New England Cable News

[Fitzpatrick, Mike]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Donna Halper" <dlh@donnahalper.com>
Subject: Re: New England Cable News


> Well, maybe you and I are watching different NECNs.  The one I watch has
> some very credible news anchors like R.D. Sahl and former channel 5 (WCVB)
> anchor Chet Curtis, as well as political commentary from both the left and
> the right, excellent sports reporters, and solid coverage of New England
> issues.  On the weekends and later in the evening, yes it becomes rather
> magazine-like, but in prime time, I have found it often offers more
> thorough coverage and longer pieces than the other local channels.  And
> during the Red Sox' abortive run for the pennant, their two main sports
> anchors were every bit as good as those on the better known stations.  I'd
> be sorry if Comcast pulled the plug on them.

Strong points for New England Cable News: The anchors and reporters. They
all do an outstanding job, and personally from my own experience I prefer to
see someone more expeirenced anchoring than a "fly by nighter".  Another
strong point is they do seem very fair in their political coverage, more
fair than what you see on other area stations.

The weak points for New England Cable News: Their weather is just awful. I
know they are trying to cover all of new england, but a 5 day forcast? It's
a Boston area five day, not a new england one. We all know the climate in
Presque Isle, ME is very different than that in Bridgeport, CT.  The weather
people either also are trying to have too much personality that they don't
have or are being consulted to death.  Another point is , they really are a
Boston oriented channel. VERY rarely do you see news from Northern Vermont,
NH or Maine. Same deal with CT and even here in Western Massachusetts. They
tend to cover more national news and less New England news. I assume they
feel the ticker at the bottom makes up for this, although I don't think it
does. The other and final "grudge" I have is their poor master control/tape
room operations. I have never seen a station that has so many different
levels between commercials, (commercial A is about 3-5db higher than B,
etc...), how many spots do they have that the video is clipping on, because
it was ingested too hot, or audio so badly distorted that you can barely
understand it. Maybe being a former master controller and now an engineer, I
am being too picky about how it looks on the air, but I'll bet others on
here have seen the same thing.

--Mike Fitzpatrick