Category: KTVZ

Riding the tide of the daily news (and helping others float their boat)

I often tell people I ride the tide of the daily news.

And that means I often have less than full control over where the day takes me — because you can never know exactly what’s going to come into the e-mail box, pop up on the police scanner or just… happen. (Like an ER doctor, but thankfully with a lot less blood and … stuff;-)

Some days that look to be busy as heck fizzle. Some quiet days blow up fast.

Ever since second grade and the mimeoed (remember mimeograph machines? How about ditto machines?) Room 210 Tooter, I’ve loved telling folks what’s going on.

Part and parcel of how we hear about stuff is the lowly (hey, they get little respect but are vital) news release (which of course is usually e-mailed but — we still get the occasional fax. Fax machines – long gone, so they are turned into Adobe PDFs auto-magically;-)

Ask just about any Central Oregon police officer or fire official, and odds are after we get such a release, I’ll be one of, if not the first calling or e-mailing to fill in holes, ask a follow-up question or find out something more specific than say, “vehicle.” (Bleh.)

My list of Press Release Pet Peeves has been so longstanding, there’s probably a version buried in the (ahem) bowels of this very blog.

Things like — don’t say what year something is going to happen, even near the end or beginning of the year — that’s so obvious in the vast majority of cases. But please DO put in what day of the WEEK it will be – that helps folks know whether they can attend your event or not. Don’t make them look it up on a calendar.

Titles are only capitalized immediately BEFORE a name, not after. Stuff like that. (Give up the two spaces between sentences — or heaven forbid, double-spacing the lines — those kinds of things died with the typewriter and grizzled newspaper copy editors with red pencils. And know your its and it’ses. And try not to let your organization develop it’s own quirky style, like capping the “City” of Bend (it’s not the only city!) or having to cap “County” every time in a release. Why? And ease back on the Acronyming of America (A of A). (Oh, and “Oregon’s Senator Jeff Merkley?” There are 2 senators from Oregon. Or is that a dig at your fellow Democrat?;-)

Oh, and PR folks: I know you want to make personal relationships happen, but if you send something only to one person in a 20-person newsroom, it WILL be the day they are off – or worse yet are the ancient un-updated media lists that send to people and places long gone — in some cases, dearly departed, even. That’s really worth the time and investment. Better to use the generic e-mail address, like stories@ktvz.com for our newsroom. Several people check that and will route it properly.

I’ve thought many times about a sideline business of helping folks get the basic style and grammar hurdles out of their releases, so folks can focus on the content.

But when you ride the tide of the daily news, it’s pretty much all-consuming, just to stay in the boat, not have it flip and keep it pointed downstream, ready for whatever rapids, swirls and eddies lie ahead.

And don’t forget that life jacket!

Of journalism, objectivity and emotion

A rally on climate change was held in Bend Sunday.

For a moment, I’d like you to step back from your personal views on the topic and consider this perspective: You are the reporter, or the editor who assigned such a story.

In some cases, such a rally brings out counter-demonstrators with a different perspective.

In this case, however, there was none. Turnout was … well, we said “dozens,” so let’s say about 50 folks.

So … as reporter/editor, do you go seeking out people with other perspectives to “balance” the story? And if you do, do you include a line or two from them, or scrupulously make the story 50-5o? (On a holiday-weekend Sunday when you are unlikely to be able to reach many of the experts on the other side? Not that anyone at the rally claimed to be an expert.)

Or do you just tell of the rally, how many were there, and some of their views?

(Or say the rally was for or against … new immigration policies. For or against new gun regulations, or abortion, or any other incendiary, one side-never-will-convince-the-other-side issue.)

Or do you not cover the rally at all, because it’s inherently one-sided?

I personally think you report what happened, and it’s as high or low in your lineup of stories as the rest of the day’s news suggests. Then, when people on the other side hold their rally or gathering, you strive to give it similar treatment. Not “equal.” That’s too precise a measurement for messy humans.

