Tuesday, April 24, 2007
TV newsrooms go to confession
Two stories concerning broadcast journalism stand out today. One has to do with a professional decision to responsibly cover a major event. The other happenstance is worthy of any small marker radio station. Here goes.
NBC News has been required to enter into the mandatory dialogue concerning how it covers the news. Not being a heavy consumer of television network news, it is easy to presume that the old peacock network misses one every now and then. The management call on running the Cho tapes is not one of the errors.
Just earlier today, the dope abusing conservative nationally syndicated radio windbag announced that Cho was a liberal. This must be some comedy writers idea of a joke, and heck, maybe it is. If the tapes had never been seen, some clever right-wing saboteur could easily fabricate "evidence" to link Cho with some anti-Iraq pro-working family politician. Thanks to NBC, we have a valuable piece of information concerning the shooter. He was a total nut. Very sad, but true.
NBC did the correct responsible and professional thing.
Looking into the CBS eye, things are not so clear. Bob Scheiffer is a backstabber? Say it ain't so! It is alleged that Scheiffer is behind some ugly ink Couric got out of a Philadelphia media column. All the jealous wannabes are mad at Katie Couric for making too much money. It is just that simple and, if the story is true, I am damn disappointed in Bob Scheiffer.
The Morrow days were over by Watergate, but somebody forgot to tell Dan Rather. CBS has an old audience and, apparently, that was not acceptable to the top brass, so big changes were made. That's how things are done, so everybody needs to take a deep breath and move on.
Couric is a professional. She is taking a sinking ship back into the deep waters and nobody could be expected to produce instant results.
NBC News has been required to enter into the mandatory dialogue concerning how it covers the news. Not being a heavy consumer of television network news, it is easy to presume that the old peacock network misses one every now and then. The management call on running the Cho tapes is not one of the errors.
Just earlier today, the dope abusing conservative nationally syndicated radio windbag announced that Cho was a liberal. This must be some comedy writers idea of a joke, and heck, maybe it is. If the tapes had never been seen, some clever right-wing saboteur could easily fabricate "evidence" to link Cho with some anti-Iraq pro-working family politician. Thanks to NBC, we have a valuable piece of information concerning the shooter. He was a total nut. Very sad, but true.
NBC did the correct responsible and professional thing.
Looking into the CBS eye, things are not so clear. Bob Scheiffer is a backstabber? Say it ain't so! It is alleged that Scheiffer is behind some ugly ink Couric got out of a Philadelphia media column. All the jealous wannabes are mad at Katie Couric for making too much money. It is just that simple and, if the story is true, I am damn disappointed in Bob Scheiffer.
The Morrow days were over by Watergate, but somebody forgot to tell Dan Rather. CBS has an old audience and, apparently, that was not acceptable to the top brass, so big changes were made. That's how things are done, so everybody needs to take a deep breath and move on.
Couric is a professional. She is taking a sinking ship back into the deep waters and nobody could be expected to produce instant results.
