Top stories on ONE News and 3 News: January 8, 2012

Here is a run down of the 5 most important stories on One News and 3 News tonight.  Please leave your comments on the bulletins in the comments below.

ONE News

1. Rena breaks apart (Renee Graham, live cross)
2. Rena timeline (Joanna Hunkin)
3. Hot air balloon crash (Rawden Christie/Sarah Batley, live cross)
4. Hot air balloon crash victims (Simon Bradwell)
5. Hot air balloon crash victims (Ruth Wynn-Williams)

3 News

1. Rena breaks apart (Jono Hutchison, live cross)
2. Rena breaks apart (Jankia Ter Ellen)
3. Rena breaks apart (Ashlee Tulloch)
4. Hot air balloon crash (Simon Shepherd, live cross)
5. Hot air balloon crash victims (Adam Hollingworth)

Commentary

The event the media has been salivating over for the last 3 months has finally happened with the Rena succumbing to the sea and splitting in two.  Neither networks had footage of the much touted event taking place though and only had footage of the afternath.

3 News dedicated 3 stories to it before breaking to the other news of the day while One News had two, with the second being filed, strangely, by their entertainment reporter.

Sarah Batley’s live cross to the cordon outside the hot air balloon crash site on One News was appalling as she desperately seemed to be hoping that a hearse carrying bodies would drive passed while she was on air.

You may be able to see behind me, the cordons are clear and we’re expecting a hearse to emerge any minute now from Sommerset Road, carrying the bodies of two more of the victims. Now last night, two bodies were removed from the scene and police have confirmed that they were the bodies of the two people who jumped out of the hot air balloon.  But any moment now, we’re expecting a hearse to come out of Sommerset Road.  We’ve actually just seen a procession of cars drive up the road, possible family members, who will then follow the hearse out.

After her story, Rawden asked what the next steps were in the investigation and again she looked back over her shoulder in the hopes that the hearse was going to be in shot.

Once all the bodies are removed, and you may be able to see behind me that police are currently in the process of doing that as we speak…

The hearse never appeared.

Verdict

3 News

About the author

Regan is one of the co-founders of Throng Media.
He's currently watching Survivor, Homeland, House, Glee and can't wait for the return of Game of Thrones.
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  • reece_555

    Was it really necessary for One News to have Rawdon in Masterton again????? this tragic event happened yesterday and the media have feasted enough and some respect over the body removal would be nice.

    Also noted further down the bulletin was Joanna Hunkins story on Drew Neemias twitter incident, mediaworks were of course brought into the story.

  • regan

    I don’t mind them having multiple reporters on the ground there today but the disrespect to the removal of corpses is simply astonishing.

    I did see the Drew Neemia story as well.. will post on that later

  • Steve

    The bias of Throng toward 3 is getting ridiculous. This commentary should be neutral, but 3 shows the wrong shots of the Pilot, Lance Hopping, in their bulletin yesterday and this is left off your commentary. The grieving community is disgusted at this misrepresentation and yet you, media commentators, do not pick this up. Regardless of what Sarah Battley said tonight, showing the wrong image of our boy Lance is disgusting.

     

  • Henderson

    I agree. It is always TV3 who win, or a tie. Surely it cant be that hard to pick one programme over the other most nights. Having Rawdon Christie in Carterton was no different than 3 having Simon Shepherd there also.

    Re not having footage of the Rena breaking up, you would have to be insane to think that is even possible. It probably happened overnight, and media can only be made aware of the situation after Maritime NZ inform them, after one of their own survey flights. Its not like the TV stations have their own chopper and just hover over the Rena all day and night just in case.

  • regan

    @steve and @Henderson, as I have said many, many, many times before, any perceived bias towards 3 is completely unfounded.  

    Last month, we awarded more wins to One News than 3 News.  Of the 31 days in December, we only awarded a win on 5 of them with One News picking up 3.  

    We try very hard to maintain an unbiased approach to these comparisons and have proven time and time again that we have no problem pointing our errors on either channel.

    @Steve, In regards to the wrong images used on 3 News, I’ve been back through the footage and I can’t seem to find the wrong images of Lance Hopping at all. Charlotte Shipman’s story appeared to have the right images as far as I can tell.  Are you able to give me any further info?

    @Henderson, the media have been desperately hoping for the Rena to break up.  They thrive on “disaster porn”.  We’ve made numerous comments about this.  Had the Rena broken up during daylight, I couldn’t imagine news helicopters not rushing to the scene to get footage.  In this instance there will no doubt be disappointed that it happened while it wasn’t possible to capture it on film.

    I will also note that these comparisons work well when others identify things that we miss.  This will happen from time to time and we invite discussion and contribution in order to hopefully see better news coverage delivered to us all.

  • ??

    Isn’t there a 3 mile exclusion zone for boats and flights over the Rena except for maritime NZ?

    Don’t think any media will be filming any breakups or sinkings on Astrolabe reef anytime soon..

  • regan

    It is my understanding that the exclusion zone size has changed a number of times over the last few months.  There has been plenty of footage from fairly close to the Rena during the salvage process so I think it all depends on what is happening at the time as to how close media, and the public, have been allowed to get.

  • ??

    And over the last week or so, since the ‘crack’ was getting larger, the exclusion zone was re-instated.

    So to say “Neither networks had footage of the much touted event taking place though and only had footage of the afternath.” is impossible, so no slant on either/all of our news networks.

    Most footgae supplied has been by Maritime NZ following the gorunding, only the first few days after the weckage were news networks shooting their own footage.. The expense is too great!

  • regan

    I think you’re missing the point.  Had it been possible to capture the ship breaking apart, both networks would have loved to have had cameras rolling as they’ve been wishing for and predicting this event for months.  Despite all of that, they weren’t there when it happened.  

  • Benjamin Paul

    Regan is right about the disaster porn…

    The Rena stories from both networks and other outlets has been a frustrating joke. The ‘disaster’ has been nowhere near the levels that the outlets have been saying it is. They have been waiting for baited breath for it to break up – when it has taken quite a long time to do so and now that it has – it isn’t a surprise.

    I felt for the people of BOP when the oil ruined their beaches for a few days but still, the effort cleaned it up in a few days and was nowhere near the levels of destruction as the media seemed to want it to be.

    I want facts, I don’t want sob stories that go on forever. That is why I skim the Herald website* and still remain well informed.

    * Can be torture too.