Dear CNN... YOU dropped the ball in California...Big Time

[SoCalDem]

Please write them emails..Their "non" coverage is inexcusable..

mine:



In case no one has noticed, Southern California is burning to the ground.. I realize that this "breaking news" story pales by comparison, to say... Kobe sneezing in court, or "Laci Peterson is still dead", or "John Kerry gets a haircut", or "George Bush is the niftiest thing since sliced bread", or "Iraq is just swell"...but would it be asking too much to take CNN off autopilot on the weekend , just in case there are any homes left, that might still have a tv?

It's disgusting beyond words to see what CNN has become.. I turned CNN on , "knowing" that I would get live coverage of this monstrous firestrom that we are in, but instead, I get CRAP...and CANNED crap, at THAT !!!...

We really have had ENOUGH of Poppy Bush Flyboy Hero, and Larry's interview of the acid-tongued matriarch, and of even the dimwitted son, our feckless leader.. Would it be asking too much, to show us some breaking news??

Does someone have to abduct a cute little blonde girl from a burning house, or kill a pregnant woman in a burning palm tree, or drive a stolen car through the fire to get your attention??

We get the message here in California, that we are only important when there is a "celebrity whitewash election" at hand, but this is life and death, and it would be nice to have CNN at least a teensy bit interested..

Shame on you... a new low for the once great CNN..

[revree]

1. I guess they figure, hey, AHNOLD will come to our rescue.

I am watching local news. They are actually doing a great job for a change.

[mhr]

2. Your Personal Pain Is Of No Concern To Cement Head

eom

[maryallen]

34. Terrific letter, SoCalDem ...

Get 'em!!

They deserve it.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

3. Really fuck all the major news stations

San Diego's local coverage is apparently the only exclusion.

[Noordam]

4. They did cover

Women join New York nude photo shoot

NEW YORK (AP) --The women crossed their arms to keep warm in the main concourse of Grand Central Terminal early Sunday as they prepared to pose for Spencer Tunick's latest human art installation.

All of them were nude.

"I love his art and I think he's creating an amazing thing -- something different, something fresh," said Anna Springer, 30, a real estate executive.

Tunick, a New York-based artist, has gained an international reputation for his arrangements of nude art installations involving hundreds of people in cities around the world. He's also been arrested several times in New York for previous projects.


http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/Northeast/10/26/nude.shoot.ap/index.html

[Jackpine Radical]

6. Could we, like, you know,

get that pic blown up or something?

[knight_of_the_star]

7. Excuse me?!

I love art, but honestly, I can see the smoke clouds just outside my window! You would think that CNN would ACTUALLY cover something this important!

[Cocoa]

5. this is supposed to be what CNN is for

all the canned crap is cheaper, of course.

[Robbien]

8. Just found a satilite link to the fires

Watching this is scary. It is even showing the fire burning in Mexico.

http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/satellite/animation.san.1km.vis.html

[bpilgrim]

19. animated gif here...

larger one here...
http://new.globalfreepress.com/images/SD/

peace

[catzies]

33. That's amazing. My house is in the path of the northernnmost plume

I've had the Piru and Simi fires ashes fall on me for two days now.

[madrchsod]

9. i noticed that-no coverage

so i went to fox in la,which i am watching now,i couldn`t imagine living thru this stuff. here in northern il we may get crappy weather but nothing like this. i hope there are no more deaths..

[alcuno]

10. I am only allowed to view good news.

However, I will email CNN. Your email is terrific but I'm sensing a somewhat negative tone.

[SoCalDem]

11. Then you got the message of my "tone"..THEY SUCK

:(

[LizW]

12. So true

I read the threads here and turned on CNN to get more info. I wanted to see maps of where the fires are.

I watched.....and watched.......and continued to watch.

Nothing, nada, zip.

Just the usual chirpy Sunday non-news pieces.

[LibertyorDeath]

13. I know Aaron Brown makes my skin crawl so fake & smarmy

http://maddox.xmission.com/cnn_sucks.html

[TNDemo]

14. Does anyone know if the fires are near El Cajon?

I too keep trying to find maps of the fires and can't.

[Capn Sunshine]

They are in Kearney Mesa and in ventura County they are in my back yard

Its as dark as night here....we're leaving soon.

[tico]

31. Not in El Cajon

It's to the north. However, I-8 is closed from El Cajon to Alpine.

[cally]

15. Fox had the first coverage I've seen in the SF Bay Area

And CNN wonders why they are losing ratings. Sheesh.

