I received this email message & attached comments overnight.

“Sent to the KHON news team after one of the most mediocre news broadcasts in a long, long time….Regards, Desmond Yen”

———- Forwarded message ———-

From: Desmond Yen

Date: Sat, Nov 14, 2009 at 12:55 AM

Subject: The quality of your newscast has reached new levels of mediocrity

To: news@khon2.com, etc

Cc: info@mediacouncil.org

Dear KHON:

Tonight’s 10:00 pm newscast was a joke. Correct me if I am wrong, but you did not have a single reporter on a news story. Instead you sent out a videographer and had Joe do VOs. That is reporting?
And you led the news with a couple of minor car crashes???? Not a single story on the government (except for the HPD chief story, where you just reported on testimony), not a single enterprise story, not a single story that required a reporter to actually do some research. Your newscast was completely filled with reporting reactive events.

Also, was the fire on Maui really news? Or did you report it because you had some video submitted by a member of the public, and thought, oh cool we got some fire video, let’s make a story out of it.

And your story on the Leahey son was completely self serving and self referential. It was as if someone looked around the newsroom and said, “Hey, we need to fill 1:30, can we do a story on one of us?”

I cannot watch your newscast any longer as you seem to have no commitment to actual news. At least KITV still uses reporters.

Joe Moore was right a few years ago….the newscast has become a vehicle for advertising and promotion, and for cute stories about the “keiki,” and not for educating and informing viewers and holding government accountable.

Regards,

Desmond Yen