I seem to remember that tv stations are licensed by the FCC. One of the mandates of that license is to serve the public.
Not having a viable news or emergency alert system maybe a violation of that license. There are two issues here, massive cost cutting and "using" amateur and citizen media to provide a news service at a cut rate. Not saying that the local citizens provide video is a bad thing. It might increase the level of community news 100 fold. But Clear Channel has money up the wazoo. They can't plead poverty. And if they get away with this it will migrate to other Clear Channel stations. Clear Channel has phantom radio stations around the country. Oh, one other thing. If you were a business in Santa Rosa would you have an employee or hire someone to cover a "news story" about your business? Can you smell the ascendancy of PR as news in Santa Rosa? This is getting interesting. Gena --- In [email protected], WWWhatsup <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > TONIGHT AT 11, NEWS BY NEIGHBORS > [SOURCE: San Francisco Chronicle 2/11, AUTHOR: Joe Garofoli] > Clear Channel's KFTY-TV in Santa Rosa (CA) has fired most of its news-gathering staff and, over the next few months, will be asking people in the community -- its independent filmmakers, its college students and professors, its civic leaders and others -- to provide programming for the station. Will they be paid? That's being worked out. Who will cover the harder-edged stories? Some will be culled from local newspaper and TV online sites and "other sources" that are still being discussed. "There will be a loss in local coverage, I'm not going to lie to you," says a Clear Channel executive. "But there are a lot of other places to get most of that information." > http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/02/11/MNGDEO2QOA1.DTL&hw=KFTY+TV > > > --------------------------------------------------------------- > WWWhatsup NYC > http://pinstand.com - http://punkcast.com > --------------------------------------------------------------- >
