Chicago TV ready with teacher strike coverage, gets thrown two breaking stories

Over on WLS, the ABC O&O, ABC 7 Eyewitness at 4 p.m. started with strike coverage. 

The show’s pre-produced teases were abruptly cut off by a breaking news stinger and the newscast dove right into team coverage of the teacher strike.

At around 4:45 p.m. local time, the station returned from a break with anchor Rob Elgas on screen after its breaking news stinger ran with the first report about Johnson’s health scare. 

The camera framed Elgas off center briefly — either because it was set for another story with an OTS graphic or one was supposed to be inserted next to him but it didn’t materialize. 

After the camera adjust, the cityscape background on the video wall behind him appeared to have an unexplained black box in it.

Strike and police coverage continued at 5 p.m., with the station leading with team coverage of the strike.

During a “video on video” shot showcasing three live reporters, the far left box that was supposed to feature Stacey Baca’s live shot briefly showed the grass and then the videographer appeared to attempt to zoom in tight on her face to focus.

Later in the broadcast, the station updated the Johnson story.

Advertisement

Both stories continued to lead at 6 p.m. newscast.

At 6, the station inserted a “The Latest” sidebar for strike coverage with three points which were supposed to get larger and turn blue as they were mentioned, but it didn’t quite match up with what was being discussed.

The sidebar returned at 10 during strike coverage with better coordination, but the station lead with the Rialmo story briefly before moving on to Johnson and then the strike in a rapid paced block that saw a dizzying number of breaking news stingers. 

Throughout all of its strike coverage, WLS used the banner “CPS Teachers On Strike” along with a logo of the Chicago Public Schools and an outdated version of the Chicago Teachers Union logo.