Public workers used in promos

Durham's WTVD touts news team

The Bull City's hometown TV station is planning to promote its news team's ability to cover live news by faking it.

WTVD ABC-11 has been staging fire, foul weather and other news events across Durham this week, shooting advertisements for its news operation that not only put its Eyewitness News team at contrived scenes but also have taxpayers footing the bill for on-duty firefighters and other emergency workers to give the ads a realistic flair.

On Wednesday, the station set up smoke machines at 1213 Carolina Ave., the home of Kathy Schenley.

Barricades blocked traffic from West Club Boulevard to Woodrow Street.

The Durham Fire Department rolled two fire engines and a hazardous materials truck to the house in the Watts-Hillandale neighborhood.

As producers set the stage for the fake house fire, eight on-duty firefighters waited for their cues to perform. A couch was in the middle of the yard.

"Our personnel were on duty," said interim Fire Chief Bruce T. Pagan. "If we needed them for a call, we could have called them and they would have been out of there fast."

Earlier this week, Pagan said, the Fire Department sent a truck to the WTVD studio where a crew was staging a bad weather event.

Pagan did not think his department's participation in the commercials was an inappropriate use of city resources.

"We're promoting what the Fire Department does so that's not a waste of taxpayers' money," Pagan said. "This is air time that the Fire Department is able to get, it's air time the city doesn't have to pay for."

Neither Curtis Miles, the TV station's creative services director, nor a WTVD news director returned calls for comment Thursday.

But before the Wednesday event, a message bearing Miles' name was posted on the Watts-Hillandale electronic mailing list describing what was in store for the neighborhood.

Neighbors would see the TV station's helicopter, flashing lights, paramedics, firefighters and lots of activities, according to the post.

"The mini-movie," as the production was called, was to air in February.

Schenley, who received no money for the use of her house, said she was told the commercials were to air during the Super Bowl.

John Sweeney, a journalism professor at UNC-Chapel Hill who specializes in advertising and sports communication, said the shoots raised interesting issues about staging events.

"If the president can do it, why can't the local news station?" Sweeney said.

The TV station might have to put disclaimers in the commercials noting that it had staged the house fire, Sweeney said, but he was not certain what lawyers might tell the station.

"From an advertising view, people stage all sorts of stuff," Sweeney said. "If it's not a real event, but it's been staged, that's all right with me. That's commercials."

The question then becomes what such promotions would say journalistically, he said.

"If all the journalists are getting all peeved about it, when you start ranting about it and the public finds out, then that sort of undoes the invisible effect of the campaign," Sweeney said.