Gotta love watching your Home Town Channel broadcasting the news. For the life of me I can't understand how someone living in, say, Greenwood considers news from Pea Ridge relevant to their "Home Town". Among my many wishes in life is how I would love, just once, someone from either Channel 40/29 or Channel 5 to simply tell the truth and say; "We know Fort Smith brought us to the dance, but there's a much-prettier girl wanting us to take her home." At least the local NBC affliliate had the courage to say: "NWA: Up, Fort Smith: Down". You have to admire the honesty in that. Of course the local ABC and CBS stations do occasionally venture back down the hill to cover stories like meth lab explosions, Mayberry-esque political wranglings, and the occasional shotgun-wedding or tractor pull.
But I have to at least give Channel 5 props for actually reporting news. This "Big Story" concept which Channel 40/29 leads with every night is an example of bombastic claptrap at its finest. It's never news. And the "Big Story" seems to always be centered in NWA. Want proof? "Top Story" on 40/29s website today: "Catfish Costs Skyrocket". Are you kidding me? Hey 40/29, save the expose. Okay?
I take back my first wish. That'll never happen. Instead, tonight, I would love for both KFSM and KHBS to give the weather for Fort Smith............first.
OFC.
2 comments:
Of the TV stations, I think KFSM does the best job of covering Fort Smith -- in terms of story count and depth of understanding ongoing issues. Much of that is because KFSM seems to have some staff stability -- on camera and in the newsroom. KFSM is, sometimes, prone to slipping in an errant fact here and there.
KHBS seems to be pretty accurate in covering Fort Smith news. Sometimes it seems most of the stories come from cop shop news releases. It's difficult to mess up the facts when they're so easily accessible.
In the not too far distant future, the only local news and opinion will come from blogs like this.
Rumor has it that 40 is shuttering its Fort Smith offices and moving operations to NWA. Not sure if that means the newsroom will go completely dark or not. It's a big building to just house a few employees, though.
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