5: Oil Spill Bird Victims in Northern California, Dec. 9, 2001

5.

Published news story, December 9, 2001, bcn67: Oiled Birds Still Turning Up On Coast, by Lurene Helzer, Bay City News, San Francisco. This story I wrote for Bay City News around 4 that morning was picked up by most Northern California news organizations, be they radio, television or newspapers.

Those who subscribed to our news service were able to write or broadcast the news in that same day. Many others were able to write or broadcast greater stories about the oil spill’s effects on coastal birds later in the week.

But the main thing here is that I got the interviews first, wrote this story, and sent it out through BCN to Northern California’s various client news outlets. With respect to getting the story out first, I beat every news organization in Northern California with this one.

This actually happened often in my work, but usually only because I was covering metropolitan issues which had little importance for most people. In other words, I was the first reporter to write about a budget cut for El Cerrito, but mostly because reporters were not fighting for space in El Cerrito’s City Council chambers to report on the issue. But in other cases, issues would have a regional importance or sensational appeal.

This disaster story, giving visual details about the innocent birds who were by then drowning in oil, perishing from the broad and toxic sheen’s effects on their little feathers, had obvious appeal to residents of the Bay area and the greater population of California.