We’re not robots. We don’t count words or syllables. If one side in one of these seemingly never-ending disputes is better organized, it’s not our job to help the other side organize – but it could be our job to note, factually, that lack of organization. Right? The loudest voice shouldn’t always win, but neither should the quietest, just because we consider them “right.”

Someone who’s a regular on our Website’s comments threw out the line, “Whatever happened to real journalism”?

I argued that there’s just as much of it out there as there ever was — even more so, perhaps, in the world of the Internet.

What has changed, far more, is for many, is the partisan nature of the prism through which they view journalism.

If a story doesn’t include their perspective, or their favorite caustic stat or antidote to hurl at the other side, it’s not “objective.”

Talk-show hosts get more hours per week than anyone else to rail against the “mainstream,” “lamestream” media — as if they aren’t part of it. Oh no, they are the “balance” against it.

We get complaints, like all media these days, of being on the president’s side. Others, meanwhile, claim some large corporations dictate what we cover and how, and what to ignore.

It seems there’s barely any room for civil debate and discussion any more — in a world of walking on eggshells and avoiding landmines.

Perhaps Congress and the president are so sharply split only as a reflection of a sharply divided nation, with everyone frustrated but the partisans dug deep into their foxholes, ready to fire at anything that moves. (With words, not bullets, of course.)

But I should hasten to add that our goal is to not let the relatively small number of fierce partisans on both/all sides of these tough, complex issues mislead us into thinking that the majority of our viewers and readers agree with them and disdain our work. Because thankfully, there are glorious occasional glimpses of just what the (Nixon phrase warning) silent majority think, and it’s frustration, for sure – but as much with the discussion-hijackers and the flamethrowers as the policymakers and the govt. bureaucrats who are just trying to do their jobs and help folks.

I’ve been at this gig for a long time, and I know how the blossoming of social media has given folks who used to write occasional pithy letters to the editor or complain loudly over the phone a new megaphone in which to try to take over the discussion and verbally beat the other side into submission … as everyone else walks away, frustrated and disgusted.

I just hope and pray that the signal of democracy — messy but vital — isn’t drowned out permanently by the noise of the haters. (I may do a bumper sticker one day: ‘To BLAME is to B-LAME.” That’s my Blame Society slogan of the day;-) Because if all we care about is “winning” and proving the ones on the other side of this or that incendiary issue are not just wrong or misled, but evil incarnate… we’ll all lose. Big-time.

Some would say that ship has sailed, that we’re already lost. I hope and pray they’re wrong.

Moving out, moving in, moving up

OK, what a month June was. Last day ends with a boom and a storm-induced power outage – how fitting, and proud of our weekend anchor/producer Kim Tobin for managing to get dang fine 10 and 11 shows out when it took hours after the hour-long outage to get everything back up and running (a lot of technology at a TV station, folks, and BIG behind-the-scene upgrades are happening this year.)

Ah, upgrades — in the world of tech, they are such very mixed ‘blessings.’ Or as I’ve put it: “Two steps forward, 1 1/2 steps back, 3 steps sideways — and turn out the lights.”

Deb and I are almost through with our month-long move from SE to NE Bend. Why so long? Well, the place we lived in for 10 years was discharged in bankruptcy – by mistake – and nobody told us. The good part of that is, it allowed us, unlike many others, to ‘escape’ an underwater house with too-big 1st and 2nd mortgages and move to a bigger, newer and cheaper house. Two stories, with 16 steps between the first and second floors – did I mention that before? Hmm, maybe I did;-)

Anyway, that was the first of two big moves for me in the past month, bookends to the other “fun” highlight, a combo colonoscopy-endoscopy (which I refer to as the Golden Spike procedure – they meet in the middle, shake hands, give a speech, pose for photos. OK, not really;-)

But the second move – ah, what a roller-coaster ride. A year later than first planned, KTVZ.COM’s Website provider, Internet Broadcasting, moved us from version 1 to version 2 of their CMS (content management system), ibPublish. It’s completely different. And the trick was, we made the move while I fought as hard as possible to keep the front end – what everyone sees – exactly the same. (In large part because folks who make a habit of a Website hate for it to change so much they have to hunt for stuff. We’ve really tried to keep everything simple, logical and obvious — well, out front anyway;-)

But like every big move, in real life or the land of technology, you have to pick up everything you move (well, your movers do) and put it all in the new place, hopefully without breaking, losing or tripping over too much of the stuff, realizing you have too much stuff and vowing to de-hoard and de-clutter as you go. Mighty full, heavy trashcans, and recycling bins, indeed. (I dropped a 1,500-page dumb ol’ Windows XP how-too book. On my foot. Like I mentioned in a previous post, fortunately, didn’t break anything.)

