Saturday, July 2, 2005

There's a sad ending tonight to a story unfortunately tailor-made for tabloid "journalism."

Top Story

David Freitas was in Oregon City to tell us that the police are charging Christine Coffman, the step-grandmother of missing 4 year-old Matal with murder. She lead the cops to the site where the boy was buried. Hilary Huchison (whose hair was parted on the right side tonight) gave us some of the background on the story. Jamie Wilson was outside the Sanchez home in Milwaukie. Coffman will be in court on Tuesday.

This is obviously a story which has to be covered by the local press. It's also the kind of thing that tabloid outlets like KPTV revel in. For the record, I don't object to the fact that they report on things like the disappearance and murder of a young boy; I object to the fact that they DON'T report on things which have direct impact on all our lives, like what's happening in Congress.

Sex abuse charges have been brought against the 80 year-old friend of a young girl's mother. He is accused of molesting the girl.

A body was found in the river near Detroit Lake.

Northwest Tonight

*The young girl who has been missing, along with her brother, after her parents were found dead in Couer d'Alene, Idaho, turned up at a Denny's restaurant a few miles from where she disappeared. She was with a man who has been previously convicted of sex offenses. Her brother is still missing. The hero in this story is the waitress who recognized the girl and stalled the man from leaving the restaurant with her by taking her time getting their food and giving the girl crayons and a placemat to color on. Her stalling kept them in Denny's until the cops arrived. She deserves a reward for that. This story was brought to us by "KPTV's Adam Housley." Not only is he NOT "KPTV's" anything as far as I'm concerned, but he said he was reporting the story from Los Angeles. Huh!? So he doesn't work for the station that claimed him AND he wasn't anywhere near where the story actually happened. Now that's journalism!

Break.

It said "America Tonight" on the screen but the anchor called it "News Across America." What the hell is the name of this segment? Anyone know?

*The Holloway family and some weasel of a Congressman are urging the FBI to become "more involved" in the case of their missing daughter. I was yelling at the TV that Aruba is a sovereign nation and therefore the FBI has no jurisdiction there when KPTV shocked me by actually mentioning that very point. Context and information on a KPTV "news"cast? Pinch me, I must be dreaming!

*A car chase ended in a crash in Dallas, Texas.

*A deer jumped through a window and went nutso inside a business in Akron, Ohio. Thankfully for the enlightenment of mankind, this was Caught On Tape.

*There was a huge cocaine bust in Key West, Florida.

*A pilot died in a plane crash in Winter Haven, Florida.

*Another pilot made an emergency landing in Richmond, Virginia.

*There was a fire in a grain elevator in Ohio.

*A stadium is crumbling in Tampa, Florida. Is this Florida and Ohio Night or something?

*OK, this made me laugh. The Chyron said "Large Liver." Turns out a woman in Phoenix looks like she is pregnant because her liver is so large. That part isn't funny. She's hoping to find a donor.

World Tonight

*I had a hard time following this story. Some wrestlers (pro or amateur, I'm not sure) have been accused of something and their fans rioted. This was in Tbilisi.

*There was a protest rally in Edinburgh, Scotland where the G-8 countries will be meeting in a few days. The rally was intended to influence the countries to devote more money and effort to fighting poverty.

Break.

Online Crime Fighting. A local police department has put some of their theft reporting procedure online. If you've been robbed of items totalling less than $1500, you can fill in the blanks yourself in an attempt to simplify the process. This seemed like a good way to free up some manpower to me.

Break.

Portland's historic Vista House has been reopened to the public after four years. Public and private money went into the restoration project.

The outdoor market in Beaverton has insufficient parking. The local government is looking for solutions.

Weather. Break.

Final Cut

*James Eckert was convicted of murder earlier this week. Might have been a good idea to tell us about it closer to when it actually happened, huh?

*A routine traffic stop on I-84 ended in a drug bust for pot.

Fox 12's Most Wanted (since when is this part of the Final Cut segment?) William Garvey was arrested for bank robbery.

Back to the usual Final Cut stuff:

*401K theft. It seems that, sometimes, money is taken out of an employee's retirement account by an unscrupulous employer, boss or outside thief. This story didn't live up to the hype of the promo for it last night, in my humble opinion. The promo made it sound like there might be something wrong with 401K's themselves. Turns out it's just that they can be manipulated by crooks. Big whoop. This, by the way, was probably the longest story on the 'cast, other than the Matal Sanchez murder story.

*The woman who survived the plane crash last week in Yamhill was "speaking out." She said that "God has a plan." Uh, well, maybe. Years ago, my sister was in a car accident with two friends. One of them was killed, the other was blinded for life. My sister had some cuts and bruises but survived with no serious damage. She told me that afterwards, people would come up to her and "explain" that God didn't want her in Heaven yet and that was why she survived. Sorry, but I think it's incredibly arrogant to presume that you "know" what a Supreme Being (assuming that one even exists, that is) thinks and wants. But I digress.

*Remember how last night, KPTV told us they would reveal on Sunday night which 4 days in July are the most dangerous to be on the road and how I said that if any of the days fell on this weekend, Sunday was a pretty stupid time to tell us about it? Well, we got a previously-unannounced Part Two of that story tonight and guess what? Two of the "most dangerous days to be on the road" are July 3rd and July 4th. Could it be that I'm actually having an effect on the KPTV News Weasels? They'll tell us more tomorrow. OK, I'm going to laugh outloud if they say that the other two "most dangerous days to be on the road" are July 1st and 2nd.

Hollywood Buzz

*Tom Cruise, who, as a Scientologist, believes that 75 million years ago an alien named Xenu put hydrogen bombs into all the volcanos on Earth (which was called Teegeeack back then) which, when they exploded, separated humans from their spirits, called "thetans," has said publicly that Brooke Shields should have not taken medication for her post-partum depression and that psychiatry is a "pseudo-science." Shields wrote an op-ed piece for the New York Times in which she essentially told him to get bent. (Yes, that is really what Scientologists believe. For more information, visit xenu.net .)

*Cyndi Lauper has lost her rent control lawsuit in New York City. She is paying about $1000/month for a four-room apartment. As a point of comparison, I grew up in the Bronx, a part of New York City and I remember my parents paying $86/month for our five-room apartment back in the early 60's.

*Lastly, we got a wrapup story about the Live 8 concerts. "KPTV's Lisa Bernhard" [sp?] was in Philadelphia, the only American venue for this story.

The Final Cut ended with one second left on the Still Inscrutable Countdown Clock. Nice work (I guess), Kevin Coari.

WHAT KPTV DIDN'T TELL YOU ABOUT TONIGHT (a sampling):

*A suicide bomber strapped with explosives killed up to 17 people Saturday outside a Baghdad recruiting center for Iraqi police special forces, police and hospital officials said.

*President Bush's top advisor Karl Rove has been named as the leaker in the Valarie Plame situation. Plame was a CIA operative and is the wife of Joseph Wilson, a former ambassador who has been critical of the Bush administration. Wilson is on record as saying he believed the leaker was Rove and that Rove did it as payback for Wilson's criticism.

*Still not a word about the FBI raiding the home and office of Congressman Randy "Duke" Cunningham. Seriously, KPTV, you don't think the FBI raiding a Congressman's home is news?? If only it had happened locally or somehow involved a two-headed cat, they'd be on it like white on rice.

*NASA is crashing a probe into a comet on Monday morning. This has never happened before in the history of mankind. Nah, no story there!