I don’t mean to dismiss Susannah Frame’s series on KING-5 News exposing millions of dollars of alleged waste and mismanagement in the state ferry system, but really Susannah… get over yourself.
When she sat down with Gov. Chris Gregoire to talk about her findings, she was shocked — shocked I tell you — to discover that the governor was briefed, but had not actually watched the segments. So much so that Frame made the governor’s lack of loyal viewership the primary focus and lede of her subsequent report.
Gov. Gregoire’s people apparently complained that her comments were distorted, so KING-5 responded by posting all 15 minutes of the raw interview. I don’t know if “distorted” is the right word — you can watch the two videos and decide for yourself — but when you excerpt less than 40 seconds out of a 15 minute interview you can’t help but lose a little context. (For example, take a look at my own edit above, in which I hope I’m not distorting Frame’s comments.) In fact, Frame’s Gregoire segment devotes almost as much time to shots of a TV monitor playing excerpts from her prior ferry segments as it does to the governor, while a sizable chunk of the interview clips feature Frame herself.
But what really struck me from the raw footage was how many times Susannah Frame expressed surprise or disappointment that the governor hadn’t taken the time to watch Susannah Frame.
In retrospect, maybe Gregoire should have been better briefed, or maybe her handlers should have even sat her down to watch the segments. I dunno. But when KING-5 makes that the focus of the segment instead of the underlying investigative reporting, they just come off as self-serving.
Goldy ..
Does HA have a new policy on censorship?
Lee is now censoring my posts, referring to a civil, rational criticism of Greenwald as “off topic and slander.” It was neither.
Obviously Lee and I disagree on some issues. His abusive behavior and language have really not upset me, but censorship does. It seems to me that part of the charm of this blog has been rational discussion. Without that this becomes not all that different than right wing talk radio.
Sorry to be off topic.
Be good.
Local TV news is generally so awful, so full of patronizing, reality-entertainment crap and made-up advice. How can anyone be blamed for not watching it, even during a rare moment when the news is not the newscasters’ chatter, recycled corporate PR, or amateur video?
The jobs that make the big bucks are the engineers (highly skilled mechanics)who keep the boats running safely.
It’s not the tickettakers and the janitors.
King Broadcasting once had a great reputation, but Belo has cut and cut and cut until KING-TV is a mere shadow of its former self. Belo is controlled by CEO Robert Dechard (pronounced “Deckard”) who is Texan and a big buddy of Little bush. Dechard’s political bias permeates KING and has severely damaged its credibility.
As an example, when Dino Rossi announced his candidacy, Belo’s Northwest Cable News (NWCN) offered the opinions of one strong Rossi fan, one lukewarm Rossi fan, and one tepid Democrat who really didn’t know much about Patty Murray. Strong Murray supporters are easier to find than strong Rossi supporters, but NWCN found them.
Because KOMO Radio & TV uncritically runs slanted clips from ABC, they aren’t much better. On Sunday evening, I heard an extended ABC Radio report on Elena Kagan that made its point (that Kagan had criticized the Senate confirmation process) three different times in a five-minute report. A live report from Tukwila would have been more enlightening.
That leaves KIRO-TV, who is a little too hysterical and undoubtedly has an agenda, but at least exercises it subtly.
Suzannah is just another screaming dinosaur not wise enough to get out of the fetid TV news swamp before the mass extinction.
@4: I recall that Belo’s NWCN and King-5 systematically reported BS and FUD on the workplace ergonomics initiative that was defeated some years ago. That might have been the last straw.
I’ve given up watching local news. Between the commercials a half-hour local TV news has about 18 minutes of “content”. This includes maybe:
3 minutes of national/world news headlines;
4 minutes of local news headlines;
3 minutes of a “feature” or “investigative” peace (such as Jessie corning some contractor on camera to complain about a pumbing repair gone bad);
5 minutes of sports
3 minutes of weather.