OK, the analogy isn’t perfect, but for the past week-plus, let’s just say that the new version of our Web platform keeps locking up while I’m inside, so I have to force my way out again, and then I can’t often get in (log in) again. And the real fun is that IB as we call it — which partnered with a German company, CoreMedia, for this platform – inherited not one, but two tools to run this show. And they work almost completely differently (cut-paste vs. drag-drop for example) and don’t look anything alike and… it’s the kind of reason I’ve always been an automatic transmission, not a stickshift kind of guy. And a Windows, not Mac guy. Having both would be … disconcerting. So I have been grinding my gears a lot in the ‘backup’ version of the tool, when the better version kicks me out.

The likely outcome of any big move, of course, is that you find stuff you lost, lose stuff you had and hopefully don’t break much (stuff or your feet, for example) in the process.

Was quite glad most folks couldn’t tell the difference after the big switch (the changes in view are pretty subtle). And we happy to get a visit from IB’s great trainer, Fred Olson this week (he provided 2 mighty-fine lunches as well;-) — the IB folks have been putting up with, oh, 3,423 e-mails a day as I battle for logic, simplicity and the things that software should be all about, but rarely is. There are definite pluses to the new and ‘improved’ version — boy, does it post stories fast for example — but alas, like many computer upgrades, I keep trying to move things from the ‘new chore’ category to the ‘time-saving’ category because otherwise I’ll go bonkers.

Oh, and I also rewarded myself for surviving the Month of Change with my first new album purchase in months — the new Maroon 5, Overexposed. Yeah, they are. And the album is quite over-produced in places, too. But there’s enough fun among the somewhat reptitive techno-beats that it’s a worthy addition. (Wish they’d stuck ‘Moves Like Jagger’ on it. Yeah, I know, can play it on YouTube or buy it on iTunes, but I’m not an iPod earbud kinda guy. I like to fill a room with music whenever possible;-)

I also hope that now that we finally jumped to the new mothership for our Website, and are getting more newsroom folks trained, I can take my hands off the wheel once in a while (while always going in to polish the words – hey, edititis doesn’t go away overnight). Then maybe I can blat out my blog (and maybe one day a book? Who knows) about the Blame Society (tentiative subtitle: “How Losing the Middle Ground is Costing Us the Middle Class.”) Some other books have come out of late making the same point, but that doesn’t deter me. The extremes on both sides I deal with in our Web comments drive me to exasperation. But I have to hold my tongue there. Thankfully, the blogosophere makes it possible to be in a closely watched line of business like journalism and still be able to state an opinion. As long as one is careful about it.

So here’s to a happy 4th for all of you, and that with all that rain (sheesh) the Pilot Butte fireworks don’t set the butte on fire this time:-)

Exclusives can happen oddly

“Stephen Trono’s on the phone for you!”

Ted Taylor, our 6pm show producer, saw my jaw drop to the floor when I entered the newsroom and he said that.

Thus began a mad scramble to get a phone-recording system running so we could talk – and we did, for almost a half-hour.

I’ve written all about that at the Website but one thing Stephen – we’re not close friends, but we’ve talked over the years – wanted me to know, about why he called me.

This Bend developer who’d been shot five (or is it six?) times by his wife – and lived, and is still with her – had been back in Bend and able to speak since mid-October.

Why hadn’t he talked to any reporters? Because not a single one called him to ask if he’d talk!

Seriously. I mean, he could be fibbing, but why fib about that?

