I woke up around 7:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, turned on the television and saw FOX 11 news fill my television screen. As I was rushing to get dressed for school, I glanced at my TV and noticed that a car chase was occurring. From what I saw, the car was dodging police along with other cars on the road and sped past pedestrians while TV cameras kept rolling and followed the driver extensively.
He slammed into another car and jumped out, and more than a dozen police officers surrounded the heavyset driver. They had to tackle him to the ground while they attempted to arrest him.
Car chases in Los Angeles are shown often on news programs, but before I gathered my things to leave, I looked at the bottom of the screen and noticed that the car chase was not in California. It was taking place in Dallas.
Why would a news program cover a car chase occurring in another state? It is bad enough that stations cover car chases here in California. I do not know if Dallas news programs were covering it, but if they weren’t, I wouldn’t be surprised.
Car chases can be exciting, but after living in Los Angeles County and seeing them so many times, it gets a little old. I have to admit that it is important to know that the driver in a car chase may be armed and dangerous and people in the surrounding area should be aware, but sometimes broadcast news takes it a little too far.
I remember when a car chase occurred in my neighborhood about three years ago. The news anchor said something similar to, “The driver is now traveling north on Avalon Boulevard in the city of Carson.” As a resident of that city, I immediately jumped up and thought, “Where are they exactly?” I looked in the sky to spot any police or news helicopters circling the area. I listened carefully for any police sirens nearby. About 10 minutes later, the news anchor stated that the driver was on Turmont Street, which is extremely close to my home. I wanted to go outside and see if the driver would come near my home, but at the same time I did not want to end up being a victim in a car chase.
But, now that I am in the print news business, that car chase should not have been breaking news. I think people know news stations cover car chases to have their ratings jump sky high, because they put all of their efforts into getting coverage and commentary on them.
In this case, was FOX 11 honestly covering it to inform California residents? I really don’t think so. How would that affect us? Probably not at all. They might have an explanation about the Dallas car chase coverage, but from my point of view, they could have done better.
As an editor, we receive all types of press releases and news ideas and we have to figure out what is considered newsworthy for the Cal State Long Beach community. We have to ask ourselves, “What do students, faculty and staff care about?” In our case, proximity is an important factor when considering coverage of a news story.
Broadcast news has a much shorter deadline than print media, but they should have really considered proximity as well, and in this case, and they should have asked themselves, “How will this affect California residents?”
Starr T. Balmer is a senior journalism major and editor in chief for the Daily Forty-Niner.