Like many other Santa Cruzians and locals from other towns in the Central Coast, I attended the Peace March in San Francisco on the 18th of January. The crowds were enormous, and every one who was at the previous rally can say that there were a lot more people than last time.

I arrived back home in Santa Cruz around 7 PM, so I did not catch the 6 PM news, but did see the 11 PM news on the KSBW Channel. To my surprise it only showed a few seconds of aerial footage of the crowds at Civic Centre. What really got me, though, was that they said that "more than 10,000" people attended, which to me sounded like a gross misrepresentation of the facts...

What follows is my mail to the News Director (newsdirector (at) theksbwchannel.com), the reply, and my response. (BTW, notice the quotation marks around "anti-war" in his reply... )

If you have seen their news coverage and agree with me, after reading this mail interchange, please let yourself be heard and contact the news director.

Dear News Director,

I am amazed and appalled by your coverage of the Peace March in San Francisco on this evening's 11PM news broadcast. Not only did you show no more than a few seconds of footage, you even thought it necessary to comment that "more than 10,000 people" attended. Even CNN - certainly not a local news channel - quoted numbers ranging from 50,000 - 200,000.

Surely you realize that large amounts of your viewers in the Central Coast attended the March. From Santa Cruz alone, five buses transported locals to the march, and that did not even include those - like my wife and I - who came by private transportation. Such inaccuracy in reporting and ignoring news events taking place, or affecting locals in your own region is misleading, and distorts the truth.

"Coverage you can count on"? Not quite. You've lost a viewer.

Jay Thoden van Velzen, Santa Cruz


Subject: Re: TV News coverage of San Francisco Peace March 01/18/2003
To: "Jay Thoden van Velzen" <jay_sdk (at) yahoo.com>
From: ldodd (at) hearst.com
Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 16:12:05 -0800

Mr. van Velzen:
We spent approximately three minutes of our 11pm news and more than that during our 6pm news covering the "anti-war" demonstrations. The message from San Francisco to Los Angeles to Washington surely was the same and we believe coverage of the event on a nation-wide scale - which includes locals who attended in San Fracisco - is sufficient. But to accuse us of "inaccuracy in reporting and ignoring news events taking place, or affecting locals in your own region" is clearly a charge to which we plead
"not guilty." We covered the event!

Sorry you disagree and enjoy watching whichever other station it is you
choose to watch.
Lawton Dodd / News Director


Date: Sun, 19 Jan 2003 16:35:24 -0800 (PST)
From: "Jay Thoden van Velzen" <jay_sdk (at) yahoo.com>Subject: Re: TV News coverage of San Francisco Peace March 1/18/2003
To: ldodd (at) hearst.com

Dear Mr Dodd,

I respectfully disagree. You spent three whole minutes on all marches nation-wide, of which just a few seconds on the San Francisco march, which surely is a local area event. Since you are a local news station, I find the suggestion that "coverage of the event on a nation-wide scale - which includes locals who attended in San Fracisco [sic] - is sufficient" odd to say the least.

You subsequently make the conclusion that because you mentioned the SF march at all you are "not guilty" of "inaccuracy in reporting and ignoring news events taking place, or affecting locals in your own region". You do not at all address the issue of mentioning that "more than 10,000" attended. As I mentioned in my earlier mail, CNN gave numbers ranging 50,000 to 200,000. Even FOX News Channel mentioned 50,000. Independent media sources gave numbers even higher. To suggest that "more than 10,000" is accurate reporting, would be equivalent to saying that a dozen is "more than 1". How many people need to take to the streets before you are paying attention?

Respectfully,

Jay Thoden van Velzen