TO: the Channel 30 news staff
FROM: Mike Oz's loyal minions at the Beehive
RE: the regrettable case of amnesia that appears to have struck someone at your station
Hey, Channel 30 folks, we're quite concerned over here on E Street about the neurological condition of your fine correspondent DeShaunta Bullock, who managed to file an entire report about the Red Zone Sports Grill offensive-gay-comment controversy without once mentioning the Beehive or Mike Oz, who was the guy who started the whole thing.
Just to be clear here: Mike heard the ad on the radio. It ticked him off. He wrote a blog post. Readers started commenting. More readers commented. A groundswell of opposition arose. A local group, SAFE (Straight Advocates for Equality), got in on the act. Within a day, the restaurant was revising the ad and posting an apology on its Web site.
Curiously, however, the Channel 30 report -- which ran SECOND on the 6 p.m. Thursday newscast, right after Michael Jackson, and included one of those exciting "live from the newsroom!" intros -- didn't mention the Beehive at all!
Now, we understand that TV stations crib stuff from newspapers all the time, and sometimes (shock) they don't give credit. And we don't want to inflate the importance of this issue, which, frankly, we're surprised got played up so much on your station in the first place. But this wasn't news so much as an act of the blogosphere that started with Mike, who was playing Mr. Grumpy that day, actually sparking the story in the first place. Just to be clear: The chronology went from Mike complaining to readers fomenting protest to restaurant backing down to second position on the 6 o'clock news. The Channel 30 reporter even called Mike and asked him -- get this! -- for a copy of the radio commercial. And the SAFE spokesperson who spoke on camera tells us that she told Channel 30 that her organization found out about the radio ad from the Beehive -- but that part didn't get used in the broadcast report.
We know that Channel 30 would never be so tender about acknowledging local sources that it would deliberately leave out a mention of the little ol' Beehive, so we can only conclude that someone at your station, either your reporter or her editor, is ill. How else would so many important and relevant neurons mysteriously disappear from that person's brain? We can only offer our best wishes -- and hope that she or he gets better really, really soon.
What he said.
ooooooh snap!
This is so funny! You are so right, Mike Oz deserves crazy props for getting SAFE involved in this campaign.
But Donald, why the hating on the story? It soooo deserved second place on the news! We will not tolerate homophobia!
Man I detest ABC30, even though I do have a couple friends who work there. Come on guys, no one is writing about your financial woes or lack of leadership...
We can take it to the internet if we have to and I'm going to say that you'll LOSE before the word "GO"!
We'll test it on Twitter now.... Ready, Set, (You Lose)!
Thank you for fighting for my honor, Mr. Donald Munro.
Peter Cetera/Karate Kid II FTW
Nicely put.
Donald, you are so added to my new hero list.
At least they should give Mike an ABC 30 coffee mug or a Graciela Moreno autograph pic or something for straight out biting. On the streets where I'm from (Firebaugh), this stuff wouldn't fly! Pelted with cantaloupe, the station would be!
please. like the bee has never lifted stories from new stations. in fact, i know reporters that...gasp...have told me that even the mighty mike oz has redone stories they did...without giving them a mention.
the story channel 30 did investigated the controversy, took it's own angles, and brought people into the conversation that weren't present in mike oz's story or subsequent online dialog.
i still give kudos to mike oz for breaking the story, and the reporter who did the story (not someone i know) for channel 30 should have given mention of the controversy coming to light through the work of the fresno bee's online content (not the print bee). did oz write an article for the bee about it? was there any mention in the paper? will there be? will they credit the work done online?
and i'll be dead honest, i told a friend channel 30 about the story on the beehive, asked him if he had heard about it. that may have started them rolling on the story. they didn't credit me, local blogger, for notifying them of something significant happening. should i be upset? i mean, it's not like when this happened.
This is rich coming from the guy who cries like a baby whenever his blog/podcast isn't mentioned on the Beehive -- or even when it is.
