On Thursday morning, I was returning from a morning latte trip when I noticed a billowing plume of black smoke spewing from the horizon of my neighborhood.
Since I occasionally like to moonlight as a hard-hitting journalist – and thinking I could maybe sneak my way onto News 9 again – I made my way to the scene to snap a couple of photos for social media and hopefully catch a live cat rescue or something that could go viral.
Check out this hard-hitting news report:
TLO is on the scene and on the story of a large building fire near I-44 and Youngs. Full details tonight at 10. pic.twitter.com/K3iYp6RsPX
News 9, on the other hand, made sure their breaking news team stayed on the scene and on the story. They provided a live view of the fire, footage from one of their sky cams, and, curiously, earlier footage of a yule log burning bright.
That being said, wouldn’t it have been better to splice in b-roll footage of a previous fire than a yule log?
I know it’s the holiday season and everything, but I’m sure News 9 had plenty of stock fire footage available and I seriously doubt News 9 viewers would have noticed the difference.
Then again, maybe News 9 is implying an out-of-control yule log is what created a blaze? That would be interesting. You’d think that’s something they’d highlight and exploit for cheap clicks, but they’re also the same station that ignored their own viral coverage of the sex toy spill, so who knows?
Uhm… it looks like this wrecked semi spilled a load of dildos and lube all over I-40! Great camera work, @news9! pic.twitter.com/bdFh3hGuNs