A critical look at the Wichita TV news

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

The Escapees: Caught

First off KWCH definitely had the cards in their hands when the 2 escapees and prison guard from El Dorado were caught in New Mexico this morning. When the news was breaking the brother and mother of the guard were doing an interview live at KWCH so anchor Felicia Rolfe delivered the news to them live. Definitely an emotional moment. KWCH certainly was in a spot at that point to throw whatever they were going to do out the window, because you had the story live on the set. Since the trio was caught in New Mexico, KWCH had the interview for the moment. Rolfe was put in a interesting spot. Obviously producers didn't want her to let them go since they have the get live on TV, so Rolfe kept the interview going as they were hoping to get additional info. Rolfe did a good job of recapping things every few minutes and she wasn't over the top when it came to breaking the news. She was very calm and not alarming and let the brother and mother react. However a little urgency would have been good on Rolfe's part, but for something developing, not bad. And as the interview progressed Rolfe got better. I would rather have her calm and relaxed as opposed to if it happened on another station on the West side of town, it probably would have been frantic and alarming. -Hal

http://kwch.com/Global/story.asp?S=7289873

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

The interview with the brother and mother was as tabloid as it gets and KWCH took a page out of KAKE's book. Was it good tv? Yes.. Was it interesting to see and have a great storyline and storytelling? Yes.. Was it necessary to tell the story though? No...

Anonymous said...

Hal-
First off, KWCH's get of the mother and brother's reaction was emotional and all, but am I the only one who thinks it was a little coincidental. I know they were on the CBS national morning show before the interview locally. However news broke on both KSN and KAKE that the escapees and the daughter were found even before the segment started on KWCH with the brother and mother. Then Felicia Rolfe interviews them and asks them questions about how worried they are and everything. Then about 3 minutes in Felicia says a producer tells her the trio have been found. Is it mere coincidence? Do you think they knew the news before the interview started and in some ways created news by having the moment on their cast where they break the news to them. No doubt a moving moment.

Anonymous said...

Jealous aren't we?

More words from KAKE and KSN'ers who have gotten their you know what's handed to them on this story starting on Sunday night.

KSN has been a non-player more so than usual and KAKE has been playing catchup to everything that 12 breaks.

Again, jealous much?

Anonymous said...

KWCHers
Thank your employee who is friends of the family who had a family member allegedly help two felons escape from a prison. Did you do an OK job with the story? Sure, but it happens in the biz all the time. Sometimes you luck out and a great story falls right into your laps. That is what this one was.

Anonymous said...

I believe this blog needs retitling.

"Channel 12's Photog Ego Blog"

Hal - I'm done reading.

This place is all about chest-thumping instead of discussion. It makes for a boring read.

I think the ch 12 photog/lackey/troll who's spending his time here should know that KWCH's "salad days" won't last forever.

Out.

Anonymous said...

Fact of the matter is KWCHers, If KAKE had done this you'd call it tabloid, but since you did it, its considered just fine

Anonymous said...

Hal,

The gig is up. We now know you are a KWCH employee. Great idea. You are "hard" on KWCH the first few weeks of the blog-- to throw people off. Then, your true colors come out. KWCH can do no wrong.

Hal (or MG), you'd think time could be better spend building morale by working inside your building (and word on the street is you need to worry about morale). But hey-- this is "out of the box"-- maybe you learned it at a corporate meeting.

Bet this one doesn't get posted. I guess then it isn't really "blogging coverage you can count on"...

Anonymous said...

Agreed about how the comment section has become all about chest thumping. Hal, you really need to curb the one weasel from KWCH who thinks everyone else was behind on a story where a KWCH employee was friends with a mother of someone who broke dangerous inmates out of jail. The same night KWCH worked its "source" at least one of the other stations had just as good or even better of a story with the brother. That's not catch-up, that's getting a great story without being friends with the family. It's funny, KWCH employees are generally nice. I just hope I never meet the one moron who writes into this blog.

Anonymous said...

I will repeat what I've said in so many ways before on this blog: While you're up late at night trying to outposture your cross-town underpaid colleagues, the fat cat managers are at home in Reflection Ridge sleeping on their memory-foam mattresses paid for with our blood, sweat and tears. Everyone needs to back up and see that these discussions should be about frontline journalists aligning to better their craft in a changing environment. Not which station had what crawl or cut-in on first. Viewers don't care. As a matter of fact, they're over our cookie-cutter style and our obsession with the things we bicker about on this blog.

Anonymous said...

The sale of KSN is now complete.