The fact you're demanding credit for that NoTown story now shows that it bugged you, and still bugs you.
Plus you want credit for giving Channel 30 the Red Zone story in the first place? Really?
I'd say from a journalistic perspective that there's a difference in reporting on the same story from a different angle, and completely neglecting to report on the genesis of the story.
News outlets often report on the same topics -- when news happens in court or at an event or when Fresno Uncensored 2 comes out, whatever. There is no need to acknowledge other news outlets there. We all cover this city, we overlap, it happens. You do your own story and you move on, no big deal. But this is a case where the news they're reporting was made here, on this blog.
If the basis of your story is that "people are offended," don't you owe it to your readers/viewers to give the proper perspective on who those people are?
On another note: The same thing happened when I found that Prius ad making fun of Fresno and every news outlet in town ran with it. I'm not mad about it. It's an honor actually.
mike,
did the paper run a story on the issue? i didn't see it online, and haven't read a hardcopy in a few days.
I think people are forgetting that it wasn't initially a "story" -- it was a rant. Mike didn't have his journalist hat on, he was expressing his disappointment, his opinion. And then other people chimed in, and it affected the restaurant's promotion.
The "story" is that a bunch of people commented on a blog, and change was made. Not mentioning the blog -- the impetus for the change -- that's just bad reporting.
I have nothing to add to this. It's spot on.
what's the difference? i ask because i'm not a journalist. is the difference that a story is devoid of any personal feeling? at the basic level, i understand that a rant is you venting your feelings, done here in a public manner.
if that's the case, were muckraking reporters like upton sinclair only telling stories? (and i'm not just talking about his work in the jungle.)
because honestly, what you did here mike was journalism. you saw an injustice in our town, reported on it, mixed in with your reflections on it and prop 8, which i would say are connected. i wouldn't say the rant was a fully developed story, but it was a part of the story. and, channel 30 ran with the story. why didn't the bee?
I'm not a journalist, either, but I'd guess the difference is, had he been doing a story, he would have contacted both the Blaze and Red Zone to get their side, for starters.
let me take a moment to clarify something i said as well as respond to what hmac & mike has said in response.
"i know reporters that...gasp...have told me that even the mighty mike oz has redone stories they did...without giving them a mention."
no one said to me that mike plagiarized anything. i did not intend in any way to say that mike plagiarized anything. they felt that a story that had originally been done by their outlet was being retold in the bee, without saying that someone else did it first.
as for me linking back to the notown post, it was more to point out how easily this happens when you have many sources reporting/creating stories/whatever. i'm not demanding credit for that story or this one. i only asked if i should've been credited for in the channel 30 story because as far as i know i may have been the first person to notify them of the story. i do not know that to be factually correct. but, hmac, i do want to point out that in that thread that mike did credit me with a link, and apologize for using the same words. again, not saying mike stole my post, just pointing out how easy it is for multiple places to do similar stories, be inspired by someone else intentionally or otherwise, and so on.
as i in my initial comment (go back and read it, you will see it's there all along) i think channel 30 should have mentioned and credited where the controversy was happening, which is where i agree with mike's comment to my original post.
I have to say, I saw the Channel 30 News cast last night and was waiting for them to acknowledge Mike's blog. Heck, Mike even took it to Facebook, and got a lot of reaction from it there as well! (Talk about starting a story!) I have found myself checking out all the blogs on the Beehive a lot more lately, as I am always captivated by everyone's take on things! I may or may not agree on any of the blogs, but it is informative, and sometimes other opinions have made me reevaluate my opinion of certain subjects! Please keep up the great work Beehive!
One station is rarely allowed to even follow up on Bee or competitors' stories. If I were a "loyal viewer" I'd be pissed if I knew that. Gimme the friggin' news! I don't care who had it first!
But the classic, still repeated frequently, is...."according to a local newspaper." (!)
Word.
i guess it's proof that no one here watches channel 47, but rumor has it that they also did a story on wednesday after mike oz first reported the issue.
