@clairecmc: 'catastrophic incompetence'

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@Benita Zahn reports:

I just wanted to share this amazing story with you. It's from NewsChannel 13's Benita Zahn

Let’s Get Social

Last night I got this question on twitter, from an up-and-coming journalist

Who does the best social media? Including both Twitter (official station account and individual reporters) and Facebook.

I responded by saying:

That's a VERY tough question to answer. I don't think I could tweet in 140 or less, to be totally honest.

Each station has their own twitter and Facebook accounts and some reporters have their own twitter and Facebook accounts as well, but some news outlets are using the social media sites better than others.

Before discussing the Albany market, I want to shine a spotlight on the Boston television market. Almost every reporter at WHDH, 7News, has their own twitter account. But, there is also a main account –@7news– this account is updated continuously throughout the day with retweets of what reporters are talking about on their twitter accounts, updates of breaking news from Boston and beyond, as well as links to live video. This seems to be the perfect model of how to use twitter. 7News competitor @WBZ’s bio reads “No RSS – just real updates from real people at WBZ.” This is a concept I wish more Albany news stations would implement on their twitter accounts 'real people' no RSS.

WTEN, WNYT, WRGB, WXXA and YNN all rely too much on the dreaded twitter feed. Twitter is supposed to be about making connections and conversation. How can a follower do that with a feed? Having said that, I do not want to give the impression that no ‘real people’ ever tweet from the five Albany news stations' twitter accounts, they do. However, it seems there could be more consistency in how the twitter accounts are updated.

In a B&C article, YNN news director Gary Holems says, to him, twitter is like a wire service. Meaning, followers of news accounts want the most up to the minute news. There needs to be more breaking news, and followers should be able to depend on twitter accounts for up to the minute information. For example, Tuesday afternoon at one o’clock in the afternoon while there was a scheduled press conference in Amsterdam, I kept an eye on twitter to see who tweeted what. There were continuous updates from @cbs6albany an update from @fox23news and an update at the end of the press conference from @wten. I was expecting many more twitter updates about that press conference. Another example, captured by Rob Madeo on his Times Union blog involves how a breaking news story was –or was not– covered, on twitter, in May.

Overall, the main News10 twitter account seems to have the most updates from ‘real people,’ but that is not to say they have the best social media coverage. By my count, YNN has the most individual accounts; 26 reporters, meteorologists, and kid critics tweeting and continuously updating their followers. One the Facebook side, most of CBS6 Albany’s anchors have pages (in addition to the station's main account) where viewers get to interact with Liz, Jerry, Teresa, Greg and Marci. Which is why it’s so hard to answer the question “Who does the best social media?”

So what can be done to improve local news stations’ twitter accounts? Here are some of my thoughts:

• Twitter must be a requirement for everyone in newsrooms. Reporters/anchors, meteorologists, photographers, producers and assignment editors should use twitter to update followers on breaking news, post links to interesting stories and links to live video and promote what’s coming up on the evening news. WHDH Boston even uses twitvid to tweet a promo for their evening newscasts. Something that I think is a great idea, and should be adopted by local news stations.

• Create more accounts and use the retweet feature. While NewsChannel 13 has their own twitter account for weather, the others do not. So instead of tweeting about weather from the main account, a separate account should be set up for the weather department, assignment desk an individual reporters. When individual twitter accounts exist the main account should retweet important updates from the individual accounts.

• And finally, get rid of twitterfeed, or have a separate account for the feed. Local blog, All over Albany, has a twitter account just for a feed of their site and another account for ‘real people’ tweets. That’s not to say a twitter account should have no news articles, but simply barfing up everything from a website to twitter makes it cumbersome to uncover the important tweets/breaking news as apposed to other news stories.

Twitter shouldn’t seem like an extra, but an extension of how the story is told.

A legend Dies, a Car Accident and the Stimulus Didn't Work, plus more..

