News Helicopters Are Stupid and Serve No Purpose

Comments

Here are the relevant details surrounding the event. But here is the same event FROM THE FUCKIN SKYYYYYY!!!! You're flying! Sitting on your couch!! Wheeeeeeeee!

nullbull on May 2, 2014 at 1:04 PM

The overhead helicopter used during the Port of Seattle protest (final protest of Occupy Seattle) proved to be useful in documenting everything the protesters threw at the cops.

Kinison on May 2, 2014 at 1:06 PM

I agree--the multiple choppers hovering over the hill all evening weren't warranted for what was going down yesterday. It was a nice evening, disrupted by constant chopper noise for what exactly? A few dozen 16 - 30 somethings yelling at cops and setting trash can fires?

carrma on May 2, 2014 at 1:07 PM

A good start would be making them a bigger and more expensive PITA to operate by forcing them to use general-aviation airports instead of downtown helipads.

rob! on May 2, 2014 at 1:07 PM

I thought city dwellers had no issues with loud noise late into the night, whether it's nightclubs or gunfire or helicopters. What are you, some suburbanite?

bigyaz on May 2, 2014 at 1:08 PM

I hate them, hate them, hate them.

Fnarf on May 2, 2014 at 1:09 PM

Oh and helicopters were helpful in trying to track down the Cafe Racer shooter. Plenty of web cams, that the police don't have access to and even if they did, contain no time stamp information to use as archive footage should it be needed in a trial. With citizens forcing the shutdown of the police wireless mesh network, gone was their ability to easily add those web cams.

Kinison on May 2, 2014 at 1:14 PM

They are also of questionable utility in coordinating high-speed urban chases for police departments, as are the high-speed chases themselves.

I lived for a number of years near central San Diego, and police helicopters orbiting overhead were an almost daily (and nightly) delight, complete with high-powered spotlights occasionally sweeping past my windows. San Diego is built on a series of mesas cut by brush-filled ravines, so many surface streets dead-end at mesa edges. Crooks without extensive knowledge of the connecting streets will abandon their vehicles and run into the ravines; thus the copters hover overhead for an hour or more until ground teams capture their quarry or abandon the search.

rob! on May 2, 2014 at 1:16 PM

I am also not a fan. When Lindsay Lohan moved nearby, two to three news helicopters would arrive at 7 a.m. and hover above my neighborhood, seemingly stationary, for over an hour so they could follow her to her court appearances. Because that was vital, breaking news.

California on May 2, 2014 at 1:16 PM

"Television news channels won't ever admit to this, but the only real reason for news helicopters now is disaster porn."

Sure, but that's also the only reason people watch local news.

giffy on May 2, 2014 at 1:18 PM

See? Just one more reason to embrace drones. They'd do the same thing but barely be noticeable. ;-)

SLL on May 2, 2014 at 1:21 PM

Local TV news is a pile of shit. Their helicopters are diarrhea.

DOUG. on May 2, 2014 at 1:23 PM

@13 for the Benghazi Take These Stupid Choppers Away win

Will in Seattle on May 2, 2014 at 1:26 PM

whine whine whine.

If you want a quiet neighborhood, why would you select cap hill?

kooshball on May 2, 2014 at 1:30 PM

you may have missed it, Paul, being a Stranger journalist and all, but a news helicopter crashed a month and a half ago in a fiery explosion, killing 2, right next to the space needle.

Max Solomon on May 2, 2014 at 1:32 PM

Based on Twitter...

OK, let me stop you right there.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn on May 2, 2014 at 1:38 PM

I moved to Seattle just before the WTO and had the good fortune of living right next to Virginia Mason that weekend. To this day I'm still a little unnerved by the sound of a helicopter that's just... hovering...

Chris B on May 2, 2014 at 1:46 PM

It's like have a fly buzzing in your ear. Irritating as fuck.

Pope Peabrain on May 2, 2014 at 1:51 PM

Slog's War On Flying Machines continues...

unpaid reader on May 2, 2014 at 1:51 PM

@18: I share your WTO helicopter trauma. Hasn't been the same for me since then, either. Weird, huh?

TVDinner on May 2, 2014 at 2:02 PM

JonnoN on May 2, 2014 at 2:06 PM

@16 Is that meant to be a pro-helicopter statement?

fletc3her on May 2, 2014 at 2:23 PM

I read a comment on KIRO's website last night by a retired journalist accusing them of committing the cardinal sin in journalism of "creating the story." I couldn't agree more.