Hi, Ed. Your rumor's unfounded. I do hope you tune in to CBS47, though. We've always showed mad love for the Beehive, doing stories ON the bloggers and always giving them credit when they lead us toward a story...
Ed, do you have specific instances that Mike Oz has stolen stories? Please - give credit where credit is due or stop throwing around bogus info.
zara,
thanks for clarifying. when i'm home, i do watch the 47 news at noon, but prefer 30's evening show.
farah,
as to mike oz stealing stories, i never said that. please reread my original comment, as well as subsequent comment and you will see that i said mike and others at the bee have done stories previously done by other outlets. i agreed with mike that they should have credited that he was the first news outlet to bring up the issue, and that's where the controversy was happening.
outside of saying i heard a rumor about 47 doing the story on wednesday, nothing i said was bogus.
Like when I would listen to KMJ in the am, and they basically would read stories from the Bee!!!
(I don't know about lately as I am not an am commuter anymore)
You people are completely insane, who cares where the story originated from. Every story originally comes from some newspaper or TV station and all the others follow, it’s the nature of the business. You can’t me that every time a story is followed by numerous sources that they all credit the 10 or 20 sources that added to the original story.
See above re: not a story -- a blog rant.
The idea isn't about crediting sources. It's that the story was undercut to leave out The Beehive.
Let's put it this way: If Ed's blog was the one who where all this happened, I'm guessing he would have been a part of the TV news story, right? At least mentioned. It's called "background." (But I presume you know this, because I'm pretty sure you work in the biz).
To quote, Heather -- who is not a journalist, but certainly understands: "The 'story' is that a bunch of people commented on a blog, and change was made. Not mentioning the blog -- the impetus for the change -- that's just bad reporting."
Once again, for the record, I don't care that the local media outlets take stories from each other. As you say, it is the nature of the business. They do it, we do it.
There's one reporter at ABC30 who joked about it to me at Livingstone's the other night. What I like about that guy is that he fully acknowledges this stuff happens and doesn't act like we don't exist.
Oh, and for the record Pt. 2:
Here are one, two and three recent blog posts where I linked to ABC-30. Sharing is caring, y'all.
Your logic is flawed in that you're eliminating plagiarism from the equation, even almost indicating that it's okay to take others work and not give proper credit where it's due. That doesn't seem to be the charge here but rather that journalistic ethics seemed to have been ignored by the person/persons doing the story over at ABC 30.
I'm even sure if the reporter was to make a friendly phone call or gesture towards the originator, all this would have been avoided. Professional courtesy, that's all. Unless Mike is looking for that "Em-effin' movie check" from ABC 30 :)
Girls, girls, girls! (using my Mrs. Garrett voice), all this bickering over who gets credit. You know what, this sounds like a story! If this does happen to make a story, I called it!
LOL!!!!
-what I'm not hearing mentioned a whole lot?
SAFE sent out a 'special alert' ('action alert') bulliten via Facebook regarding the airing of the 'anti-gay' infomercial from Sunday Night.
--It was followed up by another Email congratulating SAFE members for contacting the station and demanding that it be pulled,
--and it was said that a 'flip side' to the issue (Bible Tells me So) was to be aired with an apology.
VERY SOON AFTER
-SAFE again send out an 'action alert' citing Mike Oz's remarks re: the commercial.
--It was then followed up (very quickly) with a congratulatory Email stating that the commercial would be altered.
(I'm curious how much SAFE is 'in this' and how effective the group is.
(This could be a good and effective group, here.)
(last few Emails I got by them?
-stated they were running 200+ strong (possibly 300.)
--but they were very direct in asking members to 'flood' the switchboards (so to speak,) to voice their dissapproval.
-So, again, bravo,
--but I'm wondering how much of this was SAFE, (are we talking hundreds of calls?
a few 'key' people?
several thousand?)
--that somebody is actually 'doing' something is important.
