Watching two different stations may give viewers two different takes on the same story, depending on which facts they know and report.

Such was the case at noon on January 20.  Channel 4 (KMOV) led with a live report from Robin Smith in South St. Louis where a fatal accident had occurred hours earlier.  She noted that only MoDot was on the scene repairing a damaged pole.  She mention homicide investigators had been called in saying investigators were “not sure why it happened.” Channel 5 aired only a taped version of the accident as their second story.

They began with the line “Homicide detectives are on the scene…”  Not being live, and watching Channel 4 live on scene, this was simply incorrect.  They appeared to be gone as was the wrecked car.  However, Channel 5 had a better angle, even though they were not there as they noted WHY homicide had been called in.  The station reported it was because the “injuries were inconsistent with the crash.”  Robin Smith never gave the reason for calling in the homicide detectives. Depending upon who you were watching, different views of the same story.