This may be old news to some, but the premise I am going to discuss still applies. KOAM's President and General Manager Danny Thomas recently editorialized his position about health care on the news before President Barack Obama held his press conference at 7:00. He came out strongly against the reforms, specifically citing his disapproval for rushing into change. You can read his full editorial here.
My problem isn't his position (although I highly disagree with the premise that we are rushing through this). My concern is that opinion is making its way onto the local television newscast. Why the need for the GM to come out and make that kind of statement anyway? The reason that I believe local news remains relevant is that you can turn on your tv and get news from market veterans like Lisa Rose, Dowe Quick, Jim Jackson, and Joy Robertson without having to wade through spin and opinion. If opinions start working their way into the broadcast local television will lose any legitimacy it currently has.
Maybe it is a one-time occurance. I hope so. Leave local news alone. Keep your opinions to yourself, please.
2 comments:
I'm a journalist here in Missouri. One of the first things you learn in journalism school is to keep your own views out of the news. You are to report the facts, not your opinion.
A good journalist never gives a hint about his or her opinion. Never.
The recent trend of news anchors exchanging witty banter during the newscast, often sharing their opinion about a story they just reported on, makes me ill.
I'm not sure if it's their way of raising ratings or what. Maybe they are thinking that they come into the viewers' homes each day, so they might as well become even more "friendly" by exchanging these comments as if they were sitting there with the viewers.
It's not right and it needs to stop. The last thing we need in the USA is for people in positions of authority (or even people who seem to be in authority, such as a newsanchor) telling us what we should think or feel about issues, events, news, etc.
I really have no problem with a newscaster discussing a story with his/her partner as long as the story was reported in an unbiased manor and the discussion is obviously just that and not disguised as news.
As for the station manager doing an editorial, why is that different than a newspaper editor writing an editorial? As long as the broadcast editorial is obviously an editorial and not disguised as news, what's the problem.
I guess we could ban the editorial page from newspapers.
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