A critical look at the Wichita TV news

Saturday, September 15, 2007

The Arena Bids (BID): The Tale of 2 Stories

I watched the 3 stations last night and went to bed thinking the construction for the new arena might cost a couple of million dollars less than what the county planned on spending. I believe all 3 stations emphasized this fact. I then rolled out of bed this morning, grabbed the morning paper and was confused by the headline that the arena will cost $60 Million dollars more than expected. Confused? I was. I guess if you really read and watch the stories, I think the TV stations and newspaper are both right, but its a tad confusing. The TV stations were looking purely at facts given to them Yesterday at the bid process. Based on estimates made by the county board before the bids (I should say bid) was opened, the chair said the bid for the building construction was $3 million less than they expected RECENTLY. That's the key. The Wichita Eagle did a bit more digging to see that the bid for the building construction (not including parking operations, etc.) is actually $60 million more than the figure given to voters when they approved it nearly 3 years ago. Here are the links to the newspaper and 2 of the TV stations' stories on the internet (KSN's isn't posted). Judge for yourself, did the TV stations miss a story or did the newspaper make too much of the $60 million? I am curious to hear your opinions on this one.-Hal

Wichita Eagle - http://kansas.com/news/story/175697.html
KAKE - http://www.kake.com/home/headlines/9791667.html
KWCH - http://kwch.com/Global/story.asp?S=7075683

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Eagle used a 3 month-old headline to make them stand out from other local media. It was made known back in June that the arena was going to cost 60 million dollars more than what voters approved.

Anonymous said...

The Eagle dug up OLD news and presented it as NEW news. TV stations and the paper already reported back in late spring/early summer that the county had upped the arena construction budget--this was NOT new news on Friday.
The overall budget was also misrepresented. The costs didn't go up--the price is just higher because more sales tax is coming in than first estimated.

WichitaMedia said...

I don't care if the other TV stations and such had the $60 million dollar figure in June. When you hear of a figure that it will cost $3 million less, and if the TV stations knew the $60 million figure, doesn't the viewers deserve to me reminded of that figure, the day a figure in the opposite direction is released? -Hal.

Anonymous said...

who's the new anchor I saw today at 11:30 on KAKE?

Anonymous said...

That's the assistant News Director Matt Brown...

Anonymous said...

He's not an anchor. He's their assistant News Director who is filling in because they are incredibly short staffed over there. Last week they had to have their assignment editor front a story. Their morning show guy filled in at 10 last night. That's how short they are over there.

Anonymous said...

man, and I thought KSN was short.

Anonymous said...

hal, please clarify what happened to lindsey butor.

WichitaMedia said...

I wish I could clarify it, but a response to a previous post said Lindsey left for "personal reasons" and would appreciate privacy at this time. We'll definitely respect that. -Hal

Anonymous said...

It seems not everyone respects that, Hal.

And as to the poster who keeps wondering about Lindsey, it's none of your business. Since you are coming on here to find out you obviously didn't know her that well so mind your own business.