Twilight Sparkle on May 2, 2014 at 2:28 PM

I think there's only one news chopper flying here at present. The other chopper you heard must have been the Sheriff's bird, Guardian One.

But they're useful for some things. If I see Chopper 7 hovering over downtown in the afternoon, it usually means there's been another stabbing/shooting at the bus stop at 3rd & Pine, and I need to take a tunnel bus home.

Toe Tag on May 2, 2014 at 2:38 PM

Without the dynamic distractions of spinning logos, yellow parkas, helicopters and action news vans - how are they to justify their phony baloney jobs?

How, gentlemen?

tkc on May 2, 2014 at 3:12 PM

Can't wait for the Blue Angels to return Aug. 1-3.

Jeff on May 2, 2014 at 3:26 PM

@24 is correct

Will in Seattle on May 2, 2014 at 3:44 PM

While hovering news/traffic/LEA choppers may be annoying to urbanites, this is only a portion of their function. For example, reporters were able to reach the Oso mudslide site last month in less than an hour, whereas it would have taken far longer to get there via automobile. This is in fact, their primary purpose: to get reporters & camera ops to a remote breaking news location as quickly as possible. In addition, news copters are frequently called in by first responders to assist at disaster sites, search-and-rescue operations, etc., etc. So, they do in fact provide some valuable services above and beyond the perhaps questionable ones you only see from a city-dweller's perspective.

COMTE on May 2, 2014 at 3:53 PM

@23: it's supposed to help him win his argument that they are anachronisms. seems like an important point - they are dangerous to have flying willy-nilly over a city.

Max Solomon on May 2, 2014 at 5:11 PM

It's all a part of our grand scheme to turn Seattle into California.
http://www.laweekly.com/informer/2014/02…

But if you want to go full Dominic you can buy some high power laser pointers and go to town ruining their camera shots. It won't be long before you'd run into some of Seattle's finest.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5mW-USA-Military…

ChefJoe on May 2, 2014 at 7:21 PM

I'm going to link back to this post every time one of you ninnies starts whining about webcams watching you.

treehugger on May 2, 2014 at 7:44 PM

Helicopters are one of the things I miss least about the big city. When I was a city-dweller, helicopters often inspired fantasies of owning my own supply of stinger missiles.

Blackcap on May 2, 2014 at 9:25 PM

It was actually nice to have aerial coverage of the May Day protests. The reporters on the ground can only cover so much of a big march at a time. So they'd be talking to the camera about something trivial while the other stations had aerial shots of police macing protesters a block away.

on May 4, 2014 at 2:57 PM

They certainly don't help when chasing down a criminal such as OJ Simpson, or finding Tamerlan Tsarnaev. #sarcasm

Man_in_the_mirror on May 5, 2014 at 9:12 AM

When I Iived in Seattle, there was a bank robbery near downtown. FOUR helicopters hovered in tight formation (without circling) over the area LONG after custody was made. KING5, KOMO4, FOX13, and KIRO... and for what? Absolutely nothing was accomplished other than to turn a gorgeous sunny afternoon into a cacophonic shit-storm.

Also, nobody needs a TELEVISED traffic report. "Guess what, Steve; Traffic is a complete clusterfuck in the same places it is every day."

Texas10R on May 5, 2014 at 3:42 PM

@12 You joke, but if all news stations needed were overhead shots of events, you could equip a comparably tiny remote drone carrying only a camera on a gimbal and that would seem to cover 90% of news needs.

stuckie on May 5, 2014 at 6:03 PM

@36 I notice that you are a "Douche Bag". I'll bet you now live in Austin, am I right?

Arthur Zifferelli on May 5, 2014 at 7:54 PM

Exactly. The main article says it all: the only real reason for news helicopters now is disaster porn. They are stupid and only serve the vanity of the news agencies deploying them. Webcams can be used for traffic surveillance. The news choppers should just be grounded.

mstranger on February 14, 2015 at 11:08 PM

News Helicopters Are Stupid and Serve No Purpose

Comments

Please wait...

Add a comment

Preview

Editors' Picks

City Attorney’s Focus on “High Utilizers” Helps No One

Megan Rapinoe’s Last Game Was an Ode to How Far Women’s Sports Have Come and Where They Can Go

Are You Ready for Summer?

Swinging through Emerald City Trapeze Arts' Final Act

Food Fighters

Mayor Harrell Promises a ‘War on Health,’ Not a ‘War on Drugs’

Support The Stranger

Comments

Please wait...

Add a comment

Preview

Editors' Picks

Just Can't Get Enough?

Sign up for our newsletter for news recaps, updates, and more!