Re: Glitches and Brainlessness

["Shel Swartz" <shel@lotsofun.com>]

>The reporter, not
>knowing that the bell was a bell that goes off any time there is a Roll
Call
>vote, said "There must be a fire drill."  She obviously had never been at
the
>State House when the Legislature was in session, but there she was doing a
>live stand up covering the State House.
>
Truly incredible!  I'd love to know if the anchor newsreader back at the
studio broke up.  I would have done so!

But more than mispronunciation (which we are ALL guilty of at one time or
another), what may be more important are the facts.  Almost all "facts" are
what reporters are given via press releases, or by some spin doctor at a
press conference.  We are told what the politicos want us to know...and no
more.  A true journalist/reporter's responsibility is to log the events in
question, and conduct i n q u i s i t i v e,  c o n c l u s i v e interviews
with the correct people.  I believe that any "facts" given a reporter by an
"unnamed source", or via some "leak" should be considered trivia or
rumor...and that's about it.  Is it possible a reporter invents his or her
own "facts", and says they're from some unnamed source, which of course, is
not traceable?

All in all, however, I trust local news shows far more than I trust the
national ones.  On the whole, it's those who work the smaller, local
stations whose drive to move up into major markets makes them hungry to d a
great job.

shel

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