Aggregate Saturday:

Aggregate Saturday:

Hardly know where to begin.
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No idea what national TV media have done with the storm story. Two reasons for this. Three local TV operations for various reasons pre-empted all Network to offer live 24/7 coverage. I know this was probably a good choice. But somehow it seems more real when you see Diane Sawyer tramping around in the muck. CNN had some, The Weather Channel too, but I wanted to see how the big boys covered us, if only to hear “Hard scrabble coal country” one more time.
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Speaking of national media the NY Times, just today ran ny-region-in-triage-mode-as-flooding-persists way back in the New York section. We never made the front page. It mentioned Wilkes-Barre but only in passing.
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We are on high ground and all of ours are as well. I have a close friend who was evacuated but since, at least till now, the levees have held, his place seems safe.
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The Local TV stations:

WNEP did a slick glossy job utilizing all their considerable resources, putting Marisa Burke up in a chopper (remember when 16 had “SKY CAM 16”?) and even dragged out David DeCosmo to comment. But…the station had limited video and repeated it to the point of nausea. I know that people tune in out but if you were glued to the TV as we were it became very irritating.

16 had spotty coverage from the EMA center in Wilkes-Barre, missing several pretty important events. Their coverage was augmented heavily by FACEBOOK photos and videos which calls to question the need for them to be much more than conduits. It’s something to think about

WBRE did a credible job up until they had to evacuate the South Franklin studios for a mystery “other studio” which turned out to be the stations’ remote truck parked outside FOX56. Then it became college TV but not as funny. At one point they had three audio streams on the air at once, someone editing a video, someone shouting instructions and the anchors being mostly drowned out. I know it must have been traumatic. I get that it was thrown together. But it went on for a LONG time. It points out the fact that in this day and age of digital TV with it’s inherent delay no one is watching the on air product.

Having said that: because WBRE had limited…everything…they did a remarkable job. And they had tireless Andy Mahalchik who must have a large stock of high grade stimulants as he seemed to be on all the time, without rest. Mahalchik was in front of the EMA story and WBRE had all the biggies on camera on a regular basis.

And…having said that. It must have been awful for WBRE. It was, at times, very painful to watch, but it was real. They also used a lot of social media but were apparently unable to get as much on the air as 16.

WYOU simlucast WBRE. I wouldn’t watch WVIA if they sent me pledges.
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I heard no radio. I wanted pictures. Sorry former colleagues. A flood needs video.
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Steve Urban may have been tired. Maybe he needs to get laid. Possibly he is not as unpleasant a prick as he came off in every interview he did. Like it’s beneath his dignity to stand and talk to the media and he has to be right. Like all the media people are a waste of his time and just stupid. Well, he was quite often wrong and the final tally of how high the water got showed him to be the big blowhard he is. When he was questioned about the size of the levees being 41 feet high he snapped “They are higher than that.” Oh? I guess we don’t need to know how much higher, huh, Stevie. Andy Mahalchik read a number back wrong to him, transposing the last two decimal places and Urban snarled at him. Urban is the Bob Kadluboski of city government. And not in a good way.
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And about that water. The gauge failed? First of all, I don’t believe it. It’s a coverup and they knew all along the crest was going to be enormous, well above what they told us and so they blamed the gauge. And second of all…there is only ONE gauge? I may be stupid but I am not Steve Urban.
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I hardly know where to end. How about here.