Last week, I told you about
The Spokesman-Review's
new project that puts the newspaper's editorial meetings online live. I
have another example of newsroom transparency for you this week.
KNBC-TV in Los Angeles has an online section,
called "News Raw,"
in which online viewers can watch parts of the morning meeting and
debriefs with producers, managers and reporters about the day's news.
Other attributes of News Raw include behind-the-scenes chats with reporters and
photojournalists on assignments. Some of the video is rough-cut or
uncut.
Some News Raw material will be incoming unfolding news events from the satellite feeds.
News Raw also does raw, Web-exclusive debriefings with correspondents -- for example, this one with NBC's Jim Miklaszewski.
News Raw is currently slated to become an element of KNBC's digital Channel 4.4 programming
(click for details in a short video). The plan is for News Raw to be
constantly streaming to the Web and the digital channel.
I interviewed KNBC Vice President & News Director Bob Long about the project via e-mail:
AL TOMPKINS: Why do you produce News Raw? What is the vision?
BOB LONG: There
was an opportunity to carve out a slice of bandwidth for news and we
determined to try something that wouldn't duplicate the services we
were already offering. If you are going to stay true to your
profession and your brand, the options are limited. We chose a
loose amalgam of behind-the-camera activity, analysis, photo essay,
extended breaking news coverage and interactive. Your questions
suggest you have focused upon News Raw/Inside, which is the morning
meeting. News Raw/Backstory
and News Raw/Right Now are other features of the programming. We
are adding News Raw/Producer's Cut and News Raw/Shooter's Cut this
week. News Raw is a service, not a program. It is an
extension of our newsroom and a factory that produces content that can
be accessed piecemeal on our Web site. I hope it will remain
organic and evolve as the newsroom continues to volunteer new content --
content that would have otherwise remained in [journalists'] notebooks and in
the part of the brain that files frustration.
If
people watch News Raw, what do you hope they will learn about the
process of newsgathering, decision-making and news judgment?
This
is not about putting ourselves in front of the news of the day and we
do not presume to teach. As with anything we do, we hope the
information and, specifically as it applies to aspects of News Raw, how
we process that information, will help watchers and readers better
understand their world.
The
morning editorial meetings that you feature usually include only
producers and managers. Why are there so few reporters and
photojournalists included in the meetings?
Most
of the reporters working the day shift attend some portion of the
meeting, either in person or by phone. Those who don't are
already assigned. Photographers, being hourly employees, have
staggered shifts, and all of those who are on the clock during the
meeting are on assignment -- about half of them preparing for our midday report.
What has the public response been to News Raw?
There
has been no formal promotion for News Raw. Some internal
cross-plugging, but that's it. We anticipate being available on
cable in the fall, but at the moment, no one can see Channel 4.4
without having a digital TV and tuning an antenna. Nevertheless,
we get e-mail suggesting we have some followers out there. Many
more people seem to be watching us on their computers, through Web
simulcasts or ordering up discreet segments of the service. We
have also heard from journalism students at Columbia and from people
inside NBC News [in] New York. We have been mentioned in blogs and
complimented for our "transparency," one of the principal totems of the
"new media."
Do you foresee a time when you might stream the unedited morning meeting online?
No. To do so would damage the integrity of the meeting and alter
its character in a negative way.
Do you sense that competitors watch the meeting?
We
don't know. We are very different from each other and I can't
imagine our competitors attempting to do the kind of enterprise stories
that are our hallmark, and we have no interest in pursuing much of
material they serve up.
There
have been a few mild fights and squabbles among producers over stories
on News Raw. What does the public learn by seeing such things?
I have no idea, but I would hope they find our interactions familiar and
somehow reassuring. The notion of a monolithic news media is
absurd.
What
concerns do you have about journalists publicly expressing opinions
about stories online during an editorial meeting in ways that we would
not allow on the air?
Journalists have opinions, but we fight to keep them from shaping our
reporting. People know that and I don't mind letting them see how
we work balance our humanity with our profession. This is part of
the "transparency" many find lacking in "old media." Anything new
is risky.
Torch My Ride
Edmunds.com says
high gas prices make big gas-guzzlers so unattractive that some owners
have taken to setting them on fire to collect insurance. This story
seems to crop up every once in a
while, when prices spike:
Jennifer
Mieth, manager of fire data and public education at the Massachusetts
State Fire Marshall's Office, said car fires are "cyclical." She added,
"When times are good, fires are down. When they are bad they go up."