I know reporters have this all-too-often reputation of rushing up to someone who’s house is burning down, sticking a microphone and camera in their face and saying “how do you feel watching your life ruined?”

Or something like that.

But the words “sensitive” and “journalist” are not mutually exclusive.

This was just a very vivid reminder that we should never, ever assume someone does NOT want to talk. And should always make the attempt. The worst that can happen is screamed obscenities in your ear and a hang-up on the other end of the phone line.

I think I’ve quoted the grizzled old editor’s line here before: “If your mother says she loves ya, check it out!”

Point being, it’s worth those hang-ups for the one time someone says, “Finally, I’ve been waiting for someone to ask me!”

But that has to be the first time I can recall in a local, high-profile story that someone, after months of waiting for someone to call them, called me. I’m sure glad it was me, of course, and the final chapter of this somewhat bizarre tale has yet to play itself out. But as I approach 20 years in Central Oregon, sometimes just being here the longest (and trying my hardest always to get it right while getting it first, and trying to be fair and accurate) can bring good stories my way. and I’m grateful for that.

‘I don’t know how you sleep at night…’: Journalism Ethics 101

Wow, what a week. Awful, tragic news — and editorial judgment calls for our news staff.

On the one hand, it’s ‘exciting’ and energizing to have breaking news to cover, in an area where we blessedly have relatively little major crime, etc. compared to bigger cities.

Still, it can be frustrating when people think we make every decision based on whose lives we can invade or pain we can exploit.

It’s not true, but to be defensive in such situations only makes a difficult situation worse.

When someone dies in an awful way, we need to try to tell how they died – but more importantly, how they lived.

We don’t, contrary to the critics’ claims, go ringing up or knocking on the door of every crime victim, stick a camera and mike in their face and say, ‘How do you feel?”

The worst calls I’ve ever made are to folks in pain. I always hope and pray a family friend or representative will answer the phone, that those dealing with tragedy have been helped by others who are taking our inevitable calls for a photo, word of a fund in their name, etc.

A Bend man died this week in an example of the awfully named term, ‘Freak accident’ – a tree slammed down on the van in which he was sleeping. A Roseburg TV station kindly shared photos clearly taken hours after the discovery (tree was off the van and cut up etc.)

Still, it was shocking. Not graphic or lurid, but jolting.

We used the photos. A few close friends asked ‘have you no shame,’ etc.

After a day, I removed the photos from our front page. I can always see both sides of these things. The image was known, and to put his smiling face there again seemed right, and we followed with another story talking to friends about how he lived.

Then there’s the awful possible murder-suicide in Bend.

Facebook has two sides for people – the private one only friends can see, and the public one anyone can see using a search box.

We found two heartbreakingly normal photos of the family on the mother’s and father’s Facebook pages.

We used them and soon heard from a very upset family member.

I tried, best I could, not to get defensive, and to explain why we felt they were OK and even good to use – again, as I say, to show how folks live, not just how they die.

It didn’t end with a slammed-down phone, so I should be grateful.

But then came the note today, saying “shame on you” and asking why we felt it was OK to put the photos (and names – hey, we waited almost a full day to use the names, when property tax records indicated the homeowners and the paper felt fine running that right away – we waited until police issued the names to be sure family members were notified first.)

But Facebook is a public source of info, and we wanted to share MORE than names – to tell who these people are. In the immediate aftermath of tragedy, that is a very difficult time to glean those details, and we’re more successful in some cases than others.

But I hope that, God forbid, I ever face such a tragedy, I’ll understand why the media is doing what it’s doing – unless we/they cross the line, and then I also hope I’d make my point without lashing out. But it’s human, and we all are that.

We don’t revel in others’ pain, nor wish to intrude on a family’s grief. I have been deleting many comments that go too far in supposition or worse (man, there are some scary folks out there). But … it’s tough, and we have to try to be both sensitive and consistent. I hope and pray most folks understand that.

