Background: Originally published February 21, 2007. The premise of writing this column was to explain my career change in 2007. But more significant, this column explains how news operations have changed during the past 25 years, and why I'm frequently "dishing" today on local news operations and their lack of accuracy/integrity.
If Lou Grant can do it, so can I. Although, if you would have asked me one month ago about the prospects of giving up a television job in Medford to oversee a new weekly newspaper in Winston, I would have said not likely.
However, regardless of one's spiritual beliefs, I feel comfortable in saying that it was divine intervention that closed some doors for me and opened other doors for me....preparing me to launch the Winston Reporter, that community's first newspaper. [2014 note: My mother was needing more attention in the years to come, and in retrospect, I'm not sure how much longer I could have continued working in Medford during the week, and commuting up to Oakland on the weekends.]
My three-year contract at KOBI-TV ends March 8th. I enjoyed my job there immensely. And I don't rule out the possibility that I may one day return to broadcasting. However, some alarming changes in the broadcasting field this past decade have made me re-evaluate that industry. Some television news operations still place a high regard on ethics, and still religiously observe guidelines put forth by the SPJ (Society of Professional Journalists) and the RTNDA (Radio-TV News Directors Association). Other television news operations do not.
Growing up in Oakland, I gained considerable respect for television journalists who broke stories and weren't afraid to ask the tough questions. Doug Barbur and Bob Zagorin worked at KEZI-TV, and Salem political correspondent Mark Haas worked at KVAL-TV. Those television news operations were my heroes.
KVAL wouldn't shy away from a legitimate controversial timber story, even if the station's co-owner Donald Tykeson was involved with one of the timber companies. And former KEZI-TV News Director Rebecca Force once told me the only "deal with the devil (station manager)" that she ever made, was that her news department would give management advance notice, if they were working on a potentially sensitive story involving one of their advertisers.
Graduating from the UO School of Journalism in 1989, I had a somewhat purist attitude toward news. When someone asked me to wear a ribbon on World AIDS Day, or wear a purple/silver ribbon on Domestic Violence Awareness Week, I politely declined. Of course, I didn't favor any of those social ills. But the anchor desk was a sacred institution. I didn't see Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, or Peter Jennings promoting the issue of the day. And I didn't think it was appropriate for me to do so either when I anchored the local news.
Times have changed. At least one local TV weatherman often wears a Rotary club button on his jacket lapel when giving the forecast. Another local TV weatherman does radio commercials promoting a local vision office. And even I have softened over the years. No longer the rigid, idealistic journalist from 15 years ago, I will now sometimes were the ribbon of the week for different social causes.
Unfortunately, once we begin down that slippery slope of compromising our autonomy and short-changing our integrity, it's difficult to know when (or how) to stop. When a new general manager at KOBI-TV three years ago announced a new promotion called "Extreme Makeover," there was a chorus of concern voiced by newsroom personnel. While the concept may make an appealing prime-time show, incorporating such a contest into the evening newscast raised some eyebrows.
Would such a promotion inserted into the newscast displace the number of minutes devoted to true news stories? And what kind of message would that send to our viewers? Would viewers subconsciously see it as a tacit political statement that having perfect teeth and perfect hair was the end-all for everyone, now subliminally endorsed by their local news operation?
The new general manager jokingly replied, "Gee, I have an idea to boost our ratings and all that's here is a room full of journalists." Forgive me, I thought to myself. I thought a room full of ethical journalists was the type of person one wanted to run a credible news operation?
Over the years, people with sales backgrounds have replaced people with journalism backgrounds. A bachelor's degree in journalism or communications used to be the prerequisite for a newsroom position. Now it's a secondary concern for some. Style has now replaced substance. There is no longer a chorus of healthy debate when an ethically-questionable idea is introduced. There are few, if any people left with journalism backgrounds, to raise the questions.
The straw that broke the camel's back for me this past month, was a full-length feature "package" story on an anti-drug campaign known as the Southern Oregon Meth Project. There's nothing wrong with community service campaigns. But when they begin to replace true hard news stories of the day, I have to ask myself if the tail is wagging the dog.
The story's introduction said the project leaders gathered to discuss the campaign's future. I intently listened to the story, expecting to hear some new development. Was there a new sponsor? Was the campaign being introduced into a new area? What specific new CHANGE had warranted an in-depth, follow-up story on the topic? But there wasn't any. The entire content of the story re-hashed information that had already been announced in countless previous stories.
In short, legitimate news of the day had been neglected, because management had deployed limited reporting resources to cover a self-promotional campaign.
I am happy to say that we still live in the United States of America where the First Amendment is considered a standard to live by. Nothing shall stand in the way of a free press. And if the news consumers do not feel they are obtaining objective news from one source, they are free to look to other sources.
The Winston Reporter will not be the only news source serving central Douglas County. But as long as I'm editor of the newspaper, it will be a voice of the people. My change of career may not be the same lateral move that Lou Grant made when he left the news director position at WJM-TV in Minneapolis to become city editor of the Los Angeles Tribune (all fictitious). But I look forward to retuning to Douglas County. I never really left.
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