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October 25, 2005
Breaking News
What happened at Carkeek Park at the beginning of this month? Was it some sort of drill? Did somebody die? I mean, things didn't look good. There were people standing around someone lying on the ground, and the fire truck and ambulance came, and they didn't exactly leave in a hurry. I still don't know, because not a single news source reported the event.
Meanwhile, newscasts leads off tonight with the announcement that Rosa Parks has died at the age of 92. Rosa Parks was courageous in the face of discrimination and outright racism, and she is a noted figure in American history. But I have a lot of sources for news, and every one of them is telling me that Rosa Parks has passed away, which is very sad for her friends and family, but not particularly shocking to those of us who didn't even know she was still alive.
I'm not saying that Rosa Parks death isn't newsworthy. I just wish they would cover some more local news, like whatever happened at Carkeek.
Part of the problem is living in a big metro area. When Jennifer and I went to Redding, we went to a Harry Potter party with her aunt, and what would you know, we were on the news that night... AND the next night! That's because there's not that much to report in Redding. But they've got around 80,000 people who live in the area. We have some 4 million or so. That's 50 times the size of Redding. You just can't get that kind of reporting here, I guess. But why not? There are so many sources for news... television, radio, newspapers, even blogs.
Shouldn't somebody have covered what was going on at Carkeek? Even if it was just a blogger? (Yes, I was there, but I went there for a romantic view of the storm... and I did have my camera, but it was pouring rain and there was lightning and thunder... a literal Grey's Anatomy moment.)
I think the need for more local news coverage is probably going to be fulfilled by independent bloggers. For now you can use Google or Technorati to search for events in your area. But eventually it would be nice if you could go to one site that would help you find all your local news. So you could go to, say, kirkland.localblognews.com to find out how Kirkland's 100th Anniversary went. I'm sure this will happen at some point. Perhaps some will even use the opportunity to become true freelance journalists!
Posted by March at October 25, 2005 04:39 AM