The ‘right’ to use info or a photo or the like doesn’t always clash with the issue of ‘rightness’ (propriety), but it can. Just now, police passed along the family’s request to remove info gleaned from public Facebook pages from the story. They are distraught, but I can’t help thinking they have far bigger things to be distraught about.

These were not damning or in any way negative pieces of information about the family – in fact, they were heartbreakingly normal and upbeat. But of course, I removed them, after touching base with the news director on his call on the issue.

But as I said, it’s ‘right’ vs. ‘rightness.’ Tough balancing act for all concerned in such terrible cases.

May you never be in such a situation – but may you also think about it whenever you make info publicly available, intentionally or otherwise. As society and the definition of privacy evolves, maybe, just maybe it’ll be less of an issue. I’m not expecting it, though.

The Week in News: All Fired Up

Can I get myself into a pattern of regular blogging? Not sure, but will try.

I do enjoy, in its own way, wildfire season. Many people turn to our Website for the latest fire news, and I’ve been doing this long enough I know just what to ask and how to assemble it, fast.

One tricky thing is when a fire gets big enough that the local firefighters and Central Oregon Interagency Dispatch hand off to an incident management team. They do a great job, but the transition can be … messy.

I love what InciWeb brings to the table, for the bigger fires – a uniform presentation, and the ability to get photos, maps etc. I don’t think the government has thrown enough servers at it – it’s awfully slow most of the time – and I get to hear how the Forest Service, etc. folks wrestle with trying to make it work. (Heck, most in govt. aren’t allowed to access Facebook/Twitter, for fear of them wasting time yakking with friends. Those are getting to be crucial info platforms, folks – you really should find ways to make sure they can use it – for work, of course – but why not for other things during breaks?)

Anyway, I digress, as usual. We have a new group of ‘KTVZ freshmen’ (and women) you might say, learning the ropes. Today, Joe Burns got his first taste of reporting from the fire lines. He was nervous – who could blame him? – but I’m sure he did fine.

When the Rooster Rock Fire blew up near Plainview, we got TONS of great photos from amateurs and a few pros, and assembled a wonderful, ever-growing slide show. These fires now are in more remote areas, but still have caused damage. Hopefully not much more of that.

As a reporter, you get to know the people you deal with quite frequently, like the folks at Prineville fire dispatch. They help us out a lot, and I try to do the same, when I spot info they might not have, or some conflicting info, or holes in a news release (like I do withour local police agencies – hey, their main job is to catch bad guys and gals, not to write news releases!).

But the shorthand sometimes comes at a cost of less-than-totally-accurate writing. For example, if we say “24 thousand acres are burning on the Warm Springs Reservation,” it’s not really true. If a fire or group of fires reaches such a size, it usually means far less than that acreage burning at any one time. Add in the fact that it often will include unburned islands within the perimter – and land set ablaze by firefighters in burnouts, to rob the fire of fuel – and it’s as imprecise as anything that’s fast-changing and dealt with by fallible humans as best they can.

But the extra eyeballs that come to our Website – I hope we reward them with the best, most accurate roundup of info we have, as updated as can be, day or night. Makes for long hours, but also helps build a reputation that we’re the place to turn to learn the latest. And that can stand us in good stead when the news turns to ice on the roads, instead of fires in the canyons. After all, to get a lot of page views in summer, when smart, sane folks spend time away from their computers, is very satisfying – because when the chill returns (it’s 59 out now!), they’ll come back and hang out, we hope.

Speaking of hanging out, the embryonic High Desert Forum is still in soft-opening test mode. Hope you give it a try, as a place to talk that’s more focused than the scattershot message threads on articles that rise and fall, come and go off the home page.  It’s likely to change more in coming days, weeks and months as we seek out the right answer for such a need. Hopefully you’ll take the ride along with us, as we try to create a conversation spot – an online coffee shop/pub, if you will – that complements the Facebooks, Twitters, etc. I very much hope to keep the emphasis on the positive there – talking about great places, people, groups, companies etc. – and of course, the political debates/arguments too. The same rules as the Website will apply, with more tools to thumbs-up the great discussions and … we’ll see how it goes.