[JasonBerry]

21. this REALLY worries me

First, thanks SoCal for the post. I agree 100% and just took time out to email CNN.

The fact that FOX has been better on breaking news coverage lately than anyone else really is scary. They have all the talk shows that pull in the right wing - I SURE don't want to see them leading in breaking news and that's just what they've done on several major news stories. I hate it because I cannot stand to leave my TV on Fox for any longer than absolutely necessary; but with their breaking news being so much ahead of everyone lately, I've watched too much of late. CNN should really be ashamed.

[TheDonkey]

16. How much coverage do you want!?!?!

The forests are on fire, probably arson.

Do we really need to make it sensational by showing ever acre being burnt and the fleeing squirrels and chipmunks. I understand the danger it hold for Californians and their homes and they know this and are evacuating. I don't see much use for 24-7 coverage on this fire, just as with Laci, Kobe, and other sensational stories.

[Cocoa]

17. this seems more newsworthy to me than those trials

I think having reporters on the scene in the courtrooms is a total waste, as far as I'm concerned.

I think it makes much more sense to have those resources used for stories like this.

[SoCalDem]

18. Whaddaya wanna bet.. CNN will be there IN FORCE....after

so they can capture on film, the tearstained faces, and the weeping men when they sak them the "hard hitting" question?..."How does it FEEL to lose everything you had???

We will see indepth "stories" of those who BATTLED the ferocious fire..


I can see the logos now...


...INFERNO.... WALL OF FIRE.... UP IN SMOKE..."KELLI-FORNYA TOO HOT TO HANDLE", sez Governator Arnold...

[TheDonkey]

Hahaha, perhaps that is the cause

CNN has not yet made the graphics yet to hype it up.

FOX doesn't need graphics has anyone noticed that the production value of the news shows are crap (and that actual value usually is too ;) )

[alcuno]

22. When the power went out in the northeast...

there was non-stop coverage and no homes or lives were really in jeopardy. Just a lot of traffic jams.

[SoCalDem]

25. Yes.. I remember all those "field" reporters

out there interviewing all those :scared: people.. "oooooh , it's darrrrrk.." "how will I watch tveeeee"?

Bastards..

airports are closed, highways are closed..people have died...thousands of people are evacuated...hundreds (if not thousands) of homes burned to the ground, and it's not important enough to break into Campbells Canned CNN..

[Hell Hath No Fury]

23. A LITTLE would be nice!

I too read the threads anbd turned to CNN to the the latest information -- during the two hours I watched, I only saw 15 seconds top/bottom of the hour headlines on the story.

Coerage doesn' have to be wall to wall, but a serious update onec every half hour might be nice -- many of us have friends down in that area, and the folks down there might like getting information on how the fires are moving.

[JasonBerry]

24. How Much Coverage - a reply

How much coverage do you want!?!?!

This is a BREAKING news story. It is IMPACTING. Meaning, that the story is impacting the lives of people at this very moment. It's not a matter of just showing images of "acres and acres" on fire, it's a matter of getting information out to the people of California and loved ones all over the country. Where is it happening? The winds are carrying the fires in what direction? What neighborhoods are in the path? What is the long-term forecast? The fact is that these fires are the worst to hit California in many, many years. They are catastrophic and deserve breaking news LIVE coverage to not just show images - but to do their job and provide news and information. ON EDIT: Just like they do for hurricanes!

[TheDonkey]

26. Understandable

But I honestly think they over do it for the hurricanes as well. Just recently with Hurricane Isabel the national news should not have been as obsessed with it as they were. I do believe that it's important to keep us alerted and educated on what's happening but showing live coverage all day is not news worthy or breaking.

CNN recently had Gov Davis press confrecne, and many reports on the days noting the destruction of houses and the spread of the fires in the diff. counties. I'm suprised CNN isn't salivating over itself to cover the fires as it's cheap to air, pretty pictures (who saw yesterdays reporter standing near the devil's wind of fire), and can easily be made sensational (ie. showing gradma run from a burning house).

[imax2268]

20. I watch CNN

more than any other news channel...when they start spewing over and over again the Kobe trial, Ahhhhnold and all the other crap...I turn the station...

And what really bugs me about CNN is Paula Zahn...she makes my skin crawl...I have to change the channel everytime...

[Mz Pip]

27. Amazingly, Fox is

giving this a lot of coverage. Go figure.

