The good news about the news

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By ERIC DEGGANS, Times Television Critic

© St. Petersburg Times, published May 16, 2000

Shortly before he left Tampa Bay to produce NBC's Early Today show last year, former WFTS-Ch. 28 news director Steve Majors developed a quickie greeting whenever I called for information on a story.

"Okay . . . what did we do wrong this time?"

For most critics, who hate nothing more than to be seen as a pushover, that would sound like a compliment. After all, a major part of the job is to pierce the hype and misdirection that surrounds many broadcasts these days.

Still, you don't want to get so focused on ferreting out the negatives that you miss the good stuff.

Since May is an all-important "sweeps" ratings period, the temptation to use newscasts to grab attention in questionable ways is high; for evidence, just turn on a TV set for a few minutes.

But the truth is, there also are some quality efforts out there. In the spirit of balance, here are a few examples:

WFTS-Ch. 28's 'Tampa Bay Treasures'

When it debuted three years ago, I was skeptical, mostly because it sounded like the kind of fluff that TV loves to wallow in: upbeat reports about cutesy local people and events, ripe for the sales department to shoehorn favored advertisers into.

How could I know Tampa Bay Treasures would turn into a local TV phenomenon?

Now airing new pieces on Tuesdays and Thursdays, WFTS' effort has earned a raft of Emmy Awards and a devoted following among local viewers.

And there's one word that explains why: storytelling.

"If I can read the story and pretend I'm in my rocking chair, telling it to a kid, then I know it's good," says Bob Kendrick, the reporter/anchor who writes and narrates the stories, working with photographer Tim Eck. "These are stories . . . not like your history teacher told you, but like your grandfather might. We kind of let the stories breathe . . . take a slower pace."

Kendrick and Eck were handed the idea as part of a corporate initiative from WFTS owner Scripps Howard, which wanted to spread the concept across its 10 TV stations.

But when the pair brainstormed Tampa Bay Treasures, they set a few ground rules.

"We make a point not to take stories out of the paper, and to take our time," says Kendrick, who adds that he has also resisted pressure to feature advertisers in the series. "We can wait around for six months for video from the Baseball Hall of Fame or the Smithsonian. Because of the economics, so much of TV is rushed . . . and it's a difficult medium (to do well) while you're rushing."

So when Kendrick and Eck wanted to do a story on Redington Long Pier, they scrapped the original idea -- a conventional slice of life story on the pier -- after a day of filming. Instead, they went back and collected 20 stories from different fishermen, editing them into one long fish tale.

In cobbling together a piece on "Mascotte," the phrase that appears in the city of Tampa's official seal, they hunted for a month until they found the opera that inspired railroad magnate Henry Plant to place that name on a ship, which eventually found its way to the city seal.

"As a news photographer, this job doesn't get any better," says Eck. "All my friends are under extreme pressure to produce on deadline. But they've really left us alone to create a memorable product."

For those who can't get enough, WFTS has collected 14 notable Treasures stories on a videotape, available by mail order from the station for $12.95. Featuring everything from the history of the Cuban sandwich to a baseball team whose youngest player is 75, these reports offer a uniquely creative vision of the bay area's history.

Bay News 9's court coverage

Al Ruechel couldn't help it.

While anchoring cable news channel Bay News 9's marathon coverage of Valessa Robinson's murder trial last month, he turned to legal analyst Rick DeFuria with a question.

Jurors were about to begin deliberations, and Ruechel wanted to know about the notion that attorneys sometimes seek "12 of the dumbest people they can find" to serve on juries.

DeFuria answered well, explaining that not knowing about a widely publicized case doesn't always equal a lack of intelligence. But Ruechel had scored again, asking a question that was probably on the minds of many viewers.

"It's something everybody wants to know," the anchor says. "I try to ask what any viewer would ask if they were here."

As it turns out, Robinson's trial gave Bay News 9 a chance to show off an increasingly valuable facet of its news coverage: the ability to show viewers the news of a trial as it is happening.

"It's almost like hurricane coverage . . . you increase it as you go along," says Kent Harrell, news director at Bay News 9, who says the channel's daytime ratings grew during the regular reports.

Though other media outlets, including the St. Petersburg Times, covered the trial in detail, there's nothing like seeing events as they unfold.

And even though the channel has offered such continuous legal coverage before -- during the Rev. Henry Lyons' trial last year, for instance -- Ruechel remains surprised by how closely some viewers follow such proceedings.

"We in this business sometimes have ideas in our head about what people want to see," says the anchor, noting that the news channel will probably present similar coverage in the trial of Jose Luis Del Toro, accused of killing Sarasota mother Sheila Bellush. "But people are sitting at home spending hours and hours of their day watching this."

WFLA-Ch. 8's aggressive crime coverage

When soft ratings prompted officials at the NBC affiliate last year to focus more on hard news coverage, this critic got a little worried.

Often such pronouncements signal a slide into sensational crime reporting, chasing police scanners for footage of the most gruesome crimes and accidents.

But that hasn't been the case at WFLA, which seems to have used the mandate to produce substantive stories on crime-related issues.

Since then, reporters have looked at lax rules for house arrest sentences, problems with weapons permits, the 24-year fight by a convicted killer to obtain DNA testing that might prove his innocence (reported last year by the St. Petersburg Times) and allegations that several Largo police officers have had sexual relationships with female members of the department's youth Explorer post.

"It empowered our best reporters to go in-depth," says Dan Bradley, vice president of news at WFLA. "Our goal wasn't to do more crime stories, but to keep crime in context."

The same can't be said for some of the station's promotional announcements, which often seem focused on scaring viewers into watching the stories.

Still, reporter Mark Douglas, who presented the Largo police, house arrest and weapons permit stories, says the station's mandate is to get beyond the initial rush of police sirens and body bags to the larger issues.

"We don't cover every shooting or bank robbery," he says. "But if we can establish a pattern . . . look at the bigger picture . . . that's what's rewarded."

To reach Eric Deggans, call (727) 893-8521, e-mail deggans@sptimes.com or see the St. Petersburg Times Web site at http://www.sptimes.com.