Long past time, yet again

Wow, well maybe this fresher summer-y WordPress theme will encourage me to get back here and say hi.

Hi!

We’ve settled in at the new Internet Broadcasting-run KTVZ.COM digs. Still some lingering issues (when isn’t there in technology?) but overall, pretty cool.

Took a week off (OK, as usual, semi-off) from work – actually got to the coast with Deb, but hey, the B&B dropped breakfast (huh?) but had dandy WiFi, so I could keep the site up to date. Was fun, and quite an accomplishment in our new Land Without Credit Cards. (Scary, but true – beats the false sense of security they provide. I think;-)

And I owe Ted Taylor, one of our newest reporters, a debt of thanks – both for taking over for me that week and allowing me to be my typical invasive self, from home, not letting him just … run the Website. (Though there was one crazy afternoon where having four hands rather than two getting stuff on the Web was a godsend – there are days.)

Deb is busy with both her job processing bankruptcy claims (lots of irony in that!) and her paralegal studies (since when is business algebra something a paralegal needs?) and getting routine As – so proud of her! But when you read in the paper of reporters having to go through foreclosure and move to a new job … the scariness continues.

Oh, and then there’s the cats, and a recent issue of … a wet ‘present’ left behind on the bed, so now we have to close the bedroom door during the day, costing Salem his sun-until-he-bakes time (and he trill-whines to make sure we know.) A boy has got to be able to sunbathe at times, so … I just try to use moderation in how much he can. Nice vet says he likely was dehydrated (surprise to the guy who cleans the litter box!) so Deb feeds him wet food 2x a day (always been a dry food cat) and he goes for it like the junkyard cat he is;-)

So all in all … hanging in there, like the rest of the world. How are YOU doing?

Please let me know you’ve read this by leaving a comment or two. Once that happens, and I get a wee bit of encouragement, maybe I’ll get around to posting here more regularly.

Belated welcome, hearty thanks

(I’m training myself to do Headlines With Words Capped on the Website, but dang it, this is MY blog and I know current style is downstyle headlines;-)

It was a long week, but a fulfilling one, getting the new KTVZ.COM up and running. It was touch-and-go for a bit, due to late problems we’re still addressing, one that delayed getting the new video system (Syndicaster) working. But it works great now – bells and whistles, just like the site itself – and the video looks far better than under the old system/site.

We’re still working out some kinks with things like the weather page, e-mails and the like. Unlike what our poll results show, most e-mails and comments have been positive about the cleaner, faster-loading site, and for that I and my colleagues are very grateful.

It was especially nice to easily be able to compile a slide show of user-submitted Pole Pedal Paddle photos, nice and big, to share with everybody. It’ll be great when the next surprise snowstorm;-), fire or other big local event happens. (I’d already posted a couple slide shows on a ‘burn to learn’ exercise and the National Guard troops’ homecoming.)

But who knew that after a night with too little sleep, the first day of the new site would end with a fiery gas tanker truck crash east of Bend? And then, on Friday, a Facebook post inquiring about sirens in Redmond led to something we hadn’t heard about – a fatal plane crash near the end of a Redmond Airport runway.

These things might not even make the cut on a big-city newscast, but it was big news here, and I got to, for example, learn how to send a breaking-news e-mail in the new system, on the fly, with a kind lady at the Internet Broadcasting (IB) help desk helping me through it.

Got a bit nervous when we dropped from Google News’ radar screen for a day or so, but looks like we’re getting better.

I wrote a long, typically Barney-rambling welcome over on the site, so won’t repeat myself here, other than to offer a hearty thanks to the folks at IB, and at the station, for allowing me to focus on all the little nitpick things I keep bringing up to make a great new site even better.

Back to making the Week 2 list of needs and wants for just that purpose. Have a good week, everybody.

Sorry about that, KOHD. And I mean it.

“You’re the best person I’ve ever had to lay off.”

Ouch.

In the fall of 1990, I got to hear those nice, in a way, but lousy in most others and not very unexpected words, over the phone, from a United Press International colleague in Los Angeles, directed to me, the last UPI (wire service) reporter in Portland, and next to last in the state.