In
1984, Mieth said it was "commonly accepted for Mr. and Mrs. Citizen to
'sell' their car back to the insurance company by lighting it on fire."
To put a stop to that, the Burned Motor Vehicle Reporting Law was
passed in 1987. This required the owner of a burned vehicle to complete
and sign a report that must also be signed by a fire official from the
department where the fire occurred. The new law was the most likely
reason that vehicle fires dropped 95 percent, from a high of 5,116 in
1987 to 217 in 2004.
Vehicle arson has had a long and occasionally humorous track record over the years. In Texas,
a car salesman was arrested after offering his customers what he called
a "rotisserie program." He would have their cars torched; then, after
they collected on the insurance, he sold them a new car. In another
part of the state, two students were arrested after they torched their
high school teacher's car in exchange for passing grades.
[Robert] Rowe, [arson investigator for the City of Downey, Calif., and]
a firefighter since 1994, is in charge of contacting owners of burned
vehicles to make sure their stories add up. While he hasn't seen any
"rotisserie programs," he has heard his share of lies. Often he will
begin his investigation by contacting the dealership where the car was
purchased to see the sales jacket (loan contract) of a burned car. If
the owner is upside-down, and particularly if they recently purchased
"gap insurance" to make sure they were fully covered, they fall under
suspicion.
Actually, torching your own car isn't illegal,
although as Rowe points out, if you have financed it, "you will pay for
that burned-out shell for the rest of the lease." However, if you
report the fire to your insurance company as accidental, when in fact
it was arson, you have committed insurance fraud.
"In the
majority of the fires we have on the freeways, nine out of 10 times the
owner is still with the car, or close by," Rowe said. So when a car is
found burning, and no owner is in sight, it quickly becomes suspicious.
In most arson cases, the car is reported stolen. But due to
sophisticated anti-theft devices, it's not easy to steal a car without
the key. Many owners become vague when Rowe asks them to account for
the second key. Often, they maintain the dealership never gave it to
them when they initially purchased the car.
The Coalition Against Insurance Fraud
sheds some light on how Americans feel about insurance fraud. It helps
to explain why the car fires don't surprise firefighters:
- Nearly
one of four Americans say it's OK to defraud insurers, says a survey by
the consulting firm Accenture Ltd. Some 8 percent say it's "quite
acceptable" to bilk insurers, while 16 percent say it's "somewhat
acceptable." About one in 10 people agree it's OK to submit claims for
items that aren't lost or damaged, or for personal injuries that didn't
occur. Two of five people are "not very likely" or "not likely at all"
to report someone who ripped of an insurer. Click here for the complete study. Accenture Ltd. (2003)
- Nearly
one of 10 Americans would commit insurance fraud if they knew they
could get away with it. Nearly three of 10 Americans (29 percent)
wouldn't report insurance scams committed by someone they know. Progressive Insurance (2001)
- More than one of three
Americans say it's OK to exaggerate insurance claims to make up for the
deductible (40 percent in 1997). Insurance Research Council (2000)
Cemetery Metal Thefts
It
doesn't get much lower than this. In Florida, thieves have stolen metal vases from
cemetery burial sites. It is just one more indication of how much money
thieves stand to make these days by stealing metal like brass and
copper. (See previous Al's Morning Meeting stories about this trend.)
The South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale says:
Funeral
home managers think the thieves came to the cemeteries under the cover
of darkness, loaded up trucks with the vases, which cost family members
between $115 and $200, and sold them to scrap metal dealers. The stolen
vases, which stand about 10 inches tall and weigh at most 10 pounds,
could fetch between $6 and $14 each.
Cattle Thefts Rising
The Rural Blog
this week mentioned that cattle thefts are up, partly because beef
prices have been steadily strong for the last few years. Just to be
clear, we are not talking about tens of thousands of missing cattle.
Just to give you an idea about the size of the problem, The Cattleman magazine
tracks cattle thefts online. Contributing to the theft problem is the
fact that cattle auctions don't require much in the way of
identification or proof of ownership. The Associated Press reports:
Millions of dollars of stolen cattle have been recovered in the last two years in Oklahoma and Texas. And in Missouri,
a rash of thefts totaling more than $1 million -- also since 2004---
recently led the governor to create a special task force as lawmakers
have called for increased penalties for the culprits.
