A little too broad of a brush there.......I was in local radio news both as reporter and anchor, and more often than not, particularly in smaller markets and especially in radio and TV, it is all about what the SALES department will get, not the reporters.
I remember at one station getting an irate phone call from a major advertiser about a story I ran. he told me he would pull all his advertising and get me fired if I ran the story again. In that case, thankfully the account exec was a former newsman himself and came to bat for me with the sales manager, who wanted me fired for airing the story, and general manager. The story was about how the advertiser had just been busted for fraud and I got it from the local police.
At another station, while I was getting chewed out by the local Fire Chief, an AP editor called screaming at me for the same reason as the Fire Chief, releasing the name of the victim of a fatal fire before officials. I didn't do it...the general manager/owner of the station had called it into AP and gave my name for the byline as I had been a reporter on scene...something he should have known better than to have done, not only because he had been in radio, including news, for more than 20 years, but he was a fire Chief himself in a nearby town and his company had also responded to it.
So, all I ask is that all local reporters, or even national ones, not get painted with the same broad brush. There are times when it is really not the fault of the reporter.
Quite true. I guess the point I was poorly making was how shocked I was (and am) at the way the "talent" looks for the stuff that will get them on the air (hopefully with priority), get headlines, etc. With my ex-girlfriend and her co-producers/reporters, everything was about getting airtime. And these were possibly the least informed people in the world. Admission on my part: My girlfriend was a gorgeous state "scholarship" pageant winner (yes, that is the Miss America pageant) who probably couldn't name the last 4 presidents. She couldn't hold an intelligent conversation with any informed person on any subject, and she really didn't have any interest in doing so. But turn on the TV camera and she was an entirely different person, and she appeared as a well-informed person who understood everything. The camera (and crowds) loved her, but individuals who got to know her hated her. So what does this say about me????