Of course, much of that “content” isn’t really content at all, it includes lots of fluff/chatter between the anchors and reporters, and constant “teases” of upcoming stories, etc.
In short, you could read the actual content in less than five minutes on the internet – if you are a slow reader.
Why should Gregoire waste two hours every day watching the local news channels, when much of it is duplicative and she could read a quick summary in a little over five minutes?
Gregoire is a pinhead.
She is unwilling to dig into the Budget and look for outrageous expenditures, especially when they benefit her union caretakers.
Focusing on Susannah Frame to avoid how Gregoire embarrasses herself is not helped by this 15 minute video.
It’s about Gregoire’s lack of attention to details and cutting costs that is the issue.
Now if this would have been one report on the Ferry system, I could understand Gregoire’s reaction…but, the reports and information about the waste in the system have been quite frequent from taking experienced people out of the union negotiation to pay for overtime when there wasn’t to pay for travel to the jobsite. Now if Gregoire didn’t see those initially fine, but any handler/helper/assistant worth his/her pay should have informed the Gov that there is something afoot and she should take a look at it. So either her staff is incompetent, or they really don’t care about the budget crisis we are in and the public perception reports like the ones from King5 create.
So don’t blame Susannah for being surprised…be surprised yourself.
There is no investigative journalism in Seattle, apart from an occasional piece in the Stranger. Local TV news goes out and blindsides a assistant attorney general misusing a parking pass or exposes a couple homeless guys hustling parking lot payments. Now that’s speaking truth to power!
And could TV news please drop the hyperbolic, phrase “speaks out?” Consumer speaks out on nickel increase in coffee prices. Jeebus.
@8 It’s about Gregoire’s lack of attention to details and cutting costs that is the issue.
Which seems to be lost on the HA true believers here – no surprise. You wanna raise people’s taxes? Then you’d better show you’re on top of issues like wasteful spending, especially after you’ve been talking up a storm on the subject for two years. Don’t believe me? Check out the responses to this story:
Income-tax battle expected to be costly, maybe nasty
http://community.seattletimes......umn=rating
There’s a torrent of commentary . . . against.
You’re out of touch on this issue, Goldy.
And speaking of being out of touch, one of your believers was crying a river in a previous thread about his property taxes going up a stunning 8 percent from 2009 to 2010. Keep that in mind the next time you roll out that stale 2008 local tax burden chart, which is woefully out of date.
Wow, Susannah really is full of herself.
While I’m sure there’s waste in the ferry system- there’s waste in every system after all- the fact ‘o the matter is that the ferry system is better managed under Patty Hammond than it was under old what’s his face.
The big G doesn’t have much to do with the day affairs of the ferry system. If you want bitch, bitch about Hammond and David Moseley’s running of the thing. But, Hammond and Moseley are fixing things up and doing a pretty good job of things.
Hopefully, they will take care of the loopholes that let a handful of employees abuse the system.
12 Wow, Susannah really is full of herself
And this from one of HA’s resident “attorneys” who claims his clients love him.
For the exact same reason Tony Hayward (of BP infamy) should be able to answer questions from Congress, The Governer should do her homework and be prepared for an interview. There is no excuse for her apparent ignorance.
Sell off the Ferry system, sell off the liquor stores and for Gawd’s sake- sell off the land and facilities of Evergreen College and put the money into REAL education at UW,WWU, CWU or WSU
Just out of curiosity, what’s the TV ratings of local news these days? I suspect they’ve been dropping like a rock, just like their national counterparts. By the time you hear about it on the TV news, it’s old news. That’s why they’ve been cutting costs on reporting yet still trying to sensationalize every story.
Heck, even the Seattle Times is more relevent today than local TV news – and that’s not saying much. At least print news reporters still exhibit some level of professionalism and craft in their jobs, though not so much the editorial board. Local TV news went to the Ken/Barbie show quite a long time ago (although here on the west coast, our “Barbies” tend to have asian features and dark hair).
