The Future of Television Stations?

The only time newspapers still seem to direct coverage is at the Presidential level.

 

Yeah, for major national news papers like the NY Times and Washington Post are invaluable.

If we have a major local political story or scandal my station is far more likely to break it than the newspaper.

 

So which reporter attends every Mericopa County School Board meeting? Or Tempe city council meeting?

 

FWIW - When I lived in Rhode Island, it was pretty clear that some of the local stations would lift from the local papers. Either that, or, the "tips" they were getting were coming from viewers who saw something in the paper, or on a paper's website. (Honestly, it could probably be either.)

Now that I'm in the Houston metro area, it's pretty clear that it's more like what you say. They're not wasting time combing the Chronicle for stories - there is more than enough shit going on in the metro area that if you're a TV reporter and you can't find an angle on a given day, you shouldn't be in that market in the first place.

 

There are 58 school districts in Maricopa County.

To your point, though, on the vast majority of days no one is covering the Tempe City Council meeting, newspaper or TV. If there is a major issue that is being discussed at that meeting we will cover the issue and then report what comes out of the meeting. We sure as hell aren't going to sit through the meeting. If we absolutely need something from the meeting -- an extreme rarity -- we'll roll on the city's video feed. They all have them.

There s virtually nothing of value at those meetings outside of a "did they vote yes or no" question.

 

maumann makes a great point — few people have the talent/ability to write for both.

Years ago at an old stop we hired a former local radio guy in sports. He hustled and was a great reporter and was very personable. But he was not a good writer. I still have some of his raw copy somewhere and I’d prefer to not look at it again, it was that bad. We probably spent as much time fixing his copy as we would’ve writing it ourselves as a phoner.

 

We had the exact same experience in my newsroom. He wrote everything in the present tense, in short bursts. Refused to adapt to our stylebook.

It was quite frustrating to edit.

 

What I feel will be missed if newspapers totally go away will be the over site of local government.

I’m unsure if that will ever return. Shit, it might already be gone for good.

Local school board gives $500,000 to local company to replace school boiler. If someone calls the TV station with a tip that is double the cost and basically funneling tax dollars to a board members’s cousin, does TV even investigate that?

Once local government figures out no one is watching, it will turn into a shit show if it hasn’t already.

 

If any major metro media outlet (print, radio, TV, online) is using their increasingly limited resources to sit through an entire court docket, adminstrative hearing or commission meeting in the odd chance something newsworthy happens that's not already decided in advance, they're stuck in 1970.

Being a media watchdog or paper of record has never been less important. That may suck, but that's the world we live in. The overwhelming majority of your audience is better served in other ways.

 

It's been that way long before TV was invented. And long before newspapers were invented. Does that expose really permanently stop the graft? I've never seen a situation where politicians actually change because of what the media uncovers.

Watergate coverage by Woodward and Bernstein eventually got Nixon to resign. But it's not like the political world has reformed since then because of the Post winning a Pulitzer. Or Noble.

 

It sure as shit keeps them from being re-elected.

I also think you underestimate the role news has in delivering accurate information to people.

 

But it doesn't. The perecentage of eligible voters shows that, particularly in a non general election year.

People have enough trouble worrying about their next paycheck, their next meal, getting their kids to school or soccer practice, making the green light, what's on TV, paying rent and utilities, how much they paid for gas or groceries, etc. They don't have the time to examine the bark on one tree when they're navigating a whole forest of decisions every day.

We want to think people have a long-term outlook or rally around a cause for the good of humanity but that's rarely the case. We're all day-to-day. The future will change by the time we get there anyway, so what's the point of worrying?

In your example, even if you vote out that particular politician, it's not like the replacement's that much less likely to be coerced because the media is watching. They'll just do a better job of hiding it. Unless taxes go up significantly because of mismangement, the average Joe could care less how the sausage is made. Incumbents win not because they're better qualified, but because people aren't motivated enough to change the status quo.

Joe Arpaio served for 24 years despite being corrupt as hell, and I'm certain the Republic investigated the crap out of him for years and he still kept getting re-elected. It takes a complete buffoon like Donald Trump to outrage enough Americans to go to the polls to swap one privileged white man for another.

We think our crusade as journalists to make the world a better place has intrinsic value. But we're entertainment in informational form, in other words, content. That point was hammered home when I realized there had been dozens of sports editors/news directors before me at every job I ever had, and there would be dozens more after I was gone, all trying to do the best jobs they could with the resources available.

None of us is irreplaceable. Walter Cronkite and Furman Bisher and Vin Scully? CBS, the AJC and the Dodgers found somebody else to fill the spot.

Newspapers, radio and TV stations have gone in and out of business for decades and the world hasn't come crashing to a halt. There's always someone new willing to entertain and inform -- at peasant wages -- and different outlets to provide that entertainment.