NYC television stations are made of fail

[fenchurch]

On our local news at noon, they broke in with the news that a plane had crashed into the Hudson River... and since I was sitting at my computer, I googled television stations in NYC then started hitting those sites to see if I could get some local coverage (our local station had cut over to MSNBC). Now, let me also add that our local station's website already had it as a headline with links to coverage and more information... but even ten minutes into our local coverage *none* of the local NYC television news websites even had it as a single "breaking news" headline, much less any coverage.

Wow. Fail, guys. Massive, massive fail.

And, finally, at about 15 minutes after the news broke here, there was a headline at the ABC affiliate's site and an actual stream of coverage at the CBS affiliate. On the positive side, so far it sounds like they were able to evacuate the plane safely and early word is that the plane was hit by a flock of geese, which is probably what caused the crash.

ETA: I love how, near as I can tell, every single boat in the vicinity has rushed over to help evacuate survivors.

ETA2: Ah... the flight was eventually on its way to Seattle, which might explain why our local news outlets jumped on it so quickly. Still not sure why the NYC sites had such huge lag time on reporting it though.

Comments

[slm76.livejournal.com]

I've just got home and turned on Fox News. Wow, this isn't a minor incident. Apparently, there haven't been all that many bird-related crashes in the world.

And yeah, I love about the ferries as well. You had businessmen in suits being first responders and that's fantastic.

This reminds me of the plane that went into the Potomac one winter. Sadly, that didn't have as good an ending.

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I'm just watching this on MSNBC. I was watching SciFi while I edited, but I got an e-mail news alert from the New York Times. I, too, love it that the ferries were the first responders. And that pilot did an amazing job, bringing it down in the river rather than into one of the incredibly populated areas all around. And I'm so grateful that this seems to be a more positive story - they're saying they believe everyone survived - than the winter crash a few years back in the Potomac. I'm still haunted by the video of the unknown man who, instead of letting himself be rescued, stayed in the water and kept helping other people out until the cold overtook him and he slipped beneath the water.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

That pilot was amazing! By all the accounts I've heard so far, he essentially *landed* the plane on the water... essentially a very controlled crash, exactly the sort of thing you want to have happen. Just amazing.

And I know what you mean about the crash on the Potomac...

[nutmeg3.livejournal.com]

I know! He somehow kept control and came in at a shallow, gliding angle. Just incredible. I hope he gets a huge bonus from the airline.

[omahastar.livejournal.com]

That's ... odd. We had a "breaking news" alert here on our Omaha news sites within a few minutes of the crash, and NYC's local stations had nothing? What's up with that? Tsk Tsk

[reality-hammer.livejournal.com]

Our local stations update their web site with flunkies who only work certain hours. :P

[textualdeviance.livejournal.com]

Yep. That's pretty common across the industry. They let their reporters write the stories, which usually takes a while, then they either hand that (horrifyingly bad) copy directly off to someone who will just push a button to upload it, or to some marginally competent Web editor.

Newspaper sites are almost universally better for breaking local news.

[fenchurche.livejournal.com]

The thing that really surprised me was that there wasn't even a headline at any of those sites (something that I've seen on local sites quite often in the past... just an announcement and placeholder for the eventual full story). Maybe I'm just spoiled by our local television news websites or something, but I was a bit shocked at how slow the NYC sites were to respond.

[gillo]

Just watched it on our ten o'clock news - amazing achievement on the part of the pilot. Weird that the sites weren't updating, though.

[i-am-frail.livejournal.com]

Sort of like the jumper today on the Tacoma Narrows Bridge. Think you'll find that online anywhere? Oh, Kitsap Sun had a blurb about it because I *called* them to ask what was up.

(My friend was driving to Ft. Lewis and saw the guy on the bridge & emergency patrol trying to get him down while she was stuck in traffic...)

[saifai.livejournal.com]

Wow. Geese, huh? Weird. And also scary, I'll have to check the news tonight to see how it looks for survivors and what not.

[anirt.livejournal.com]

Huh! I had exactly the opposite take as you. I turned on the TV-radio at 3pm CST, and all the stations had interrupted normal programming to blather on about the landing, so I tuned to NPR to get the story, which they managed to sum up in two sentences: probably birds, no one seems to be hurt. Which then gave me the impression that it was overkill to have an hour on an emergency landing where no one was hurt *in another city*; it felt like the NYC local news had hijacked my local TV stations for an hour.