newscast

KARE 11 10 o clock News. Rick Kupchella.
-Story of the Red River flooding- slow decline. Reporter on scene. 3 minutes
-Spring snow storm. Sven Sundgaard. 1 minute.
-Shooting in Lakeville. 3 arrested. 30 sec
-Fire in duplex 30 sec
-8 dead in nursing home shooting. Feed of press conference. 1min.
-GM CEO out after nudge from White House. 30 sec
-Northwest to Delta Changeover. Scott Seroka. Coverage of union meetings. Footage. Interviews with Union officials. Hamline Prof Daly phone interview. Info from anchor. 2.5 minutes
-Commercials: Chrysler. Southwest Airlines. Alltel Wireless. Toyota. Omnitheater Science Museum. Yellowstone Nat’l Park/Wyoming Tourism. 4 min.
-Feature. Real estate story/short sales. Interviews with homeowners. Rick Kupchella. Interview with real estate agent. 4 minutes.
-Outskiing avalanche in Norway, video footage. 30 sec.
-Banter.
-Weather. 3-4 minutes.
-Broomball tourney. Juliana Olson. Interviews with players. 2 min.
-Commercials: HOM Furniture. Dodge Chrysler. SoDak Tourism. Syngenta. Comcast. Kare11.com. Coburns Delivers. Sears BMW. 4 min.
-Sports. Eric Perkins. March Madness coverage. MN Wild. NCAA Hockey Tourn. T Wolves. Twins Spring Training Game. Tiger Woods, Arnold Palmer Tourney. Nascar. 5 minutes.
-Banter.
-Before we go – story on Twins commercial.

What was most interesting about this newscast was the seventh news story of the evening. The Northwest to Delta Airlines changeover story was exceedingly one-sided. The footage was highly positive images (cheering and clapping) from a union meeting. Two interviews followed; one interview was with a union man who seemed slightly more desperate, saying that the union was in a “fight for its life” since Delta Airlines has non-union workers. The other interview, with another union member, was more optimistic and upbeat. All in all, the union was presented as a force that was possibly under attack, and certainly a positive entity for its workers. The only other interview was with a Hamline Law professor with union expertise. He offered a few benign comments about union survivability in the recessed economy. At no point was anyone from Delta Airlines interviewed; the only comment about Delta was that they offered good salaries and benefits, even without a unionized labor force. That being said, at no time was the union ever portrayed in any sort of a negative light, or having unreasonable demands of the airline industry. Considering the fact that Northwest Airlines LOST two billion dollars last year, and still their union has been constantly demanding raises and increased benefits, this strikes me as skewed, to say the least.

The rest of the news cast was rather boilerplate. We had a sense of urgency early on, in regards to the “hard” news, such as the flooding and shootings. Later the mood lightened with sports and the weather.

The only other really notable trend in the news was a kind of motif of negativity about big business. In addition to the (in my opinion) pro-union piece about the airlines, there was also a story about the resignation of GM’s CEO (at the urging of President Obama), and a feature piece on the inefficiency of banks and their ability to handle houses facing foreclosures or short sales. Considering the current state of the economy, however, I don’t think it’s particularly surprising that much of our news would be pejorative towards the continued seeming incompetence of banking or automotive executives.