LAPD. And it's all chaos in the highest order. I hope it gets posted online. One incredible riveting live shot.

 

That said, everyone has been on for hours non-stop and commercial free (except KTLA). CBS 2, NBC 4 and ABC 7 did go to network news at 6:30 PM. CBS 2 and KCAL 9 are simulcasting otherwise and local coverage is continuing on KCAL 9 at 6:30 PM (along with KTLA and KTTV).

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