It was a very busy news day today. Yankees owner George Steinbrenner died. Locally, it was a shooting that topped the news. In the political circle people are all a-fluster over a car accident.

The Big Story: The death of "the Boss."

Watch WABC's Scott Clark's George Steinbrenner Obituary:

WABC also has a lot more coverage on there site. And, locally WTEN's John McLouchlin went to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown to report on the passing of the legend. WRGB reminded us Liz Bishop was the first female to report from the Yankee's locker room, as well as passing along local connections.

And, as the news of the passing of Steinbrenner came after the morning papers were published, the Daily News published a special evening edition of the paper, paying tribue to "The Boss." A picture of the Daily News special edition cover at right.

Finally, many people from politicians to celebs are remembering Steinbrenner. Sen. Chuck Schumer says this of the Yankee legend:

Like New York and like the Yankees, George Steinbrenner was a champion.

Read more statements here.

Politically Speaking: it was just a love tap.

NY1 is reporting that the driver of state AG candidate Eric Schneiderman hit a NY1 car. But Schniderman says, no he didn't, and the last name of that driver -Kagan. Yupp, the niece of the SCOTUS nominee.

CBS News Poll says: Obama's not doing enough.

Watch the CBS news report and read about the poll here. From that report:

Fifty-two percent say the president has spent too little time addressing the issue, and 63 percent say his economic programs have had no effect on them personally.

The Good News: a weather man's birthday.

It's WTEN meteorologist Steve Caporizzo's 50th birthday. Watch as a backyard of people sing Happy Birthday to him and a look back at Cap's 20 years at WTEN. Of note, a year ago today Pet Connection returned to the News Station.

The day the Local TV fanatic meets local TV legend

Today, my cousins and I took a trip to Albany. After leaving the state museum, we walked around the capital. While walking around the capital I saw the one and only John McLaughlin shooting a story for News10. John, as viewers know, often reports on political issues. And, he's been at WTEN for more than 35 years.

I yelled "John" and told him I'm a big fan of his and I watch everyday. Then I asked "so what's going on at the Capital today john?" He told me not much, adding that's what the story is.

Then he asked me if I'm in college. I said Yes, I go to St. Rose. He said are you going for communications? I told him, no I'm not. He said good, save your parents money. I told him I'm going for teaching, and he said good.

I don't think I even told him my name (the same thing I forgot to tell Benita Zahn when I ran into her at St. Rose). We didn't talk for long, as I knew he was busy and needed to get back to WTEN. But just getting to meet him was amazing!

While it was sad to hear a local legend speak of the communications industry that way, it's just another person pointing out what's happening at local TV stations across america. The communication industry, including the Albany area, is in disarray with people being fired to save companies money and companies fighting to come out of bankruptcy.

Picture and info from wten.com

Fireworks on TV...

After you've spent time with your family cooking, swimming, drinking and eating you’ll probably want to watch some fireworks on television. Here’s a look at what’s on Sunday July 4th 2010:

• 8pm/9:30pm: A Capitol Fourth 2010 PBS

• 9pm: Macy's 4th of July Fireworks Spectacular NBC

Nick Cannon and Alison Sweeney host Macy's annual Fourth of July Fireworks Spectacular, with musical guests Justin Bieber, Enrique Iglesias and LeAnn Rimes as well as special guest appearances from the cast of Twilight Eclipse! [from NBC.com]

• 10pm: Boston Pops Fireworks Spectacular CBS

If you actually want to watch fireworks up close in person, here’s a list of where you can view Fireworks in the Capital Region.

Your mid-day news update:

Here's some of what's making news today:

Paterson's Tax Talk

Soldiers Remembered

More than 2 million cribs are being recalled

Condoms available at Cape elementary school

America's most recession-proof cities

More Severe Storms Rock Chicago: Lightning Strikes Three Chicago High-Rises At Once (VIDEO)

A young female dolphin was spotted washed up on the sand on pensacola beach today