TV NEWS "VALUES" BECOME A STORY
Ahhhh... Chicago in springtime...
...ranks right up there with Paris. And with Buddy Guy opening the Chicago Blues Festival and the Bulls homing in on another NBA crown, this city is heaven for a road-weary correspondent. About the only thing that could top all of that would be an invitation to moderate a panel discussion for Chicago's Association of Women Journalist's. Seems the association's president, Suzy Shultz of the Sun Times, was double-booked: her son was playing Orville Wright in his school play -- an event she didn't want to miss -- so Suzy asked if I'd take time out from interviews about RISK AND REDEMPTION to sit in for her.Despite a Bulls-Jazz game, more than fifty journalists gathered in CBS affiliate WBBM's historic Studio One. A station rep reminded us that this was the scene of the first Nixon-Kennedy televised debate in the 1960 campaign. We felt a touch of awe, but then an awkward, sombre silence followed. The nature of both TV and politics changed radically that night. But compared to the controversy following Kennedy's eventual victory over his less telegenic rival, television programming, we realized, is an even more contentious subject today.
Not that the AWJ members let themselves get bogged down in that -- it's always been a strong print-media group, and so the discussion of ethics in the newsroom quickly got down to the fine points of story crafting. The discussion really took off over the myriad challenges of undercover investigative reporting: Pam Zekman of WBBM's News 2 described the labyrinth she and her colleagues were forced to navigate in revealing one Chicago clinic's incompetence and misconduct in pregnancy testing and abortions.
Another issue -- mismangement within our own industry -- hung like a cloud over all of us. Several weeks have passed since the co-anchor of Chicago's NBC affiliate resigned in protest over management's attempt to hire trash-TV host Jerry Springer as a commentator. But I can tell you that Chicago's media community -- and the public at large -- are reeling still. WMAQ's ratings have plummeted since Carol Marin and co-anchor Ron Majors have left the air. Many NBC staffers have said privately that they feel betrayed by management, who they blame for causing the fiasco.
MAQ is one of General Electric-owned NBC's owned-and-operated stations and the decision to hire Mr. Springer was almost certainly blessed by network management in New York. Once again, as in the Dateline NBC truck-rigging incident and in my own contest with NBC management, the quest for ratings and revenue at any cost has backfired. Once again the Peacock has been tarnished by managerial ineptitude, and news consumers in Chicago have lost, for now at least, an award-winning team of television journalists.
However in my view, the mere fact that groups like the AWJ are gathering to discuss ethics in news is a good sign. Good managers in our industry realize that attention to accuracy, balance and responsibility is the first line of defence against bungles like the NBC/Springer case. Sound practice makes money; a thorough, ethical approach to journalism can help create a profitable business plan. Viewers need to be won over with trust, not scandal. The challenge we all face here in Chicago and elsewhere is this: yesterday, neither Carol nor Ron were on the air, but Mr. Springer's talents were on view as he probed a pimp before his studio audience. A match made in TV hell, in this reporter's opinion.