A Word About Last Night's Local News

You guys have no doubt noticed that I don’t say a lot about local TV (i.e. the Huntington/Charleston market).

Part of that is because since this is the Internet and people from all over the world, who have no clue who Tony Cavalier or Rick Dayton are, can read my blog. But it’s also because I have friends at at least three of the stations and so I don’t want to have to mince my words.

But since I lost a lot of sleep last night staying up to watch coverage of the explosion at the Bayer CropScience plant in Institute, I feel like I should say something…

First of all, let me say that my thoughts and prayers go out to the families affected by this accident…

Second, I should probably explain why I would stay up until 12:30 a.m. to watch a bunch of news people talk about an area I'm nowhere near and read information about pesticides off the Internet. Honestly, I can’t help it. It’s the journalist in me. I love to flip back and forth between stations and see how a big story gets covered (I do the same thing with the national networks.). I’ve been in a TV newsroom when something like this strikes so I can feel the adrenaline that I know is coursing through everyone’s veins coming off my TV.

So, kudos to WSAZ, WOWK and WCHS for their extended coverage of this incredibly important news story. Granted, some moments were better than others, but they should all be applauded for doing the best they could to get the information out to the people who truly needed it. And it was nice to see the traditional news method of TV become integrated with the new method of the Internet.

But if I had to give a gold star, I’d give it to Jessica Ralston (of WSAZ) who was truly a voice of reason and calm during a scary situation. I actually hesitated to type that, not because I was afraid one of my friends would get mad, but because my fiancé thinks Jessica’s the greatest thing on TV since TV was invented and quite frankly, I’m a little tired of hearing about her (No offense, Jessica.). But I believe in giving credit where credit is due…

And if you’re worried about my fiancé getting mad when he reads this, don’t. He never reads my blog. He’s too busy reading Jessica’s…