Rocky Mountain Media Watch has filed a formal petition with the Federal Trade Commission over four Denver TV station’s news broadcasts. They’re asking the FTC to declare advertisements promotion the local news programs to be deceptive because, according to their press release, “the entertainment-oriented content of the local TV ‘news’ programs cannot be considered news.” If this works, I wonder if we might see a similar action against WVIR somewhere down the line?
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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I know I’d definitely be tempted to file just such a petition against WVIR. I try and watch their news a few nights out of the week, and I’m pretty much always left with the same feeling: What Charlottesville do they live in? Whatever that they’re talking about, it always invariably has nothing to do with me, or anything that I’d ever have anything to do with. If there hasn’t been a press release or they haven’t heard something on their scanner, it’s just not news. (As best as I can tell.) But they are full of 3-minute segments from Jeannie Moos.
Prior to last year’s City Council elections, there’s no way that they spent 3 minutes all told on coverage of that. “Investigative journalism” must not be in their lexicon. C-Ville Weekly provided an admirable piece of journalism (and that’s not the sort of thing that I generally find myself saying about C-Ville) last year about WVIR. It broke down a year’s worth of programming, analyzing how much time that WVIR spent on each subject. It was absolutely fascinating, and very depressing. WVIR, of course, never acknowledged this study in any way, if I recall correctly.
Too bad that doesn’t exist on-line somewhere. If anybody over at C-Ville is reading this, how about posting a copy? If you e-mail it to me, I’ll append it to the story.
Anyhow, that’s just my $0.02.
-Waldo
Why WVIR exists at all is a question any news-hungry local must ponder on a daily basis. The alarming vacuous posture of its presence paints a sad and inappropriate televised image of Charlottesville and is an insult to such an educated community. From the idiotic banter of the morning team to the broken-record repetition of the 5:30-6:30pm “news” (“Here’s Norida Higgins with the story LIVE in our newsroom down the hall”), I often have to watch and wonder: Does this cast of clowns truely believe it’s serving the community? Are they ALL on Prozac? Someone pull the plug. I’d be first in line to sign a petition similar to the Denver action.