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A Drought Storm of Negative News

Parched California is facing "one of the worst droughts on record." So of course, news media are running drought news. Like a Fox TV story about a community association being "busted for wasting water." Sounds serious, doesn't it? During a rare bit of rain -- a pleasant surprise, recently, for certain areas of California -- a TV staffer "captured video of...rainwater flooding lawns while the sprinkler system continued to flow...This is just egregious waste," said a water quality watchdog group official.

But to the community association's credit, a manager described a glitch in the sensor-automated sprinkler system, a system that was installed to help reduce water use. "The technology had programmed the controllers for zero irrigation, however, something defaulted on some of the controllers." The manager further explained that the sprinklers would be operated manually while efforts were underway to determine what caused the malfunction.

Things can quickly spiral out of control when media are reporting compelling news. Reporters ask tough questions. The spokesperson for this community association provided information that helped balance the story. TV news that easily could have been all negative and controversial...wasn't. And that's not bad at all.

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