I had stuck with them through thick, thin and one bankruptcy (there were more later), always enjoying the thrill of competing with the mighty (far bigger, and as a non-profit ‘cooperative,’ far more profitable) Associated Press – and winning our share of those important journalistic battles.

And so, I – like so many these troubled times – have a commiserating feeling what the folks at KOHD are going through, having given it their best shot, ever since their oh-so-badly timed debut in the fall of 2007 – just as the bubble began to burst – to today’s announcement that they won’t be doing full newscasts any more – at least for now.

But after five years at KTVZ, I knew what the reaction would be from my colleagues – not of glee or joy for a vanquished foe. No way. Instead, a sadness that one might feel in the Olympics, for example, when a worthy competitor isn’t able to finish the race. This isn’t “winning,” it’s … not losing, and they are definitely not the same.

Anyone who spends any time around me knows that when it comes to the news, I’m a very competitive guy. And KOHD has given us great competition, and that’s something not to dismiss lightly.

Good competition makes you stronger, keeps you on your toes, your ear to the scanner, fingers to the keyboard, wanting to out-tweet, out-write, do better than the other folks. Work the sources, double-check the scripts, get it first but get it right. (A favorite saying from my UPI days.) Savoring the wins, fretting over the losses, but also pleased when we can say, ‘Yeah, they had THAT, but we had THIS!”  Trying to make sure we gave as good as we got.

I ran into Matt McDonald at Freddie’s a week or two ago, and told him what I’ll tell you: They did a great job, and deserved better ratings than they got. Sure, I grrrrrit my teeth over those who today don’t just mourn their loss, but use it as another excuse to trash us as ‘not local enough,’ or worse yet, inaccurate – ‘dems fighting words,’ to me! I know that’s not true, but if the online world and all those amazing anonymous comments from our ‘guests’ have taught me anything, it’s that one has to have a far thicker skin to deal with those who seemingly live to vent and trash.

But seriously, we had to hustle like hell not to have our heads handed to us on a platter by the guys and gals up the street. Their writing, video, and of course brand-new technology were top-notch.

If this area (and the nation, for that matter) had kept growing with a boom, as we did for years before, their other biggest problem – folks’  habits, and resistance to change – would have been less of a problem, as the region’s turnover kept the influx going. But word of actual school enrollment decreases – unheard of for many a year – shows that the growth, if not stopped, has definitely plateaued. Making it even harder to gather new viewers.

So as we watch them hang on with cut-ins and mini-newscasts, I’m not naive enough to think that means we have the road ahead to ourselves. The economy WILL get better, and this area will have more than one TV station with full newscasts – if not tomorrow, then soon. I hope.

In the meantime, I just wanted to publicly thank all of the KOHD gang, past, present and future, for giving us the tough race to tell each day’s news the best that the viewers deserved, and for giving Central Oregonians a choice that was worthy of their time and interest. As someone who no doubt has watched them perhaps more than they watch themselves – to make sure we weren’t getting scooped – I wish all of them the very best in their future endeavors, and salute them as worthy competitors, and comrades in the very tough, challenging business of small-market TV news.

Wow, officially spread too thin

So now we’re trying out Ning, a pretty darn attractive, free, easy-to-use social network platform for The High Desert Forum. A chance to do the things (talk about non-local news stuff, share pix etc.) our Web provider makes difficult/nearly impossible to do.

But that means between that, the Website, Facebook, Twitter – and this lil thing called TV news – I’m not blogging as much (and that’s always been hit or miss for me).

I guess I prefer conversations to blog statements. Others have different favorites.  I just think we all need to listen more, and talk less, and blogs, to me, are usually about talking, one to many. (I’m sure I’ll get some pushback… again.)

I just think social networks are fun, others consider them a royal pain, and absolutely HATE Twitter. Brings out the worst in some people. I just figure it’s another way to tell folks what’s going on.

Anyway, if you don’t see me here…look me up there. I’m bound to be online somewhere😉