Comments

TheHappyFriar wrote on 11/12/2009, 4:56 AM
i found it quite entertaining. :) So you're saying that instead of making something comical AND news worthy non-fox local stations would spend thousands on high tech CGI recreations or stock footage of bears in national parks?

Sure beats the empty woods shots when bears/coyotes/bobcats are reported near the city here!

(a local affiliate has nothing to do with a national news organization except that the national sometimes lets them use national footage/streams).
CClub wrote on 11/12/2009, 5:03 AM
VERY funny!!

Thanks, Mike, that made my morning.
Laurence wrote on 11/12/2009, 5:24 AM
I don't know which scared me more, the bear running or starting to climb the tree. ;-)
RalphM wrote on 11/12/2009, 5:43 AM
Since most of our local news is full of mayhem, I much prefer the cardboard bear.
AlanC wrote on 11/12/2009, 6:27 AM
It looked pretty real to me but then I realised it was just Carly Martin.
rs170a wrote on 11/12/2009, 6:45 AM
So you're saying that instead of making something comical AND news worthy non-fox local stations would spend thousands on high tech CGI recreations or stock footage of bears in national parks?

No, that's not what I'm saying.
What's wrong with stock footage, a picture or even a trip to the local zoo?
By itself, the cardboard cutout was borderline OK.
When it started walking and climbing a tree though, IMHO that's when they lost their journalistic integrity and credibility.

Mike
rs170a wrote on 11/12/2009, 6:46 AM
Alan, who is Carly Martin?
A Google search turns up a lot of different possibilities.

Mike
JohnnyRoy wrote on 11/12/2009, 6:57 AM
> high tech CGI recreations

Huh? I thought it WAS CGI! ...Wasn't that a Cardboard Graphic Insert I saw? ;-)

I enjoyed it. News doesn't have to be boring or take themselves too seriously. Besides, I thought there was a big push in Hollywood to use more practicals and less CGI anyway. lol

~jr
Coursedesign wrote on 11/12/2009, 8:28 AM
I hope they were doing it in jest, because it was quite funny.

But I wouldn't bet on it.

It has always been a staple of small regional stations to show a clip of someone pointing down the road/meadow/alley, saying "The thief/moose/attacker went THAT way!"

The Cardboard Graphic Insert climbing a tree was priceless, this is like SNL at its best :O).

Brings the door-knocking shark to mind... :O).
musicvid10 wrote on 11/12/2009, 8:56 AM
Typical Fox News reporting.
Next they'll have Rush claiming Obama wants Death Squads for bears.
AlanC wrote on 11/12/2009, 9:14 AM
Mike

Sorry to send you on a wild Google chase, Carly Martin is the Cleveland Metroparks Naturalist who appears at 0.44 in the video.

It's just my imagination, running away with me...
rs170a wrote on 11/12/2009, 9:16 AM
Thanks Alan.
Shows how much attention I paid to the video :-)

Mike
ChrisMN wrote on 11/12/2009, 9:18 AM
I also think this is funny and it does not lower the standard of journalistic integrity--clearly every viewer knows it's not a real bear!
kdm wrote on 11/12/2009, 10:47 AM
That was funny. Looks to me like some journalists were having a bit of fun with their silly "re-creation" at the expense of viewers, and probably a community over-reacting to a bear that the news station doubts existed.
Coursedesign wrote on 11/12/2009, 12:05 PM
... journalists were having a bit of fun with their silly "recreation" at the expense of viewers

Hasn't Fox always led the way in "recreational news" reporting?

:O)
kdm wrote on 11/12/2009, 2:24 PM
"Hasn't Fox always led the way in "recreational news" reporting?"

I think that honor would have to go to Conan, Leno, and Letterman. ;-)

I think this was a joke by the news team, considering the correlation to...ahem..."Da Bears" .... so many clues in the video. Funny stuff.

Listen to the lady interviewed right at the start - "it was an adrenaline rush, and I think you can only take maybe one of those a year..." LOL. No one comes up with comments like that in a candid interview. Better writing than most SNL skits.
Dan Sherman wrote on 11/12/2009, 3:03 PM
The newsroom didn't have enough in the budget to hire an AFTRA bear.
So they had to go with a one dimensional amateur, bearly able to act?
Did you notice the fox grinning in the background?
Just behind a tree.
His little red snout just poking out there.
A sly little rascal, to the far right of the opening frame.
brianw wrote on 11/12/2009, 3:05 PM
Monty Python is alive and well
fausseplanete wrote on 11/12/2009, 5:48 PM
Can it water-ski as well? Ballet-dance?

Does it do flat scats?
Rory Cooper wrote on 11/12/2009, 10:10 PM
That’s about all I can bear, cardboard cutout scat would have been the clincher

on the upside the fox was 3d
ChristoC wrote on 11/13/2009, 1:18 AM
Fox + journalistic + integrity = the ultimate oxymoron

(a phrase in which two words of contradictory meaning are used together for special effect, e.g. 'wise fool' or 'legal murder; ........ any two of the 3 words above qualify)
CClub wrote on 11/13/2009, 4:49 AM
Set aside the "Fox News" angle for a moment, if anyone has watched much local news, you'll know that it wouldn't be a stretch that these people are serious and NOT doing this tongue-in-cheek. It's possible that they were, but I've seen some idiotic stuff done by local TV stations. And there is some amazingly low quality production work, low quality local commercials. One of the things I've developed a niche for is local concert work, and I'm amazed at the low quality local concerts that is played for hours on local TV stations.
JimboWHO wrote on 11/13/2009, 8:45 AM
"I also think this is funny and it does not lower the standard of journalistic integrity--clearly every viewer knows it's not a real bear!"

Of course you're correct. The original post would not have been made had the spot appeared on some other network - the author would not then be given the chance to take their shot at Fox News.

JJM
Coursedesign wrote on 11/13/2009, 9:02 AM
That is true. It's gone a bit overboard, but Fox did bring this on themselves.

Just look at yesterday's Fox apology for showing video footage purported to be from a recent Teabagger rally this month.

The most trusted source in news, Jon Stewart showed an excerpt from this Fox video where the first few seconds showed a few marchers next to bare trees under an overcast sky, and then when the Teabaggers rounded the corner, there were suddenly ten thousand people marching next to trees with full leaves under a sunny sky.

Fox thanked Jon for watching...

So their credibility is under attack for a reason.

I just think it is sad that people give Fox respect as if they were a news organization (and that has nothing to do with Obama freezing them out, which I think was record stupidity).

It's not even entertainment, but a carnival barker's desire to draw people into the tent, no matter what has to be said to make it so.

Conflict never failed to make money, even if you have to invent it or greatly exaggerate it.