In a bid to address the city's drug crisis — and the crime and homelessness that come with it — San Francisco voters shifted right in Tuesday's primary, approving ballot measures that aim to boost enforcement powers.
I used to work for a local TV station and every year they did this thing called “Crimestoppers” where we’d ride along with a cop all night just in case something happened. This is not a huge city, but there’s enough crime that something ended up on camera. I didn’t hate doing it. I’m no cop-lover, but the guy they paired me with was a good enough conversationalist to talk to all night at least… but I was terrified of ending up in a car chase situation. Cars make me anxious as it is. Thankfully, that never happened.
This kind of opportunistic journalism really makes me skeptical of the value of a lot of our local TV news stations. You’re describing the local news using the same production tactics as COPS, a reality TV show…
Was there anything that the crimestoppers program covered that was of sigificant newsworthiness to the community that you remember?
Oh there was no value to the local TV station. It was either boring lifestyle stories or sensationalist bullshit. Also, the lead anchor said one of the stupidest things I have ever heard anyone say. The ISS was passing overhead and we all went out into the parking lot to see it and she looked up and said, “can they see the Earth from up there?” This was who they hired to give what they decided were the important stories of the day.
The pay was also shit.
Oh… there was one notable thing that happened during Crimestoppers. Mainly that the website news guy found out one of his friends had a warrant and warned them by putting out that he was wanted on the website before the cops went after him that night. But that was not on TV. He just got fired.
I used to work for a local TV station and every year they did this thing called “Crimestoppers” where we’d ride along with a cop all night just in case something happened. This is not a huge city, but there’s enough crime that something ended up on camera. I didn’t hate doing it. I’m no cop-lover, but the guy they paired me with was a good enough conversationalist to talk to all night at least… but I was terrified of ending up in a car chase situation. Cars make me anxious as it is. Thankfully, that never happened.
This kind of opportunistic journalism really makes me skeptical of the value of a lot of our local TV news stations. You’re describing the local news using the same production tactics as COPS, a reality TV show…
Was there anything that the crimestoppers program covered that was of sigificant newsworthiness to the community that you remember?
Oh there was no value to the local TV station. It was either boring lifestyle stories or sensationalist bullshit. Also, the lead anchor said one of the stupidest things I have ever heard anyone say. The ISS was passing overhead and we all went out into the parking lot to see it and she looked up and said, “can they see the Earth from up there?” This was who they hired to give what they decided were the important stories of the day.
The pay was also shit.
Oh… there was one notable thing that happened during Crimestoppers. Mainly that the website news guy found out one of his friends had a warrant and warned them by putting out that he was wanted on the website before the cops went after him that night. But that was not on TV. He just got fired.