After hearing a snippet of the banned keynote speech by Tim Robbins last week, I can understand some people’s frustration towards network news. Having worked in an owned and operated CBS affiliate, I have seen the difficult balance that broadcasters play. It is important to note that most journalists I have had the pleasure to work with are truely dedicated to providing quality news stories, and do. Many great news stories are written every day, they just never air. The problem with today’s news is you the viewer. Say again? Let me step back for a moment if and try to follow me. Like everything in broadcasting, advertising funds the production of news. There is no billionaire financier throwing money at news. News has to stay competitive to survive. Because nielsen ratings drive the value of a network’s airtime, viewership is imperative to the station’s survival. The number one age group of consumer spending is 18-34. These age groups are mostly fascinated with stories that revolve around hollywood. In general, it is also easier for a station to get people to watch the local brownie troop 142 get a cat as a mascot then bloody gang violence where most of the footage is unsuitable for broadcast. It is also easier to watch, for some, Britney Spears make a fool of herself then the death toll pictures in Africa. Media buyers know it and would prefer to follow softer news than harder news. Face it, you find yourself unable to pay attention for a few moments after a difficult story airs that shakes your psyche for a bit. We’ve all seen network news struggle to find the right chemistry with six figure anchors that can make and break the competition’s stride. Salary pay continues to be competitive. I never met a professional journalist arriving to work eager to report a story of Paris Hilton crashing into a tree. You like those stories. Maybe not all of you - I certainly don’t care, but I have friends and family that find it entertaining. You can change covered topics if enough of you just refuse to watch. People are watching this smut - which means viewership - which means money to fund news for next month. Stop watching it. Refuse to watch any news that doesn’t meet your standards. Broadcasters will listen. They want you to care as much as they do about good journalism. They can’t do it for free.
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I hate to start my blog on what is to some respect, an unfortunate subject that is close to me. I believe it is relevant to what is may be a long post of future subjects regrading the changing face of media. The other day, CBS 2 Chicago, a broadcaster that I was proudly affiliated with two years prior, had a large and public layoff that included a eighteen high profile anchors, reporters and seasoned staff. This followed an earlier smaller staff layoff from the week prior. There is a shift happening in our media market that is taking place faster than I anticipated. I left CBS 2, difficult as it was to make the decision, because I realized that in a few years people’s changing habits might adversely affect my career in a way that I would not be able to avoid. That change is happening quicker than I imagined. Are the days of highly paid anchors a thing of the past? Will they be replaced with fresh-faced younger members who lack experience but reach a younger audience? Is reading the news off a prompter any different than a youtube or podcast? The unfortunate concern for me is when great professionals who have dedicated their lives to the refinement of news media are cast aside in the wake of shifting mediums. What happens to solid journalism between turning off your television and opening your computer for the latest RSS feed? During the four years in broadcast, I struggled with the balance between relevant but tragic journalism that bled and a grandmother who found her stolen wheelchair - in order to reach a general audience. What is the lesser or two evils in a half hour time slot? When award winning journalists are cut for cut-rate costs, who wins? You can easily shrug it off assuming they were just overpaid. Somewhere between the eastern hemisphere of African genocide and the silent rape crime that happened on the west side, we need to stay informed either by television or an internet stream. Cautiously, we must be of our habits though. Viewer habits in the distraction of overwhelming headlines, are quite different on-line. Lost are if we choose what we want to hear. We have a tendency to tune out what we don’t want to hear and it’s usually the seasoned journalists that remind us what we don’t, but need to hear.
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