As you know, approximately 12,000 or so people flocked to the Oklahoma State Capitol on Saturday as part of the big ‘Women’s March" held across the world. According to media reports, it was the largest group of women to attend a capitol event since Dan Kirby last conducted interviews for legislative aides in 2014.
The march and rally was widely covered by the Oklahoma City TV news media. They had reporters on the ground, interviewed a variety of protestors, and shared photographs of all the clever and not-so-clever signs. But as our pal Joe Dorman noted, one aspect of the coverage was noticeably absent…
Kudos to KOCO for sending their chopper after the march and rally had pretty much concluded. Sure, that's kind of like inviting the entire Ogle family over for dinner and only having Kent show up for dessert, but something is better than nothing.
Anyway, Joe brings up a good point. Whether there's a sprinkle in the sky, grass fire on the ground, or bank robber hauling ass down May Ave., the local media is always eager to scramble their choppers for live aerial footage of news events. Political rallies are no different. So why did the media – minus a late flyover from KOCO's Bob's Appliance Repair Huey News 5 – not cover the event through the air?
KFOR has a decent excuse. According to my Outlook calendar, Jon Welsh was scheduled off on Saturday for a disc golf tournament. Considering our backup chopper pilots are Galen Culver and Heather Holeman, I don't blame our news director for grounding Bob Moore Chopper 4 in the hanger.
I don't know why Channel 9 went chopperless. They always seem to have a squadron of helicopters on call for breaking news events. I guess I should point out their chopper is named Bob Mills SkyNews 9. In case you forgot, Bob Mills was the co-chair of Trump's Oklahoma Election Campaign. Do you really think he wants his advertising dollars to help broadcast a powerful anti-Trump movement? I don't think so. Maybe he sent a hot air balloon to intercept and stop the chopper before it could shoot footage. Nothing would surprise me.
Joe's comment about the lack of helicopters rubbed a few people the wrong way. For example, Ken Bartlett, the vice-mayor of Del City, wondered why the media should even cover a bunch of "misguided females."
Yep, the millions of women who marched around the world to protect their rights are "misguided." Also, I'd like to point out many misguided men attended the event in support of women. Although I think 20% of them were Trump supporters looking to grab a little pussy, it's something worth noting.
News 9's Alex Cameron also took issue with Joe's comment. He wants Joe to get his "facts" straight:
First of all, was Joe's comment really "snarky?" It just seemed like a critical and accurate observation to me. It's not like he wrote:
Sad that television helicopters were not here today to show the Women's March to their viewing audience. I guess they must be preparing for the next big ice storm!!! Zing!!!
Edit: At least KOCO showed up.
Speaking of facts, it looks like Alex Cameron is now openly embracing the "alternative" version of them. The link he shared doesn't disprove Joe at all. It simply points to a Grant Hermes report that doesn't include any chopper footage. It also incorrectly states how many people attended the event…
Yeah. Even though News 9 didn't send a chopper and underreported how many people attended the event, Joe is the one who needs to get his facts straight. It's what you would expect from the guy who reported that the water levels at Arcadia may be causing earthquakes and once posed for a photo like this...
Even though there's no pretty aerial chopper footage from the march, I'd like to throw my support to all the women (and men) who participated in this great event. I didn't attend the rally, but I sure felt like I was there after checking Facebook and Instagram on Saturday afternoon. Thanks for letting me live vicariously through you. It was great to see so many people march against the dystopian con man that we're somehow stuck with as president. If organizers can A) find an electable, anti-establishment figure to oppose Trump and B) march to the voting booth on election day in 2018 and 2020, they may be on to something.