MzPip
:dem:

[salin]

28. IMPORTANT... PLEASE Document the lack of coverage - re: FCC

consolidation issue. I just read yesterday on Salon (premium) about the hearings that Powell Jr is holding around the nation to talk about media and "localism" - they were trying to prevent the local meeting from talking about media consolidation - but attendees kept pointing out that the two go hand in hand. That consolidation promotes ownership (and thus decision making) further and further away from local communities and that this can have a deletorious effect on local coverage.

Here is an example of local coverage NOT covering an emerging local disaster - such that people are NOT being warned. THis has an incredibly HUGE impact on public safety.

We need to document actual coverage.

Then we need to create a message to send to congressfolks who are supporting overturning the FCC consolidation rules - pushing the angle of the importance of LOCALISM and local coverage and that it is not just a feel-good local coverage issue it is about PUBLIC SAFETY among other things.

Own globally, act locally?
The FCC's Michael Powell says a shortage of local and community affairs programming has nothing to do with media conglomeration. But at a North Carolina hearing, he heard from his critics.

By Eric Boehlert
Oct. 24, 2003

Federal Communications Commission chairman Michael Powell held a public hearing in Charlotte, N.C., Wednesday night to address how media companies serve their local communities. But during a marathon open-mike session, many in the standing-room-only crowd were ready to talk about thornier issues, like the controversial media ownership rules the commission passed this summer, and outlandish behavior by local Clear Channel DJs. The message from Powell's FCC was that such topics were irrelevant. But critics had their say anyway.

It was Powell's first public outing since the FCC passed new media-ownership rules, on a party-line vote, in June. The move would allow large companies to buy more television stations and to own a newspaper and a broadcast outlet in the same city. The topic has mushroomed into a political firestorm, with the FCC facing unexpectedly stiff resistance to the rule changes from both ends of the political spectrum.

During the ownership debate, Powell suggested that a lot of the complaints he was hearing about the media -- that there's too much sex and violence on TV, and not enough community affairs programming on the airwaves -- stemmed from how individual stations were being run locally, not by who owned them nationally. So in August he appointed a task force to study the issue of localism, hold public hearings, and report back in one year. The FCC hearing in Charlotte was the first of six to be held across the country, in an effort to evaluate how well radio and television are serving the public interest. Broadcasters are obligated to serve the public good in order to get their licenses renewed.

Critics of the new FCC rules insist the issues of localism and ownership are inseparable. They argue that if radio and television stations are locally or regionally owned, participation in the community will be much more dynamic than if the owners are thousands of miles away overseeing a constellation of properties.

more (requires premium subscription - or taking a one day "free pass")
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/10/24/fcc/index.html

[dofus]

29. Isn't that kind of coverage

up to the LOCAL stations? It really is a local California story. If you want evacuation routes, maps, etcetera, that's something the local stations should be covering, not a national service.

[SoCalDem]

30. It's "local" up to a point.. The governor's race was "local" too

the power outage in the NE was "local".. The Laci Petersen case was "local"..

Most of the highways in SC are CLOSED.. Airports are CLOSED.. Schools are CLOSED..PEOPLE HAVE DIED

HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of DENSELY POPULATED acres are blazing.. There are about NINE big fires burning in all directions...

California is part of the US.. If CNN can break in to cover a car chase through LA or Kobe sitting in a Colo courtroom, then they can DAMN WELL COVER THIS too..

[JasonBerry]

35. You're absolutely right

And don't forget, as I mentioned above, how they gave wall-to-wall coverage of hurricane Isabel. You really said it all.

[uhhuh]

32. Agreed

I was really annoyed by the amount of coverage the destruction of the Twin Towers,and the pentagon, and the plane crash in PA. got nationally. I mean, those events were all in the eastern U.S. Why did they have to show so much coverage on every station, for so many days, all over the country on all the National cable channels?

Shouldn't the local media be the place to turn to during those events? I mean, they called it an attack on the U.S.? Come on! They only attacked the Eastern U.S. Why should the rest of the country have to pay attention to it?

(/end sarcasm)

[sendero]

36. Well....

Thank you for writing to us.

In case you didn't know, live coverage of anything costs money. And "news" organizations, especially those of the television variety, don't like to spend money.

You see, little American, if we spend money dispatching reporters and setting up satellite feeds, it comes right off our bottom line. Our shareholders don't like that. And they are everything, except when we screw them over with some flaky deal that nobody understands except us.

So, I realize you were under the illusion that we are a news reporting organization. No, that is not quite right. Like every other media outlet in this country, we are a money making organization. And the news is on our priority list, right after making money. Have a nice day.