Shallow end of Miami TV News pool: Will it ever swim in the deep-end for one entire newscast and resist the siren song of dopey chick stories? No!

Shallow end of Miami TV News pool: Will it ever swim in the deep-end for one entire newscast and resist the siren song of dopey chick stories?
No!

News stories on TV about important public policy issues, in this case, votes on the future of red-light cameras in Broward County, who needs it?!
So seems the message from the hard-to-figure folks at Miami's Channel 4 News, WFOR-TV.

One week after News4 aired nothing about the vote on red-light cameras at the Broward County Commission last Tuesday morning on that night's 11 o'clock newscast...

Which, itself, came one week to the day after only WSVN-TV/Channel 7 News, in the form of Reed Cowan and his cameraman, bothered to send someone to cover the hugely embarrassing PR fiasco of a whitewash in Hollywood that Jennifer Gottlieb and Ann Murray of the Broward School Board attempted to perpetrate on the public...

...Channel 4 News did TWO separate stories on breast milk in one newscast.

Tuesday night, we once again saw the news judgment of the guy who replaced blog favorite Adrienne Roark as News4 News Director after she moved up and on to WFAA-TV in Dallas a year ago this month.

Message received!

Yes, we got the "Are you wearing the right size bra?"
Really.
Yes, that chick chestnut that all East Coast TV markets get at least once a year..

Yes, of course, it was a Lisa Petrillo story, how did you ever guess?
Oh right -past experience!

So, do you think a female Ralph Renick could get a job now in Miami TV if she wasn't willing to do the kind of tripe that is so commonplace in Miami TV?
Not any time soon from the looks of things.

Oh well, lest you completely give up hope completely, somebody from the world of Miami TV actually bothered to show-up last Tuesday morning to play grown-up reporter and report the news and that was WPLG-TV/Local10's Roger Lohse.

Here's his thorough story:
Red Light Camera Expansion Hits Roadblock -A plan to expand the number of red light cameras in Broward County has been put on hold
http://www.justnews.com/news/27046307/detail.html
Here's the video: http://www.justnews.com/video/27049351/index.html

I will have a LOT more to say soon about what transpired at that Broward County Commission meeting last Tuesday, perhaps even some video clips highlighting some particularly embarrassing low-lights that some people in the audience felt the need to email and text me about as it was happening.
My favorite excerpt was this one from someone whose identity will have to remain a secret:

You're missing quite the show.

Joy Cooper is in rare form.

Oh yes, Mayor Cooper's curious performance and equally curious choice of words, where her words at times seemed like "perjury" in the words of some HB and Broward residents viewing the show in person and at home told me later.
THAT will definitely get the overdue scrutiny it deserves that it DIDN'T get in the Miami Herald last Wednesday.

Oh, did you miss that?
One week later, the Herald has STILL NOT managed to put together an original story or column about what happened that day and what the future holds for roughly 45% of its readers.

Here it is, excerpted from the Sun-Sentinel's story by Brittany Wallman, since the Herald didn't bother to send their own reporter.
I've highlighted below in blue what the Herald actually printed.

South Florida Sun-Sentinel
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fl-redlight-decision-20110301,0,1201570.story
Red-light camera expansion on hold
By Brittany Wallman, Sun Sentinel
6:30 PM EST, March 1, 2011

If red-light cameras are going to pop up all over Broward County, the cities would have to put up red-light countdown clocks and enforcement warning signs, and all would have to enforce the same way.
That's what Broward County commissioners said they would want before they'd give the go-ahead to a major expansion in the controversial program.

Drivers in Broward routinely run late yellow lights or fresh reds, camera advocates say. They think red lights mean "STOPtional,'' one officer complained Tuesday.

A vote that would have allowed red-light cameras to proliferate was postponed at least 30 days so Broward's cities, the county and the camera vendor can hash out a standardized, cross-county way to treat drivers.

Commissioners also indicated they would want to collect a fee. They'd want cities to agree not to ticket drivers making right turns on red, as well.
While those details are worked out, the county's staff will explore an alternative: making drivers sit an extra two seconds at the red light to clear the intersection before the signal turns green.

Reader comments at:
http://discussions.sun-sentinel.com/20/soflanews/fl-redlight-decision-20110301/10