Viewers Voice: weekend coverage and the Moving Vietnam Wall

We’ve recently received a few complaints that we have too many newscasts during the week, but one NRV viewer has a different take on that.

She called in to say, "My main concern is not the amount of news you have during the week. But, rather the lack of news you have on the weekends. You can not hardly even get the 6pm newscast and most of the time your programming from your golf or whatever sports runs over. Like I say you have a very disproportionate amount of coverage during the week versus the weekends.”

WSLS responds: Thanks for the e-mail. I can assure you that we don’t like having our newscasts pre-empted by sports programming either. But, that programming is coming from our network, NBC. Contractually we are not allowed to break away from it.

Another viewer mailed in a complaint about a story we did on the Moving Vietnam Wall, which recently made a stop in our area.

J. Jones of Franklin County wrote, "I was disappointed with your coverage, or lack thereof, of the Vietnam Moving Wall located at the Franklin County Rec Park. I saw no footage at all and only heard it mentioned one time. Do we not care about the thousands who gave their lives in vain? Have we forgotten them again?!"

WSLS responds: Thanks for writing in. You make a good point that we shouldn’t forget the sacrifices made by our brave veterans from the Vietnam War, or for that matter, any war. And, WSLS made a special effort not to. On October 1st, we covered the Moving Wall in Franklin County with an in depth story that aired at 5pm and again on our 10pm and morning newscasts. It included video of the wall and sound with people visiting it.

Finally, our story on Ashton Baker, a senior at Hidden Valley High School living with Down Syndrome, Alzheimer’s, and Autism, who was elected homecoming queen this year touched many viewers including Fenton Harrison of Salem.

Harrison wrote, “Your article on Lean Baker and her daughter Ashton on the news Friday night nearly broke my hard and lifted me up again." The letter continued, “To understand how special this was one must remember selection to this honor is by the vote of the students. It is a popularity contest. That's why I am very proud of the students. They understood without coaching one of the basic pillars of our society - the worth and dignity of all people no matter what their wealth or circumstance. It may be Ashton's last homecoming. She may not have understood all the pomp and circumstance. She knew love when se saw it."

Well said.