Fox 32’s Craig Wall covering storm damage, live in Washington, IL. Minutes later, he was back in studio for a “Chicago’s Most Wanted” segment.
I don’t know what the hell I just watched, but apparently, it was supposed to be a primetime newscast in the nation’s third largest market.
Well, WFLD-TV/Fox 32 sure had me fooled…
– Tammie Souza’s recap of today’s severe weather was plagued with 30 to 40 seconds of on-and-off audio crumbling.
– While reporter Craig Wall went blue on camera during a newscast last week (figuratively, of course), tonight he was in two places at nearly the same time. Near the bottom-half of the newscast, Wall was live at Washington, IL reporting on storm damage; minutes later, he was in studio for the Chicago’s Most Wanted segment, without any acknowledgement of Wall’s alleged super human powers (or that the segment was previously recorded).
– With severe weather seemingly front and center on most people’s mind, it seemed highly appropriate that Fox 32, smack dab in the middle of the broadcast, would air a feature on a “pot sniffer” in Colorado — a story with no relevance or interest to anyone watching in Chicago, on this night or any night.
– A promo for “Good Day Chicago” and its host Corey McPherrin aired, just before returning to a live McPherrin who was co-anchoring tonight’s newscast. It’s also fitting that Fox 32 would air the promo considering he soon won’t even be on “Good Day Chicago.”
If anyone’s face should be changing colors, it should be Fox 32 General Manager Dennis Welsh and News Director Tom Doerr. Their faces ought to be red with embarrassment.
Granted, I’m not a regular viewer of Fox 32 News, so the chance does exist that I have it all wrong. Tonight’s shenanigans could very well just be “business as usual.”
It may have been a little worse than normal, but “business as usual” is more than appropriate. WFLD is awful. Come next month (or whenever), the only watchable newscast might be the noon show with McPherrin, seeing as he’s the only anchor (still around) at the station that doesn’t make me want to punch things.