ratings stunts
Yesterday the local ABC/Belo affiliate, WHAS, decided that it would be a good idea to attempt to "infiltrate" a local high school in the wake of all these school shootings.
They ordered some production peon to sneak into Atherton, where zilly works. A student let the guy in and he wandered around until accosted by an administrator. The guy then went to the office where he signed in, but then he went wandering off again and the cops were called. The school was on lockdown briefly. For some reason the WHAS flunky was not arrested but instead cited for trespassing.
As a teacher, parent and former member of the Media, I'm annoyed with this stunt.
As a teacher I don't like the idea of dealing with a lockdown-induced panic in my classroom.
As a parent, I can easily imagine how freaked out parents of Atherton students might be if their kids frantically called them on cell phones during school hours: "Omigod Mom, we're on lockdown! There's an intruder in the building!"
As a former employee of WHAS I can't believe that they would pull such stupid, irresponsible shit. Oh wait, yes I can.
Here is WHAS' original report on the story. Their defensive "we were just testing JCPS security" crap is ridiculous, but get this -- they were feeling so insecure about their stupid stunt that they ran TWO MORE STORIES about it today! They are here and here.
The "local" (Gannett) newspaper did a modest article on the story, but the local NBC/Raycom affiliate did a much better job of raking WHAS over the coals.
I hope this story has legs. What WHAS did wasn't journalism, even by the abysmal standards of local TV news. It was a stunt, pure and simple, worthy of some stupid-ass "reality" show. I can't believe that a distinguished journalist like Mark Hebert was somehow roped into defending this crap.
It would have been hilarious if Atherton had a school "safety officer" (read: armed cop) who Maced/Tazed, tackled and cuffed the intruder first and asked questions later.
They ordered some production peon to sneak into Atherton, where zilly works. A student let the guy in and he wandered around until accosted by an administrator. The guy then went to the office where he signed in, but then he went wandering off again and the cops were called. The school was on lockdown briefly. For some reason the WHAS flunky was not arrested but instead cited for trespassing.
As a teacher, parent and former member of the Media, I'm annoyed with this stunt.
Here is WHAS' original report on the story. Their defensive "we were just testing JCPS security" crap is ridiculous, but get this -- they were feeling so insecure about their stupid stunt that they ran TWO MORE STORIES about it today! They are here and here.
The "local" (Gannett) newspaper did a modest article on the story, but the local NBC/Raycom affiliate did a much better job of raking WHAS over the coals.
I hope this story has legs. What WHAS did wasn't journalism, even by the abysmal standards of local TV news. It was a stunt, pure and simple, worthy of some stupid-ass "reality" show. I can't believe that a distinguished journalist like Mark Hebert was somehow roped into defending this crap.
It would have been hilarious if Atherton had a school "safety officer" (read: armed cop) who Maced/Tazed, tackled and cuffed the intruder first and asked questions later.