(Hint to TV producers: directing a reporter to stand in front of a house where something happened ten hours previously, and then breathlessly recite a couple of points from a police news conference held four hours ago, is NOT “on the spot” news reporting).
They still have news on the local TV stations? That’s what they call that tripe?
@16
The liquor stores are revenue positive. Selling them off would cost the state money, not save it.
The Evergreen State College is a product of Republican Governor Dan Evans and is in Olympia to serve place bound students in the South Sound. It’s, also, very highly rated by people that know what the fuck they’re talking about. Providing classroom space for students is one of the biggest costs a college has and those costs are lower in Olympia than they are at the UWT. Selling off Evergreen would lower the availability of higher Ed. in the South Sound and raise the cost.
What you need to do to combat the social/political stuff that righties don’t like is to ship the top cop and Admin. folks from WSU over to Evergreen. Oops, the state did that about a decade ago…
Me neither. Not broadcast TV. I’ve got nice screens, but they used mostly when I want to pull something down and watch. Most TV shows spend absolutely too much time to suck, and local news is one of the worst offenders. Ok, maybe this is a good story, but how many is that this year?
And WTF is up with the producer of this interview? How is it that Frame walks in to that interview not knowing her subject had never watched? Was it really to hard to send the tape? the link? the file?
Glad I didn’t spend a whole 30+ minutes wasting time watching when broadcast.
PS. Did you know that a Seattle based federally chartered bank was the largest bank failure in US history? How much has the teevee told you about that?
Did your local teevee news inform you that WA state has had more federally chartered banks fail this year than the average state? No? You don’t? What’s up with that?
Yeah, privatize everything. There is no waste in the private sector. There are no 10, 20, 30, 100 million dollar salaries.
There isn’t any fraud or fluffled mileage expense sheets or bogus entertainment expenses. There aren’t any employees facebooking when they should be working. There aren’t any frivolous perks, or unnecessary travel. There aren’t any three martini lunches. And there is never any nepotism or cronyism, or corruption, or superiors having sex with subordinates, or buyers having sex with vendors, or anything that would render the organization anything less than Pareto optimal.
Private business is as frugal and efficient as you can get. With the exception of private health care in the US, where we somehow pay twice as much for inferior results.
And…
Except for the military.
And except for law enforcement.
And except for fire departments.
And except for any natural monopoly like telecommunications, or power, or water, or sewer, or roads, or ferry service, or rail service, or waste management, or airports, or ship ports..
Grooooaaann… Frame looks so bad here…
Well 33 million a year has been saved so far and maybe there’s more to come..
Things are improving on Democratic Party watch!
Indeed, Susannah get over yourself!
and yes, I haven’t watched local TV news in years.
typical goldy to edit things out of context….same old same old.
21
Can’t you see that if we privatize everything, then the market’s efficiency will dictate economic freedom, lower costs, and, well, the unshackling of human potentiality? You know, if we could just have Enron and BP in charge of all things energy-related, and Washington Mutual in charge of all things financial, and, oh hell, I can’t keep this up.
@24. Of course, I can see that now. I see the light. I believe! If only I’d seen it earlier when WAMU and Enron still existed.
@24
And you get 30 minutes in the sack with Susannah Frame!
TV news has to appeal to conservatives, because they’re the only ones stupid enough or poor enough to watch it. Everyone else has moved on.
So, why aren’t they talking to the State Auditor? According to his website, “The State Auditor’s Office independently serves the citizens of Washington by promoting accountability, fiscal integrity and openness in state and local government. Working with these governments and with citizens, we strive to ensure the efficient and effective use of public resources.
David, the fact is this story about how the State ferries are mismanaged is more newsworthy than your obsession with Rob McKenna, to which the media pay no attention.
Thanks for making your followers aware of this series. Your follower, voters, etc. all need to know how the ferries are managed. They also need to know about what our governor knows about the management of the State ferries and what our governor doesn’t know or dismisses.
28–
Good point.
