Re: Fwd: Radio Persnality Endorsements Kick It Up A Notch

[Garrett Wollman <wollman@lcs.mit.edu>]

<<On Sat, 14 Sep 2002 13:30:33 -0400, Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com> said:

> So do members of this list feel that it's okay for news personalities to 
> endorse products, or should they refrain from doing so?

I'd make a distinction between news personalities like G.L. and Deb
Lawler, and news un-personalities like most of 'BZ's recent hires.
(OK, so I can usually distinguish the voices of Laurie Kirby, Susanne
Rountree, and Melanie Dupeille (sp?), but I don't think that Joe
Listener makes much of a distinction between those three women and any
other female voices they hear on the radio.  Give them a few
decades....)

Talk hosts and commentators are an interesting case: Harvey has been
doing testimonials since the last ice age, and on the whole I can't
see any real objection to `voice talent' doing live-read spots for the
Vermont Teddy Bear Company or the latest quack nostrum.  In some sense
I think testimonials are a more acceptable form than mere live-reads,
at least for opinion personalities -- even though they are being
compensated for them -- because offering opinions about all and sundry
is the business that they are in.  The only way I could see one's
reputation being damaged is if the personality were revealed to have
been giving false testimonials -- and for some people, even that
probably isn't much of a problem, if authenticity is not the commodity
they're exploiting.

There is a danger for reporters, though, in diluting one's
journalistic credentials, by being perceived as empty-headed
script-deliverers rather than as reporters.  Being too-closely
identified with advertising in the public's mind is something I would
want to avoid, were I in the business, for just that reason.  In
general, I think a good reporter or anchor would want to only be heard
reading scripts that sound as if he or she have actually written them
(even if someone else did): that's a huge part of the credibility of
any radio journalist.

-GAWollman