Let's stop calling newscasters and newspaper writers "journalists"

[GreenPartyVoter]

and call them "news personalities" instead. (With the exception of Greg Palast and the fine folks whose writings appear at Common Dreams and Alternet and such, of course.)

[elfwitch]

1. How about...

Current event marketeers?

[gWbush is Mabus]

2. "News Entertainers"

[rucky]

23. Infotainers

[SoCalDem]

3. I call them prompter-readers and fax - copiers

That's what they actually do..

[samsingh]

4. i can them entertainers.

or paid stooges

[Vickers]

5. Let's just call 'em what they are:

Republicans

[newscaster]

6. 45 years in the business and I am a "Journalist".

With three university degrees, two of them graduate degrees, I am a journalist. I am not a personality and never sought to be one. My credibility was never impugned, my honesty was respected and my character remains unscathed.

It is true that in local TV stations, many people who appear on a newscast maybe considered characters. The weatherman and the sportscaster have leeway to clown around. And the primary anchors do chat with their co-anchors and I am not thrilled by that but I understand what you seem to have missed. Most local stations depend greatly upon the income from commercials during newscasts and so to attract viewers, they will often do silly things. But when you have a serious story to tell, the jokes stop and the journalist returns.
Many anchors don't have a history, government, journalism or similar background but are placed in the anchor chair because they look good or read well. But if they are sharp enough to stay there long enough, the instincts of a real journalist will blossom within them and they will join the ranks of "real" journalists. All it takes is a willingness to learn and the overwhelming numbers of them do learn.

I would suggest you not attack the messenger. Pay attention to the message.

[newscaster]

7. Whoops, one more thing.

I am a life long Democrat and member of the DNC

[SoCalDem]

9. I think we are just pissed at what passes for news..not at YOU

:loveya:

It's disheartening to watch news through a prism, and sadly , we all do it.. We see the republican slant, because it's pretty blatant these days, and after 9 years of "public Clinton-hunting", I guess we thought that once a "different" president got into the white house, the media would automatically turn their attentions to HIS wrongdoings...but since they have not, in any meaningful way, we are justifiably frustrated :(

[HFishbine]

13. Did it ever occur to you

that when you "have a serious story to tell," the audience who might be remotely interested has long since tuned out because of the silliness? I'm not impugning your professionalism personally, but if your talking about local TV news, it is, in general, the most dumbed-down, superficial and unconfrontational (probably to protect those local ad dollars) schlock.

In my market, at least, stories are generated from what's in the local paper and I cannot remember the last time I saw any investigative journalism on the local news. Sorry friend, but there is room for vast improvement in your business if you really want to think of local TV news as journalism.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

18. I agree, I stopped watching local news

about ten years ago, when I realized that it was all

1) crimes and fires and some of the more spectacular car crashes
2) cutesy stories that have nothing to do with anything ("Local firefighters rescued a kitten that was stuck in a tree this afternoon.")
3) promos for the network's programs ("And coming up after the break, 'Are the actors on Friends really like the characters they play?'")
4) promos for other things (possibly delivered as a ready-made video so that companies can get free advertising) {"And coming up after the break, you'll hear about an amazing new product that dices and slices.")
5) weather, with everything that isn't bright and sunny and 70 degrees treated as some sort of crisis ("Reporter Joe Blow is standing out at the Sylvan exit on Highway 26, and he reports snow flurries.")
6) high school sports ("This evening, we're sending our Channel 8 helicopter to the game between Hillsboro and Lakewood.")

Doesn't this sound like your local news, only with different place names?

In Oregon, the only broadcast sources for what the state and city governments were doing were the NPR station's half-hour program, "Oregon First," which came on just before "All Things Considered" and the city-oriented program of KBOO-FM, a semi-affiliate of Pacifica. Otherwise you got no state govt. news except on election night or when some legislator did something cute or outrageous. Oh, wait, there was a half-hour program once a week on public television in which editors and newspaper columnists discussed the week's top stories.

Now that I've been in the Twin Cities for a few months, I can assure you that it's not much better here. If anything, the stations here are even more into crimes, fires, and car crashes.

[HFishbine]

25. Ha! You nailed it!

That sounds exactly like my local news and I'm a continent away from you. Here are some recent specifics you might find amusing:

1) Lead Story: Gerbil stolen from daycare
2) Lead Story: Riding lawn mower stolen
3) Blind Man's cane stolen
4) In an effort to gin up excitement about the weather, last month we were told we experienced a "gustanado." (Swirling gusts of wind)

There is almost no coverage of state or local government unless there is some salacious controversy. I ran for local office a few years ago, and one local station avoided any coverage of the election (despite numerous press releases) until an hour before the polls closed when they called me to see if they could get a picture.

And in case you're wondering if I live in Mayberry, I feel that way sometimes, but this is a top 50 market with four networks.

[robbedvoter]

16. Only happy that there are a few more than the ones I know of

What you say about yourself does NOT in any way change the truth about the court jesters. It just mkes what you do more respectable - not less.

[info being]

19. Are you still working?

[FlemingsGhost]

21. No offense, but I'm not taking anyone's word--online.

Sorry... it's "the instincts of a real journalist blossoming in me."

[rinsd]

8. Huh?

"(With the exception of Greg Palast and the fine folks whose writings appear at Common Dreams and Alternet and such, of course.)"

Palast maybe....but the rest is simply news from a certain perspective. Even Palast himself can be partisan(not in the sense of party but basic progressive stances). All of their articles are dripped with their editorial perspective. Not much different than the RW press just with less exposure and better facts.

[Bullshot]

11. You must be one of them damn liberal media types

I keep hearing that dominates the news airwaves.

I, too have a degree in journalism. What the radio and TV networks try to pass as "news" is nothing but fluff or being an extension of the White House's PR office. There's little digging and investigating. They just take whatever some office spoon feeds them and passes it off to the listeners as news.

[rinsd]

14. Not really...

I am against media consolidation. Let a thousand venues bloom covers every stripe of political thought.

Liberal Media & Conservative Media are terms to create a victim mentality. "The media is against us" has several purposes. One is if you discredit the opposition propaganda, you can depend on wholesale acceptance of your own. After all it's "alternative" or "real". Conservatives used it very successfully in the past. That mentality is why you see wholesale acceptance of FoxNews. Liberals are trying to do that now.

Corporate media is a more relevant term if we are to discuss major media as it is neither liberal nor conservative.

[FreeSpeechCrusader]

10. I was thinking of something along the lines of

"opinionated news readers." One of the things that disgusts me more than anything is turning on CNN to get one of the "opinionated news readers" opinion on the Janet Jackson fiasco...I had to clean the vomit off of my television set.

[tom_paine]

12. I agree, they are Entertainers in Corporate TV Pravda

They are Propagandists in the Party-Loyal Bushevik Sub-Media.

[robbedvoter]

15. Joe Conason is a journalist, Gene Lyons, Robert Parry

There may be a few I cannot name right now. But the rest are...the court jesters?

[Bandit]

17. Call them what they are ~ Propagandist

When Propaganda is all that is heard then there is no longer news.

[hang a left]

22. Oh you are so right.

How about hypnotists, disinformationists, distractors, elite serving whores.

[spanone]

20. I agree entirely. CNN has no journalists as I can tell.

[RichardRay]

24. A site for journalists, by jounalists

see what they have to say for themselves

Poynter Online

The Romenesko column is particularly good.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

26. they are "Infotainers"...NOT journalists