Who’s ready for a KFOR special report on “When Parody Comes To Life”?
Last week, while most of us were checked out for the 4th of July, KFOR ran a report investigating the origins of a mysterious hole on the golf course of Roman Nose State Park.
When I stumbled across the headline online, I couldn’t help but recall a video The Onion put together in 2016 that mocked the edgy and adventurous and now defunct reporting from Vice.
It’s titled “What's Up With This Big Hole?”
I doubt that anyone from KFOR was aware of The Onion spoof, but I wish they were so they could have made their own hole story more interesting. The only thing their report accomplished was reminding me about everything that’s wrong with the media nowadays.
For example, the KFOR report was very clickbaity and misleading. This is the header image of the hole they included with the article:
That may look like a scary hole as far as Oklahoma holes go, especially if you focus on the, uhm, mushroom-shaped shaft at the bottom, but look at the hole from a zoomed-out perspective:
Yep, cut into live programming and fire up Chopper 4! There’s a hole on a golf course near Watonga and it’s several feet wide! Who cares if we’ve all seen larger holes driving down May Ave. following a thunderstorm, this is news the world needs to know about.
“Patrick, I don’t appreciate your sarcasm. Remember that sinkhole in Florida that swallowed a man alive? Maybe this one could do the same thing!”
Okay, I do remember that story and have an irrational fear of sinkholes because of it, but if you get swallowed alive at Roman Nose Golf Course, it was probably your time to go.
Plus, this hole isn’t even a cause for concern! It’s not even a safety hazard to anyone.
Via KFOR:
The Oklahoma weather played a big part in how the hole was formed; our wet spring likely contributed to the hole’s collapse.
While the sinkhole is a not a safety hazard to anyone, Chase Horn, the Director of Communications at Oklahoma Tourism and Recreation, tells News 4 their main goal is to keep everyone safe, and are relying on experts to get it fixed.
As a guy who works in the engagement media, I know we all have slow news days and will stories to life, and this write-up about the KFOR hole report reinforces that, but once they found out the hole isn't a hazard, shouldn’t they have tabled the report?
Call me an asshole fan-hater, but unless it was caused by Bill Murray trying to blow up a gopher, I don’t really think a non-hazardous hole on a golf course should necessitate a news story.
Next time, KFOR should dig up something more substantial, or at least go The Onion route and make it satirical. Then maybe local news would be worth watching.
Stay with The Lost Ogle. We’ll keep you advised.