(Personally)
I care more that the community (via whatever information system) is responding to the negativity and seeking to see it corrected
(and are not just apathetic.)
Getting all pissy about
'who said what, who's crediting whom,' like this was some big 'scoop,'
is just Juvenile.
-In a town that is noted for slamming and disrespecting gay people,
-two situations are rectified and changed,
-and the concern is 'was the Bee credited?'
Are you kidding me?
This is friggin' Fresno.
Burn a house down?, walk a dog?, have a car accident?
It happens in front of EVERYBODY at once, and all ten reporters (and half the town sees it at the same time, with major coverage.
(Expect a little overlap.)
There is only one paper in this whole valley, (despite what others think,)
-somebody from it isn't mentioned, and it's a big deal?
In a few days? something else exciting will happen, they'll get credited then... (and life in the fishbowl goes on.)
The goal?
-not WHO delivers the news,
-so long as it's FACTUAL,
(and more)
--that it informs and motivates people.
If Oz did this?
Great. Good job,
(He's doing his job, he's getting paid and recognized, good.)
I see a LOT of contributing factors in this that need to be refined and maximised on, (if there's going to be any growth and change in this (and otehr areas.)
-Sad part? The real issue is being overshadowed, (which is counterproductive, immature, and stupid.)
Dear wet towel,
I am Kelli Glazebrook, the Outreach and Education Coordinator for SAFE (Straight Advocates For Equality). You may have seen me on the ABC 30 story regarding Red Zone.
SAFE is a relatively new group, founded directly after Prop 8 passed in November of last year. We have been working hard to garner increased visibility as well as increased membership. At our last meeting in June, we just began asking for dues for paying members and we are still collecting those. So I can't really give you a count of dues-paying members. But we do have over 300 friends on Facebook and a large email list. When we send out action alerts, we really don't have a method of tracking how many people respond, but we do know that we get results.
KMPH, Blaze 105.1, and Red Zone have all acknowledged receiving lots of calls and emails when we tell our followers to contact them. So many emails and calls, that it often will jam their phone lines and overhwhelm their inboxes. So we know we are having an impact. And we are getting quick responses.
Of course, myself and others may be more involved in talking with the media as well as the managers of these businesses. But these conversations wouldn't happen at all without all those calls and emails. If you would like to see the email communication we received from KMPH, Blaze 105.1, Red Zone, and Fresno State (in response to Red Zone's ad), email me at:
glazebrookgirl AT gmail DOT com
And if you would like to meet me and other members of SAFE, we are going to be at a fundraiser for Camp Courage from 2-4pm at the Teazer's in the downtown Galleria today. We will have a table there. Bring a friend and enjoy tea, apps, music, and fun!
(Kelli)
Hi.
I really appreciate (not) just the personal note, but the information you stated.
I like that you guys exist.
I like that you guys are effective, and cohesive.
(That impresses me.)
I'm sure our paths will cross some time, as this is a small town, and we both have key things in common.
What's cool?
A bunch of people thinking, doing, and actually acting on their convictions in an intelligent and unified manner, (in the name of caring for others just because they exist, not because everyone's 'alike.')
Thanks, again, for the work you do.
Sincerely
Eric L. Field
Mike,
When's your birthday?
I have an ABC-30 mug that I'd like to pass on to you. Albeit, a secondhand gift(probably with some coffee stainage), but a well-deserved one.
Mind you, it'll be a gift from me alone, and I don't like to speak for anyone else, but I think it's safe to say almost everyone who reads you appreciates the work you do, whether acknowledged on air or in person or not at all.
CBS 47 would have mentioned you...I'm just saying. Hey Mike, can I call you Mikey? I will get you a CBS 47 mug from which you can enjoy your morning-cup-of-joe and or Baileys from.
It happens all the time. Get over it.
wow, jimguy, bee crime (?) writer saying get over it. he had better watch out for snoopy cracking the proverbial whip.