Royal Wedding

Good Morning!
I hope those of you who wanted to, got to watch the Royal wedding.
For those of you who missed it...sorry, highlights will be forthcoming on every broadcast and Internet outlet on the planet.
-I have to admit I was interested. I wouldn't have been up at 3AM to watch the coverage if this wasn't my job but I probably would have watched most of the wedding just to see it.

-I shouldn't be but I guess I was surprised at how quickly the ceremony was essentially over... They took their vows in the first 15 minutes! The pomp and circumstance was interesting to me. They take this stuff seriously in Great Britain, it's their tradition, their heritage...so it's appropriate they make the occasion with a lot of ceremony.

-Now to our coverage. We talked a lot this week about how we were going to cover the Royal wedding all this week. I'm sorry for the people who wanted to DVR the wedding and missed it. I guess the channel guide on Mediacom had it right...it said we would be broadcasting Today in Iowa from 5-7.
We talked about it on Facebook. We talked about it on-air. I'm not criticizing people who didn't know but I guess I'm surprised at the people who thought this was such an important event weren't paying any attention to it up until the day of the event. Despite the email accusing us of some sort of last minute switch, we did give pretty fair warning.
One woman write to tell us we were "losing perspective on what was real news". Another said she was "disgusted" with our decision. Still another called this the "biggest media event of the Century".
The real courage of these comments is the fake name on the address.
On Facebook, some of the disgruntled viewers were even more serious, threatening to "unfriend us" for the decision, another person called it..."Sad".

Here's my perspective.
I can understand disappointment with the decision. I can understand you may not have heard one of the many announcements we had that indicated this was going to be our coverage plan. If I wanted to watch the U.S. Open Golf Tournament and we decided to switch over the Westminster Dog Show, I would be livid. In fact I've been one of those people who've called a newsroom before complaining about the choice to air one NFL game over another.
That said, a little perspective.
This was a fun event, a big event. Billions watched across the world and millions actually showed up just to be a part of it. That's news, and we treated it appropriately this morning.

The worst part about some of these people who "missed" a critical moment is that if they'd just stuck with us for a second at the beginning of our show...you saw the dress. Maybe you didn't see it the INSTANT she stepped out of the car, but you got a great look at it in our first newsblock. We went back to the Ceremony as they were doing vows, again when they were singing, again when they were it the carriage on the way back to Buckingham Palace.
The balcony kiss happened at 7:30...
So I'm having trouble understanding why that's a bad compromise for both the people who wanted to see the wedding and the people who really didn't care that much?

I don't think it was sad. I certainly don't think this ranks in the biggest events of the century. I feel pretty secure that this is not the kind of "news" we need to be paying more attention to.
Hundreds of people died in tornadoes this week, we have a 3000 soldiers from Iowa in Afghanistan, and we're not done covering a legislative session that's going to have a big impact on your everyday life.
This was fun, it was a reprieve from all of that. I think people put it well when they said we all need a little fairytale in our lives. It was a good break.

I appreciate all of the people who commented...positive or negative. The negative comments that were framed in a mature and even-handed way outnumbered the nasty emails. Most of those people also used their actual name.
Beyond the mere complaints we got a few comments that were particularly nasty from anonymous emailers. I always love reading those. I think if these people would read what they sent us tomorrow or maybe next week, they would be embarrassed that they acted like a four year-old having a tantrum. Criticisms is easy when it's anonymous.

With that, feel free to criticize our decision or comment on our coverage, the Wedding, whatever.
I hope you all have a good weekend!
PWD