Why wasn’t some of this discovered during the Annual Audit???
I’ll tell you why…the Annual Audit is a joke. A glancing blow. Sonntag sees himself as a guardian of Public Assets. My ASS he is!
Someone needs to get into the SCOPE of these so-called Audits. You will find out that all they really do unless someone “whistle-blows” is pretty much make sure #’s are on the right line. The public should have zero confidence in State Audits.
re 8:
I know you are, but what is she?
Generic Newscast
http://www.todaysbigthing.com/2010/01/28
you know
re 8: You are the pinhead, not Gregoire. The ferries in NYC have had several accidents over the years, killing and maiming people and ruining expensive boats.
That is far more expensive than paying the maintenance mechanics a decent wage.
Penny wise and pound foolish — that’s Cynical.
The ferry system is a mess of graft and corruption and has been for at least the last 40 years.
That said, the state of things is actually much better than it was back in the days when Marine Power and Equipment was building the Issaquah class ferries.
Probably the best thing to keep the problems down to a dull roar is to split the Ferry System from WSDOT and make WSF an independent agency under its own board.
33–
Justifying the corruption and waste of the Ferry System is a failed mission KLOWN.
You are telling us that all this waste is a good thing because it makes us safer??
@34
Sounds about right.
Since what local TV media are more interested in pimping drama and grief porn than real news, I think it’s time to start demanding that our news anchors start dressing the part. Next time Susannah Frame wants to make sure people watch her on the tube she should come TV on wearing a pair of thigh-highs and carrying a riding crop!
I haven’t watched local news for years. No plans to start. There is much better coverage of important issues on the web with much less political grandstanding.
The news value of what’s happening has been zero for a long time, until the governor stepped in it like a fool. And then it jumped from Channel 5 because the governor’s interview was so bad and her press guy said something stupid about KING’s editing.
There’s plenty of dumb all around on this one. But the ferries somehow keep on moving pretty well – which is really the bottom line here. God love em.
Anyone who walks into manage the ferry system inherits things that have been buried since the stone age and a fleet that was built about then. We should all pray for them.
The guy who is running the place now is probably the best ever. Too bad he didn’t have time to find out and fix what Channel 5 found before him. He would have. And has quickly moved to fix it as fast a Frame can dish it. She’s simply milking it now.
BTW. I haven’t watched them on TV either. I’ve been reading them on-line.
And another thing: how much did we pay Brian Sonntag to do his hotshot performance audits a few years ago. Why didn’t Sonntag find the things this TV reporter is being fed?
How much money are we wasting on Sonntag carrying the water for Tim Eyman. Maybe it is time to do a performance audit on Sonntag’s performance. He obviously fell down.
@41
Because Sontag is a useless hack.
He actually did. In fact, most of the stuff King has reported on the ferry system was actually just taken wholesale from audit reports. They really didn’t do any heavy lifting here, rather cobbled together stuff that’s been out there a long time.
I just checked on Sonntag’s web site, and sorry, you are wrong at 43, Nice try. His performance audit did not spot the things driving Frame’s reports.
I am talking performance audits here. The pricey ones that Tim Eyman sponsored.
Ken Schramme called Gregoire arrogant because she didn’t watch and didn’t care about a “respected journalists” findings. I don’t know why some schmoe on KOMO is sticking up for some shmoette on KING.
IF the report is right about the ferry system, it is total horseshit. No one should be able to pad their salary with bogus claims for mileage reimbursements that add up to twice your salary. And if you schedule a vacation day and come in on that day for work, it doesn’t get double time. It gets you to make a different vacation day schedule. So if those things actually did happen, then it is total crap and should be stopped. However, since it never has been, then it means that no one from the auditor’s office found it, or it wasn’t against state law.
The auditor’s office routinely fails to respond if crooks are getting away with ill-gotten money at state agencies and in higher ed. They don’t care. You would think they would because it would be a big fluffy feather in their cap, but they won’t do it even if people blow the whistle.