Wednesday, May 18, 2016

Confused about TV news in Lake Worth and who does what and where and how? And what TV news should you turn to?

There is some sort of TV news ratings cycle going on now and you can usually tell because Katie LaGrone takes it to a high level of earnestness. It's a sight to behold, trust me. She gets so intense the dogs jump off my lap and run away.

Personally, when I watch TV news my choice is NBC5/WPTV because they have the best reporters by far and really strive for fairness. So, what are the TV news stations in Palm Beach County you ask, and specifically Lake Worth? There are four major network-affiliated stations:
  • NBC5/WPTV is the one I turn to (Channel 432 on Comcast); Alex Hagan, Michelle Quesada, and Charlie Keegan have done nice work in Lake Worth. Their website, though, is getting clunkier all the time and taking longer to load. Too many ads and pop-ups?
  • Fox29/WFLX is also very good and is affiliated with WPTV (they share reporters and information). Both WPTV and WFLX have the Post as their "news partner", or did. Why did the Post run ads for WPBF last weekend (Sat. 5/14 and Sun. 5/15) in the online edition?
  • ABC25/WPBF I check now and then to correct them on news locations vis-à-vis the City of Lake Worth. Once in a while one of their reporters stumbles into the City by accident. The one trait all the reporters seem to share at WPBF is they couldn't find the actual City if you gave them the whole day, directions, and smoke signals. They probably think Lake Worth extends into the Everglades and a mile or so into the Atlantic Ocean as well. Pretty much everything that happens in central PBC is in "Lake Worth".
  • By far the worst of them all, in my opinion, is CBS12/WPEC. They've done some real doozies. And who can forget the "Holy War Brewing" in the City? A classic if there ever was one. And the "Prayer to Satan" with Lake Worth's Christmas tree in the background? Not what you'd call a high point for TV journalism. 
The "Holy War Brewing" is a CBS12 classic. That was later upstaged by the "Forced Relocation".
CBS12 had some real high points and one of them was reporter Jonathan Beaton. He transitioned from radio to TV news and it started off real rocky. He got better all the time though and did some real good news segments in Lake Worth. Did you pick up on the past tense? Yes, that's right, he's no longer at CBS12.