The New York Post's
Phil Mushnick must've seen Mobile 2 for the first time the other day.
After making some sort of joke about Benny Hill, Looney Tunes and Three Stooges music, he writes:
We’ll pick it up with studio co-anchor Mary Calvi, about to throw it to field reporter Weijia Jiang, who was driving a car — trying to drive a car — on Staten Island while she alternately looked at the road and shot glances at the camera operator in the passenger seat.
Ch. 2 proudly and generously refers to this setup as “Mobile 2.”
Calvi, having noted that conditions are dangerous, introduced Jiang as “trying to maneuver around all these problems.”
Stop right there. That’s one way to look at it. The other way was to believe your eyes, to deal with the more self-evident — she and Ch. 2 apparently were trying to create even more problems!
What Jiang reported while she needlessly drove on — and apparently sought out — dangerously iced roads on SI could have just as easily and far more sensibly been reported from the studio: “Be very, very careful if you’re driving or even walking!”
Yes, Mobile 2 is largely a gimmick, but it also shows a live view that had never really been seen, at least when it debuted a few years ago.
And Mushnick's claim that the road conditions could have easily been reported from inside the studio is laughable. What's the point of television news if it can't
show you the news?
That would be no better than a newspaper columnist who's staying inside.
(Thanks to Mike for sending in this link.)
