Thursday, December 20, 2012

USAT | This Christmas story was dead on arrival

[Exhibit A: screenshot of TV segment shows crime scene]

USA Today is using more video from Gannett's 23 TV stations to stand out in a crowded news market. But as this occasional Gannett Blog series shows, some of the videos aren't quite ready for primetime.

In Knoxville, Tenn., resident Cassie Rogers managed to get WBIR to report that someone stole Christmas gifts from her parents that had been delivered to her front porch. The thieves left only the shipping boxes behind.

"I couldn't believe somebody would actually do this, especially so close to Christmas," Rogers told the station.

Mind you, this isn't a trend story, where gangs of thieves are raiding front porches across the nation. Heck, as WBIR notes, this isn't even a trend in Knoxville; it's the first such incident of the year!

3 comments:

  1. All TV stations share content with each other. They all use the same graphics and basically the same formats. Many stories that run in each market mean absolutely nothing to the viewers in that market. It's just one of the many ways this company is destroying our industry.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I accidentally clicked on the link to watch The Granny Robber series that showed up on my paper's site. Not quite sure why I should care in Appleton, though.

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  3. A couple years ago the big story was thieves following UPS and FexEx trucks, and grabbing packages off the porch.

    Aren't you ju-u-u-ust a bit suspicious of "thieves" leaving the boxes, so nicely opened? A thief is going to get out the box cutter, make a nice incision, take out the goods, and THEN leave?

    ReplyDelete

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