all_we_know_is_FALLING wrote:The news stations in Memphis aired the high school video about 100x.
Speaking of the Caruthersville tornado, local media has APPALLING coverage on April 2. Not a single news station broke through when a massive F3 tornado was destroying Marmaduke, AR.. and even during the warning for Dunklin county. As the tornado was hitting Caruthersville they broke through, but only because a tornado warning was issued for Cross County, much closer to Memphis. As people were dying in Dyer and Gibson counties, they aired nonstop coverage from cameras on I-40 as a tornadic supercell moved through Crittenden county, but hardly mentioned anything about what was occurring in NW TN.
I applaud our CBS-affiliate (WREG CHANNEL 3) for doing outstanding work, but the other stations sucked.
I already replied to you in another thread, but I'm going to post again here. Here, I disagree strongly with what you say...
Again as said in my other thread I have most everything on tape so I have a pretty good idea of what transpired...
WMC came on the air very shortly after hearing of Marmaduke, and never went off until nearly Midnight that night. I believe Dunklin County just had gone under the tornado warning. NO OTHER STATION (in Memphis) has a responsibility to Greene County AR as they are not a part of their viewing area, to expect coverage from them on Marmaduke as the tornado was occurring is absurd. I'm one of those people who hate the people calling and complaining of coverage when its highly needed, but even I would be upset if a news station was covering a storm not only outside the DMA, but outside the entire viewing area!
WREG went on the air I think with the Pemiscot Warning, and Cross was shortly therafter, when the other stations followed. As said in the other thread, when the tornadic cell was in Memphis, it got a majority of coverage though the northern cell was still not ignored, and this is to be expected. You have to keep in mind viewers who are watching, the vast majority will be from the Memphis metro area. See my other post about video. I would have loved it if they had video from the northern cell, but if they don't have it from there they will go to where there is video. Its not the greatest of ideas, but thats how TV works. Its all about the visual...
Gibson County is not in the Memphis DMA, so coverage should naturally be lighter. Still, most stations stayed on the air with that cell and focused solely on it since the Memphis Metro cell was long dissipated.
I have tapes here that show the happenings, so I have a pretty good idea of how things went down. The April 2 coverage excellent IMO.