Sorry folks. I have been out of town since last week, therefore I haven't gotten to last Friday's discussion. I'll try to get to the topic this Friday. I was reading the comments from readers to the Eagle's website this evening about the closing of Wild West World and one caught me by surprise. I am interested on your thoughts about it. Here is what the person wrote as a comment to an Eagle article.
The local media made this guy seem legit by giving him a massive publicity build up before the park opened. Now they are all racing to tear him down. The Eagle and the 3 local TV stations helped fleece the people who bought season tickets as much as Etheredge.
So I am curious what your thoughts are. I seem to remember the stations doing stories on his past slightly very early on. I think one of the 3 (Possibly KAKE) did a more in-depth piece on Etheredge's past, but overall as the park was preparing to open and did open, most stories were upbeat. Frankly I really don't disagree with that idea. I think there was generally positive hopes toward the park and reason to think it could do OK. Now as the weeks wore on and you saw the parking lot half full, if that, on even a Sunny weekend, one had to start to wonder. I disagree that the media "helped fleece the people who bought season tickets." They definiely helped create a buzz of excitement for a new amusement park's opening. But, it was something exciting for the area. So as the e-mailer to the Eagle's comments wrote, is the media partially to blame by making Etheredge seem "legit?" Curious what you all think. -Hal
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HAL-
Here is my take. I think the media (just like everyone else) knew about his past (esp. KAKE) but, like everyone else was also excited to have something like this come here. I think it was a major disapointment not just because of the rain, but because of the sub-par way it was run, and lack of fun there for the price. Once the managers and others quit, it really began to unravel that Thomas Etheridge himself was the cause of the problem. Just look at the horrible way he talked about Cole, his marketing guy. Now he tells us that there was too much rain to enjoy the park, BUT the season pass holders had PLENTY OF TIME to use their passes! COME ON!
I think the media was actually being extra nice before the park opened. The man didn't even deserve that!
KAKE did a story before his park opened about questionable tactics Etheridge himself has done in the past, but also promoted the theme park hoping it would be a success. KWCH and KSN gave this nothing but praise and KSN even did a 5pm newscast with Paul Pettite out at Wild West World promoting it. So my grades of the stations and how they handled it through the past couple of years:
KAKE: B-
KWCH: D+
KSNW: F-
but i disagree because you as a media group will come off bad in the public eye if you constantly talk it down and point out the bad in all of it.
Like most of the public, I think KWCH and KSN welcomed the new park with open arms, that is, until all this bs started unraveling. You can't be so bias
I wonder where the KAKE cheerleader works. Too bad your ratings are falling faster than the Royals standings. KSN was the only one was was ra-ra for it because they ar ra-ra for most things.
"Thomas Etheridge is not good image of American businessman."
Hal,
After Greensburg you said the challenge would be not to forget about it. It seems now that KWCH is the only station still doing actual stories from town. I think it's like 2 a week usually. They are actual stories and not just wire copy. They also have one of their strongest reporters on it, Megan Strader. I was wondering what your thoughts are.
Also they seem to be the only ones to still have large Greensburg section up on their website filled with stories and updates. I was wondering what your thoughts on this are.
Come clean Mr/Ms Anon,
Its obvious you work for 12, so man up and admit it.
Greensburg brings up a real interesting point. I would normally say that is a topic I'll take up in a future post, but I have a backlog already of topics I have promised to talk about, but yet to get to. So here's my take on TV coverage of Greensburg. I feel, like I have said before, Megan Strader is doing a fine job covering Greenburg for KWCH and is better than most of KWCH's reporting staff except for Schwanke, Grawe, Morrow and Wilhelm.
KAKE has done a few more stories but not as often. I would put Strader up against Nick VinZant any day.
KSN has had a follow-up stories but definitely show they are behind in staffing, without a bureau and haven't had stories to the degree as the others have. I wonder if their numbers are part to blame for their coverage of Coffeyville. A whole different topic, but I think KAKE and KWCH has covered this with their own reporters more than KSN. I think KSN has largely stayed away from Coffeyville before this week. They had a story at somepoint this week with Anthony Powell and another one with Jason Kravarik Tonight. They might argue that since it is out of their viewing area it is not a Greensburg. I think from the pictures I have seen on their own station and all of the others, that both are stories that will deserve follow-up coverage as the months pass, no matter a shortage of staffs or miles driven to get to them. -Hal
Hal,
You may want to include in your next post, coverage of the Barton Explosion in Valley Center. KWCH 12 was on the air first, about 10 minutes before anyone else came on.
KSN only ran a crawl and it was another 5 minutes before KAKE broke in, once Martha went to commercial.
I guess they are using their, we only break in during commercials weather philosophy even though like with weather people's lives may be in jeopardy.
I see KSN has finally gone live.
For all that you bash them, this is why 12 is by far number 1 and will before another decade or more.
I must also add that it looks like KWCH has the first reporters on the scene, the first skycam shot and the first ground pictures.
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