Patricia Dean, chair of the Broadcasting Department of Medill Journalism School, recounted a content analysis of 10 local TV markets that suggested that by any definition of journalism, local news was failing to fulfill its purpose. And she summoned journalists not to give up on the medium:

"We found that almost 30 percent of the time spent on local TV news was devoted to crime and court stories. Ten percent was devoted to reporting calamities and natural disasters. Government and politics accounted for little more than 15 percent. Two critical areas were almost non-existent. Education stories totaled a mere two percent. Race relations totaled one-point-two percent."

"What has happened to some of the stories that should be a mainstay of the local news program? Consultants tell us we should report stories the viewers care about. . . How can they care if they don't know about it? They don't care because we give them no reason to care. This is our job as journalists."

"Why is local TV failing? "Every station is under tremendous pressure to keep costs as low as possible. Breaking news that is crime and crisis driven is cheap to cover and easy to cover. Murders, fires and traffic accidents require little background research."

"What can be done? "As a profession, we cannot afford to throw up our hands saying there is nothing we can do. We cannot afford to blame the consultants, the accountants and business owners. Journalists must take responsibility and take back the decision making process."

Frank Magid, Chairman and CEO, Frank N. Magid Associates, responded to Dean's account by denying that consultants can divine what viewers want, or have a formula of what TV news should look like. The blame in local TV, he contended, falls mostly with TV journalists themselves, who lack a vision and too often lack competence:

"When you say that consultants deliver material that . . . tells local stations, what news viewers want, that is an error. Viewers do not know what they want. And, as a matter of fact, people respond only to what they know and to ask them what they would like is really foolhardy."

Second, "Consultants, do not provide what has been said is a formula that is to be followed."

Nor do owners dictate. "I will assure you that in almost every case--and we serve 140 local television stations across the country [out of 610 nationwide]--the general manager and the owner of those stations do not, in any way, shape or form, dictate what the news policy should be."

"News directors in many cases are those who have looked at the position, as one of providing what in many cases is a formula approach."

"We as consultants come into a news department, and are asked to tell people what is new, what they can do that is different. . . And when we suggest to them areas beyond what happens to be the standard approach, the first response that we get is, 'Who else is doing that?' And when we say, 'You asked us what's new, what's different.' Then they say, 'Well, maybe we'd better wait until somebody else does it to see whether it works or not.' Whose fault is that? What chances are being taken by the professional journalists?"

"This may go against the grain of some here, but while they may be trained to write and while they may be trained to articulate what is written, the fact remains that many who call themselves journalists and are employed in local stations have no notion what-so-ever about history, geography, political science, economics and other things about which an informed individual should have some grasp."

"How many people [in local news] really do have the desire to go out and look beyond what is easiest to do? . . . Unless and until the people in the profession come to grips with that there will never be a change."

Newton Minow, an attorney for Sidley & Austin and former chairman of the FCC, said in his 40 years looking at journalism as regulator, board member to media companies and attorney, he has seen standards seriously erode. And he placed principal blame on the move toward turning news into entertainment. He also blamed journalists for hiding behind rather than living up to the First Amendment:

"We're caught in a system, which is a very competitive marketplace system, which is driving what has really begun to happen. . . I want to read a sentence from Don Hewitt's speech a month ago, where he said, 'News is news and entertainment is entertainment, and crossing the line between them is often dishonest, and always bad broadcasting. What worries me would worry them, and should worry everybody, is not that today that line is crossed and cris- crossed repeatedly, but that nobody gives a damn that it is!'"

"I think we have lost focus on standards. My own experience also is that journalists tend to fall on the first amendment as an excuse for anything."

"I close with Justice Potter Stewart's statement. He said, 'Don't confuse the right to do something with whether it is the right thing to do.'"

[top [1]]