Top stories on ONE News and 3 News: March 17, 2010

ONE News:

  1. 3 men cleared in spy trial (Breaking news, live cross, Abby Scott)
  2. Kerikeri fire (Breaking news)
  3. Ministry job cuts (Live cross, Guyon Espiner)
  4. Fiji aid (Donna-Marie Lever)
  5. Queensland cyclone

3 News:

  1. Fiji cyclone (Michael Morrah, with exclusive footage)
  2. Duck shooters banned (Exclusive, Patrick Gower)
  3. Spy base trial (Breaking news, live cross, Charlotte Tonkin)
  4. Ministry job cuts (Duncan Garner)
  5. Plane crash in North Carolina kills man listening on ipod

Commentary:

ONE News broke the spy trial before 3 News – at 6:18pm NZ Herald and Stuff still didn’t have it up.  3 News had footage from inside the spy base trial.

3 News had comprehensive footage from in Fiji, thanks to having Michael Morrah and cameraman there.

What a stupid #5 story on 3 News.  No idea why it’s in the lead stories.  Should be in an “odd news” section later in the bulletin, if at all.

You could argue either way re: the better story to lead with.

Verdict:

Tie

About the author

Co-founder of Throng. Favourite TV shows recently: Homeland and The Newsroom.
More from this author »

  • ottid88

    Yup, I agree with the plane story on 3news. The beginning of the news made it sound like it was a lucky escape or something, not that the man involved had died. It was more of a case of unlucky circumstances than anything else.

    Also just coming up to the sports on 3news and we are getting more fluff, the new dog wash in Japan, seems like it was a slowish newsday at TV3…

  • Dude

    3 News had the Waihopai story online about 10 minutes before TVNZ, actually.

  • Rachel

    Thanks – I was meaning during their bulletin in my post, but good to know.

  • hidingunderhere

    Interesting decisions tonight.  I can understand why TV3 decided to stay with their Fiji story as their top story.  You have to back your (expensive) decision to send a couple of people to Fiji.  Any other day, and 3 would be in quite a safe position.  Today, though, I think they should have gone with the Ploughshares verdict. It was brand new, they already new about it, the verdict was areal shock to the average viewer.

     

    The other ting I noticed was that Michael Morah’s story began and ended with him talking to the camera.  It had all the hallmarks and structure of a live cross.  It verges on being a little deceitful.  3News have established a readily-recognisable style for their live crosses – live introduction by reporter in the field, tape story, live concluded comments by the reporter.  Michael’s story tonight had all those elements, but with-out being actually live.  Bit sneaky.

  • Dave

    The dog wash story was great, but should have been in the ‘kicker’ slot (ie. 6.58). Unfortunately TV3 has a really strange aversion to kickers during the week. One still regularly keeps up the “and finally” tradition through.

  • LisaS

    I wonder if 3News delayed their spybase story so they could quickly put together some images to go with Charlotte Tonkin’s live cross? Television is all about the pictures after all.

    I think they made the right decision to lead with Michael Morrah and the aftermath of the cyclone, particularly as the full scale of the devastation is only now just coming to light.

    I loved the dogwash story! Certainly a lot more than the dog did.

  • regan

    I noticed that too, Lisa.  There was footage from inside the courtroom which One didn’t have.

  • jeremy t

    If that’s correct, it was a bad call because there was no sound with the pictures, and no reaction from the defendants. It needed to be first. My guess is that they werent ready at the beginning of the news because they couldnt get their satellite truck up and running.

  • LisaS

    Ah well, I suppose we’ll have to agree to disagree.

    Although if we’re playing guessing games, mine would be that 3 decided to run with two stories they knew One News couldn’t match before running the Spybase story.

  • regan

    While TV3 may have been a few minutes behind TV One with the verdict announcement, that’s still 24 hours better than it often is in reverse.