Media Mediocrity In The Stale Pueblo. By Tom Danehy WE WERE SITTING around The Weekly offices the other day, talking about local media. (Actually, it was an odd occasion. I attribute my longevity here at The Weekly to the fact that I almost never sit around the office. In fact, I almost never go to the office. I type my stuff at home, drive by The Weekly at about 15 miles an hour and throw the disk at the front door.) Anyway, I was in the office of Mr. A. Bradley Dongass III. Mr. D is of the mind that the media generally stink in this town. I think they're okay. Not as good as one might hope, not as bad as one might fear. Sort of that half-full, half-empty thing. For example, I'm glad we still have an afternoon paper in Tucson. Among other things, it employs those dudes on the street corners, the ones who look like they used to operate carnival rides until they violated the dress code. I wish the Tucson Citizen had more meat to it, but when you realize that big-ass Phoenix doesn't even have an afternoon paper anymore, you just kinda count your blessings, meager though they may be. Tucson's tough on media types. It's a mid-sized market, so it's often just a stopping-off point for those on the way up. Case in point: Channel 13 anchor Kris Pickel will probably be in town just long enough for people to wonder why she hasn't changed her name. Some talented people choose to live in Tucson because of all that it offers. But a lot of others are here and gone before they even get the chance to pronounce "Camino De La Tierra" on the air. So, Mr. D challenged me to watch the media closely. Just give it a week. Not with a jaundiced eye, but neither with rose-colored glasses. (Wow, if you looked at things with a jaundiced eye and rose-colored glasses, would everything come out orange?) And so I did. I watched all three newscasts, even (ugh!) Channel 4. I read both papers, as I always do, anyway. I don't know if Mr. D is prescient, but boy, did the local media have a bad week. Among the lowlights: SELFA SILVA AS BASKETBALL STAR, PART XXVIII: Everybody knows the story about the Tucson High kid who went to a slumber party, gave birth to a baby, strangled it, then threw it in a dumpster. Throughout the case, the local media have been scandalously generous to Silva, painting her as a kid who made a mistake. Okay, let's assume that she got pregnant the first time she ever had sex (ahem). That, you might characterize as a mistake. But to hide the pregnancy from her parents, choke the life out of her own child, then discard the body in a dumpster--that stretches the definition of "mistake" a bit too far. Also, they always say her parents are fighting to have her stay in Desert Hills, the high-priced shrink tank on the west side. But they never mention who's paying for all that psychological pampering. What bothers me most is that they always show Silva in a basketball uniform, with a ball in one hand and a trophy in another. I can't believe that's the only picture they have of her. They've shown her face on TV in court appearances, so there isn't any privacy concern. I'm not saying they should have a picture of her standing next to the dumpster, but how about something a bit more neutral? DROPPED BALL: One of the biggest sports stories of the year is the emergence of the Arizona women's basketball team as a Pac-10 power and a national name. Coach Joan Bonvicini's squad is 19-4 at press time and all but assured of its first-ever spot in the NCAAs. But what happened when the Arizona women went to L.A. and swept UCLA and USC on the road for the first time ever? The Star buried the story on page eight! They didn't send anybody to the games. They didn't mention the importance of Arizona's win over USC, which allowed the Cats to climb over the Trojans into second place in the Pac-10. They just ran wire reports, which didn't even include the team's records. That's weak. The Citizen ran a small story on the front page, but put it under the headline about Miles Simon and the men's team. Strange. You could argue all day about which should come first: a team building a fan base, or expanded media coverage of that team. Personally, I think they can go hand-in-hand. A team shouldn't have to operate in a media vacuum, but neither do they deserve attention just because they're there. But this team is building some serious momentum, and it makes perfect sense for the media to be jumping on (if not leading) the bandwagon. KGUN'S GOD-AWFUL EXPANDED NEWSHOUR: I've already written about how angry I was that they moved Jeopardy to make room for this monstrosity. But now, my worst fears have been borne out. The other night at 5 o'clock, they led with the story of the teenaged drive-by shooting victim. The reporter, Manuel De La Osa, didn't ask or say why the kid was walking down the street at 10 a.m. instead of being in school, or why he was in a neighborhood other than that in which he lived. Those are the kind of questions that jump to mind. Then they did an update on a fatal shootout the previous week at a stereo store. Then, at 5:04 p.m., the third piece in an hour-long news broadcast, they went with a feature on Pat Sajak!!!!! Tell me that doesn't suck. And they wanted us to stay tuned to the second half-hour for a thing on Vanna White. That's absolutely shameless. Congratulations, KGUN. You managed to chase away your most loyal viewer. I've been watching you since the days of Doug Dudley, Nina Trasoff and Bert Sass. No more.

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