Back in the days of the Wild West,
cattle thieves sometimes paid for their crimes with a rope around the
neck. Now, they're more likely to get a slap on the wrist or prison if
it's a repeat offense or an especially large theft.
Some say rustling is on the rise because
of a 25 percent increase in beef prices in the last five years. Others,
though, say thieves are oblivious to market fluctuations and tend to be
common criminals -- some of them methamphetamine users -- looking for a
fast buck.
"It's financial problems. It's greed. It's to support a drug habit,"
[Joe] Rector, [an investigator who tools around the back roads of central
Oklahoma,] says. "It's just because they're there."
Cattle thieves are able to exploit a
world of absentee owners, busy auction barns and a way of doing
business that relies more on a handshake than paperwork. They usually
prey on smaller ranches and farms, and can pocket thousands of dollars
in no time.
"It's quick, it's good money and it's not hard if you know what you're doing," says John Bradshaw, a Texas
cattle investigator. "If you steal one cow worth $1,000, that pays your
house payment or a car. ... It may take 20 minutes .... You've got the
rest of the week to do your (legitimate) job. It's a good racket."
And unlike other crimes, Bradshaw says,
rustlers collect full value. "If you steal a TV and sell it, you might
get $30," he says. "With cattle, you're getting 100 percent what
they're worth."
U.S. Population to Hit 300 Million Soon
Scripps Howard News Service says it will happen in mid- or late October. The story says there won't be a celebration:
Unlike
the commemorations in 1967 when Americans hailed the 200 million mark,
federal authorities this year won't be building giant population clocks
as props for jubilant politicians. Nor will they encourage the news
media to locate the newborn who put the nation over the top.
Instead, critics of rapid growth will question anew whether America can remain prosperous while burgeoning
at the unprecedented rate of 1 million new residents every 127 days.
Others will angrily argue that the 300 millionth American very likely
will be an illegal immigrant.
Aware of the anxieties, the Bush administration
is low-key about the approaching population landmark. The only official
recognition planned so far is a modest press briefing by federal
demographic experts.
"We
won't style it as a celebration, particularly," Census Director [Charles] Louis
Kincannon said in an interview. "I don't think we will try to achieve
much theater."
Population experts aren't surprised.
"The
pressures associated with population growth are dominating our public
discussion with issues like traffic congestion, school overcrowding,
loss of open spaces and increases in municipal taxes," said Robert
Puentes, a scholar with the Metropolitan Policy Program at the
Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank. "It's not surprising no
one is celebrating this."
Foremost among the Bush administration's
fears of the coming landmark are concerns it will fuel renewed anger
among conservatives over federal immigration and border-security
policies. Immigrants accounted for about 40 percent of population
growth in recent years, and about half of them entered the United States illegally.
More from:
Background on the North Korean Missile
I hope you don't need this, but in case you do. The rocket North Korea is said to have fueled and readied for test fire is a Taepodong 2. (See photos.) GlobalSecurity.org says:
The Taep'o-dong-2 (TD-2) is said to be a two- or three-stage missile. North Korea
has given various names to the Taep'o-dong missile, such as No-dong-3,
Hwasong (Mars)-2 and Moksong (Jupiter)-2. Over time, the estimated
range has grown substantially. It was initially estimated to have a
range of 4,000 km, but is currently estimated to have a range of up to
15,000 km. (9,300 miles) The throw weight is variously estimated as
between a few hundred kilograms to 1,000 kg, depending on the range.
The Pentagon said in 1998 that North Korea was working on the missile. This is a 1999 satellite photo of what is suspected to be the launch facility. See a graphic of the missile.
Cool Umbrella
For those of you who write tech or gadget columns, don't miss the umbrella that also gives you the forecast. Ambient's Weather Forecasting Umbrella
(scroll down to the bottom of the page) receives weather alerts from Accuweather.
The handle of the $100
umbrella glows when rain is forecast. This is the coolest thing since
the WeatherBall, the giant glowing globe at WZZM-TV in Grand Rapids, Mich., that changes color with the weather forecast.
We are always looking for your great ideas. Send Al a few sentences and hot links.
Editor's Note: Al's Morning Meeting is a compendium of ideas,
edited story excerpts and other materials from a variety of Web sites,
as well as original concepts and analysis. When the information comes
directly from another source, it will be attributed and a link will be
provided whenever possible. The column is fact-checked, but depends
upon the accuracy and integrity of the original sources cited. Errors
and inaccuracies found will be corrected.
