Media Frenzy

By Rob Holbert Managing Editor

While the four children tragically thrown from the Dauphin Island Bridge were recently laid to rest last week, a bit of fallout from the coverage of the story lingers on.

Over the past several days, Lagniappe has been in contact with people on the scene who say one local news anchor took part in creating a “shrine” for the children that was then used as a backdrop or “bump shot” during the coverage.

According to a television reporter and a law enforcement officer who both claim to have been at the scene and who agreed to speak to Lagniappe anonymously, WPMI anchor Greg Peterson was involved in creating the shrine, which included photos of the children and lighted candles. It is an allegation WPMI News Director Michael McCormick vehemently denied.

“We did not set up a memorial,” McCormick said flatly.

While Lagniappe doesn’t prefer to rely on unnamed sources, the stories told by those who claim to have witnessed the event, as well as subsequent e-mails from others in the news business, are all very similar. A reporter at a competing station said the creation of the shrine was, “pretty disrespectful.”

“I saw it out of the corner of my eye at first. I saw him (Peterson) bending down to light something. I guess they wanted to set up a bump shot,” the reporter said. “I would never do it personally. I would be scared someone would walk up and think it was an actual memorial.”

The law enforcement officer who spoke with Lagniappe confirmed the story, saying he also saw Peterson lighting candles and setting up photos.

McCormick said he had heard the allegations prior to being contacted by Lagniappe, and he attributed them to sour grapes by other local stations upset by the superior job WPMI did covering the tragedy, although he did not offer a theory as to why a law enforcement officer would confirm the story. McCormick said competing stations have had meetings in recent days to discuss how WPMI covered the tragedy.

“We’ve upset some people in other news rooms,” McCormick said. “But we did not build a memorial to the children.”

A WPMI insider e-mailed Lagniappe after our interview with McCormick and said the news director has ordered all video with that particular scene removed from all of the station’s video tapes and made it clear it is not to go on the air again.

While the matter might seem minor to those not in the news business, experts in media ethics say if such a thing did in fact occur, it would represent a major breech in protocol.

“The rule is we don’t stage the news,” said Dr. Joe Glover, a professor in the University of South Alabama Communications Department who teaches broadcast journalism and ethics. “If you set up a shrine and photograph it and use it in a broadcast or newspaper, you’ve staged the news. If people find out, the next time, you’ve lost credibility.”

Glover said this type of story, if true, is unfortunately not completely unheard of in journalism. Perhaps one of the most famous examples was when NBC’s “Dateline” famously blew up a vehicle as part of a story it was doing on automobile safety.

“People lost credibility permanently,” Glover said. He added, “People do frequently get fired for something like this.”

WPMI ratings up

The claims of the memorial setup come at a time when WPMI is celebrating an increase in ratings. McCormick said the station, while still in fourth place overall, has made good strides in the latest quarterly ratings report.

“Looking at year-to-year, from November ‘06 through November ‘07, we’re the only news station with growth,” McCormick said. “In every time period we’ve got growth.”

As for why the ratings have grown, McCormick acknowledged that such measurements are tricky. Lead-in programming can have a major role in such changes, as well as viewers responding to what the station itself is doing. Of course, WPMI did fire its three main news anchors last year, an unusual move in the news business.

“This place has embraced a new strategy over the past 12 months,” McCormick said. “We’re getting back to the point where we’re competitive. We’re seeing progress. I think that’s what the numbers show.”

Come Back Home, for porn

Job seekers watching the NFL Network broadcast of the Senior Bowl Jan. 26 may have been in for a bit of a surprise if they watched one of the commercials carefully.

Mobile County ran an ad in very heavy rotation during the broadcast for its Come Back Home Mobile program. The ad featured County Commissioners Mike Dean and Stephen Nodine urging folks to come back to Mobile to live and work. During the broadcast a Web site URL was flashed up at two different points.

The first time the site came up, it was to www.comebacktomobile.com. The second time it was to www.comebackhometomobile.com.

Any viewers who typed in the first address would probably have been surprised at what they found, though. The comebacktomobile.com address delivers you to a site that, at first blush, looks like a job-related site. However, upon closer inspection there are several links to rather unsavory pornographic topics. Some job-seekers might be in that market, but most probably weren’t.

The correct site was the comebackhometomobile.com address, which does contain job information. The other site is apparently hoping to pick up traffic from anyone mistakenly typing the wrong address – or those following the instructions from a county-sponsored commercial.

The faux job site is registered to a name.com LLC.

Rob Holbert is Lagniappe managing editor. Contact him at rholbert@lagniappemobile.com.

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