Video of Impaled Man Raises Graphic Questions

It was gruesome stuff, a man impaled on two metal fence posts after falling from atop the Mt. Soledad cross. He was stuck for 25 minutes, obviously in terrible pain, while firefighters struggled to free him.

Sometimes it seems television news outfits gleefully pounce on such stories. And, in fact, all three local TV stations were on the scene Tuesday night, and each used footage from the accident throughout the week.

Bloody, bordering on gross, the video was dangerously close to the line each station must draw for itself: the fine line between strong video and exploitative video, the same line newspapers must consider when choosing photographs.

“Obviously there is a general understanding that you don’t want to go overboard,” said KFMB-TV (Channel 8) managing editor Marty van Housen. “A lot of videotape (from the incident) was graciously left out. It was much more graphic than anything that would get on our station.”

The video Channel 8 used the night of the incident was painfully long and graphic, and Channel 8 trimmed several scenes in the seemingly obligatory reruns of the incident in newscasts the next few days. “Given second thought, I don’t know if I’d have put on” some of the scenes used the night of the incident, van Housen said.

Technical problems ruined Channel 39’s tape of the incident, but it borrowed tape from the San Diego Fire Department, which it used to lead its 5 p.m. broadcast the day after the incident. Channel 10 also used the story, with video, as its lead the next day.

The news value stemmed from the location and bizarre nature of the accident, the news directors said.

By showing the video, “we’re telling people (climbing the cross) is not a good thing to do,” said KCST-TV (Channel 39) news director Nancy Bauer. “The other thing is that it’s just so darn interesting.”

But why run it over and over again?

“Sixty percent of the audience didn’t see it the first night,” Bauer said. “To update, you have to retell the story. You have to bring up the pictures so people know what you’re talking about.”

KGTV (Channel 10) news director Paul Sands said: “TV news always gets criticized for showing footage that doesn’t need to be shown. We’re sensitive to that. Our rule is not to offend viewers and not to show the footage unless it is absolutely necessary to telling the story.”

Channel 8 is encouraged by the July Nielsen ratings, which suggest the CBS affiliate is doing better than indicated by the recent Arbitron trends. The Nielsen’s show Channel 8 slightly ahead of Channel 10 at 5 p.m. and tied at 11 p.m. Many agencies buy advertising based on the Nielsens, just as many others buy according to Arbitron numbers. One is not necessarily considered more accurate than the other.

Meanwhile, XTRA-FM (91X) is pleased with the July results of the seldom-used Birch ratings, which show 91X as the top station in the county, followed by KKLQ-FM (Q106) and KGB-FM (101.5), the big winner in the last Arbitron book. Birch uses a phone survey method, which tends to reflect younger listeners more than Arbitron, since teens often won’t take the time to fill in the Arbitron diaries.

Such discrepancies, most industry analysts agree, just show that none of the ratings services are necessarily an accurate reflection of the community. “We just use them as a guideline,” said Shelley Lefton, senior media buyer for Franklin and Associates, which uses the Nielsen numbers for TV and the Arbitron for radio.

Former Channel 39 anchor Paul Bloom, set to return to Channel 39 for a third stint--this time as a “crime reporter”--was not a big fan of television news when he left the station in 1987. “The whole approach in San Diego is phony,” Bloom told San Diego magazine. “It has more to do with hair style and fluff than journalism.”. . .

Channel 39 has hired Art Cerf, a producer with WMAQ, the NBC-owned and -operated affiliate in Chicago, to be its new managing editor. He will start Sept. 6. Dave Bender of KYMA, the ABC affiliate in Yuma, Ariz., will be Channel 39’s new weekend weather “personality” beginning Sept. 17. . . .

Former Channel 39 general manager Bill Fox appears to be bitter over the sudden end to his tenure at the station. Fox was removed as operating head of the station when Gillett took over in January, but he has maintained a working relationship with the station as a vice president of the Gillett Corp. While he keeps the title, last month Fox stopped working out of the KCST offices. Last week, he refused to talk about any aspect of the station, even to reflect on past accomplishments. His contract, Fox said, clearly prohibits him from making any public statements about the station. . . .

Reggae star Jimmy Cliff literally missed the boat when XTRA-FM (91X) threw a special party for him. The whole party aboard the Invader cruise ship had to return to the dock to pick him up. . . .

Former KTTV (Channel 11) anchor Andrea Naverson will join Channel 8 as a weekend anchor and reporter in mid-September. . . .

Fox Television’s scandal show, “The Reporters,” had a crew in the offices of the Blade-Tribune newspaper recently to interview reporter David Parrish for a segment on a Marine porno ring.

Eyewitness views: Last week Channel 10 treated its viewers to three days of anchor Carol LeBeau learning to surf. See Carol go into the water. “The waves look a lot bigger up close,” she says. See Carol fall. Oh, gosh, see Carol try again. “This is a lot harder than it looks,” Carol says. The Arizona tourists must have loved it.