Charlotte Protests/Riot Coverage

[rkolsen 1679]

And who's gonna foot that bill?

 

The station or do some trade. Not going to cost more than a few hundred dollars per crew.

 

Likely local stations may not be able to get a crew with needed experience in such short notice. I doubt a rent a cop would be very helpful in this situation.

[TSSZNews 1046]

WCNC reporter and cameraperson also taken to hospital

 

And I bet that's EXACTLY what prompted WSOC to pull back. I count at least *six* stories on Mediaite about how reporters on the scene were antagonized to varying degrees. I'd understand sticking around if we were fairly new to these confrontations, but once there's a reasonable risk of harm, all bets are off--as they should be.

[bhratbrat 423]

Reporter safety..considering apparently a photographer was nearly set on fire. That is just another level of scary. I could understand any station at that point saying no we are not going to put our reporters in this much risk. More than likely..COX probably told WSOC after seeing the situation said bring back your crews. This is too much risk.

[TheRob 920]

I had seen one tweet indicating a WSOC reporter-photog team were in the same location as the person who was shot, so that probably prompted the decision to remove the reporters from the field. The bad side of my brain thinks WSOC is more worried about lawsuits should an employee be injured, as opposed to employee safety.

[Rusty Muck 4225]

WCNC reporter and cameraperson also taken to hospital

They are from WLTX. Both went to Charlotte to aid WCNC's coverage.

[MEDIA=twitter]778621919218192384[/MEDIA]

[MEDIA=instagram]BKn6Hh5BOJH[/MEDIA]

[bhratbrat 423]

I had seen one tweet indicating a WSOC reporter-photog team were in the same location as the person who was shot, so that probably prompted the decision to remove the reporters from the field. The bad side of my brain thinks WSOC is more worried about lawsuits should an employee be injured, as opposed to employee safety.

 

Probably the cynical side of your brain. But in this case its a smart move. Yea they are probably worried about a lawsuit, but in the other side it also promotes employee safety and wins a few brownie points.

[elfuego35 89]

Probably the cynical side of your brain. But in this case its a smart move. Yea they are probably worried about a lawsuit, but in the other side it also promotes employee safety and wins a few brownie points.

 

Plus, WBTV showed that stations could have just as effective coverage using footage from their helicopter than their crews on the ground, with WBTV's ground footage being a block or two from the action the entire time.

[Eat News 4738]

 

WSOC announced on the air they had ordered their reporters back to the station. Something I just wouldn't see in a market like mine, Los Angeles.

 

They didn't want to pay the overtime.

[CLT-DCA-ORF-PTI 86]

Ok, I live in Charlotte, and I watched the WSOC coverage. They were on from 10:00pm until 12:30am, and there was someone in the Chopper, they had the Pilot giving reports periodically. The person they had downtown - (Paul Boyd, who I am not a fan of at all) and his photog were uptown covering the peaceful protests until the gunshots fired. The photog ran to help the victim, however rioters began to push him out of the way, the upper management made the decision to pull the reporters from uptown.

[atlnews2 563]

I had seen one tweet indicating a WSOC reporter-photog team were in the same location as the person who was shot, so that probably prompted the decision to remove the reporters from the field. The bad side of my brain thinks WSOC is more worried about lawsuits should an employee be injured, as opposed to employee safety.

 

 

Yes. A WSOC reporter was doing a facebook live feed when the person was shot just 50 feet from him. The policing expert who was with the reporter doing the facebook live feed tried to administer first aid (he's a trained EMT), but the protesters threatened to kill him when he tried to help.

 

Happens at about 20:30

[bhratbrat 423]

http://www.wcnc.com/mb/news/local/keith-scott-shooting/tv-crew-injured-in-thursday-night-riots/324043746

 

WCNC did a story about the sister station incident.

[cna247 173]

I have never seen Charlotte tv before. I've been through a number of riots. I thought MOST of their stations handled their coverage very poorly especially WSOC-TV.

 

I thought the best station was WCCB. Extended coverage until 11:30 PM EDT. Had 3 reporters live in the thick of things. Had local leaders on their set. I thought they were the most professional on the air.

 

WJZY coverage was very odd. They were broadcasting live online the 2 reporters they had in Uptown Charlotte talking about the set up for their live shot rather than the on-air live stream (for a while).

 

WSOC announced on the air they had ordered their reporters back to the station. Only the Chopper was in the air to show anything live (but no chopper reporter?). What kind of a news organization is that? Shameful. Not worthy of serving the community. But they sure loved to air their local ad breaks. Never missed a beat.

 

All of the local stations were saying for at least a 1/2 an hour or more after the cable news channels had backtracked that the individual shot was not dead but was on life support. I'd think in a local market they should have the connections to know that important fact first.

 

All the stations continued to air local commercials. Something I just wouldn't see in a market like mine, Los Angeles.

 

They should be doing their job for the community, reporting inside the riots. I don't recall reporters in the 60's in Vietnam or even more recently in Iraq being pulled back to the "station" for safety.

 

Yes, a CNN reporter was rushed into and pushed down hard.

 

There is NO excuse for a station to leave the area of local breaking news of incredible importance to the community. NONE. This is probably the biggest story of the year in Charlotte. No other station in Charlotte but WSOC-TV brought all their reporters back to the station. What kind of operation does that?

 

You obviously have never been in a riot. You can NOT get the same view of a riot - the sense & scenes of the crowd - from their air as you can on the ground. PERIOD.

 

Wasn't a problem for any of the other stations but WSOC-TV. They had a better perspective of the riot. What's the use of having a helicopter without a reporter, either?

 

Local stations should have, as well. I saw the reporters discussing their live shot on WJZY in the 10 PM EDT hour. They were not in any danger.

 

I was in the middle of the Rodney King riots in Los Angeles. You can not get the same perspective of reporting just watching from the air. In the air, you'd never know that all they were out to do in the area I was in was to loot (and they were happy not angry). It wasn't for any cause.

You seem very upset about not being in the know as to what's going on in Charlotte despite living on the opposite coast. Yes, jobs at times require employees to do potentially dangerous things. There is an actual danger in this scenario as people had already been shot during the riots. The station made the right choice, which is safety instead of "getting the story" here. If you are so damned concerned and want an inside look, drive there and immense yourself among the protesters. How dare you complain because someone didn't risk their lives to bring you coverage from 2500 miles away? Change the damn channel if you are dissatisfied with their coverage. SMH