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1340-1971
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Posted: Fri Aug 24th, 2007 02:32 am |
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| Is anyone else bothered that a radio news room secures an interview with the Mayor of Springfield and then hands the audio off to a talk show host so he can broadcast selected cuts out of context, and then ridicule what was said? 36 years in this biz and this bothers the hell outta me. Just wondering if any other journalists are aware or concerned..
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RadioRadio
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Posted: Fri Aug 24th, 2007 03:11 am |
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Do Not Feed The Talk-Show Monkey.
Didn't the KTTS news crew see the sign outside their sister station's studio door?
Jesting aside, this unnecessarily blurs the line between news (the stuff KTTS practices so well) and spouted opinion (KSGF's gimmick).
Most disturbing is the KSGF program director's pout at not being mentioned, by name, by the mayor. Not surprising, given the radio personality involved. Just disturbing.
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JCW
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Posted: Fri Aug 24th, 2007 05:40 am |
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Can you give us an idea what you're talking about for those of us who didn't hear the show?
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1340-1971
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Posted: Fri Aug 24th, 2007 12:36 pm |
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| Tuesday afternoon, KTTS/KSGF news reporter Bill Cantrell secured what I assume was a good faith interview with Tom Carlson after a council lunch. Wed 6am, VDj is airing outtakes and talking smack about everything the Mayor said. A newsroom is treading into dangerous waters when it feeds its work to a partisan party for purposes of public ridiclue. The future working relationship between the city and this newsroom is compromised.
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JCW
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Posted: Fri Aug 24th, 2007 01:46 pm |
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Well, how do you know that Cantrell handed it off to VDJ? They work in the same building so it's possible VDJ or his producer just went in and took a copy of the audio themselves. Talk show hosts take interviews all the time where they play clips and comment on them.
Not saying you might not be right but this is a huge accusation to make without knowing for sure it happened the way you describe.
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1340-1971
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Posted: Fri Aug 24th, 2007 02:40 pm |
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| You're correct that I don't know the details, but that doesn't change the fact that the cuts were aired with ridicule attatched. In turn that doesn't change the fact that any public figure might now be less eager to be interviewed by KTTS/KSGF "News" fearing the audio will be handed off to or taken by the talk show for non news purposes. This is a direct threat to the credibility of the news room and will make it much more difficult for its real reporters to do their job. These cuts weren't taken from a speech delivered in a public setting, nor was the full interview aired on KTTS/KSGF thus allowing a Rush wannabe to pull and pounce. The audio came from a one on one interview between a REPORTER representing a NEWS operation and the Mayor of Springfield. As a long time member of the RTNDA, I see a huge problem with what this news room has done, either handing off the audio, or allowing it to be taken in the middle of the night.
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artmorris
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Posted: Fri Aug 24th, 2007 03:23 pm |
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If you've ever wondered why most small market radio is bland, this is it!
When the majority of your advertisers are personal friends, and probably on the city council, school board or county commission, you can't afford to alienate them. Shepherd made a BIG point of this. Don't irritate the advertisers or the government. We need them. So, most small market programming is defensive, or actually slanted toward the advertiser or goverment entity.
When you're in an Arbitron-rated situation, however, the rules are different. You don't care as much as alienating the city council or your advertisers, because it's ratings you're seeking.
That being said, comedy and opinion programming on radio & TV has always taken interview tape from the news divisions to use for entertainment purposes. This is nothing new. In Kansas City, Mike Murphy and Curt Merz used to take tape of interviews with the mayor and insert comedic questions.
But, I do agree that Bill Cantrell might have a tougher time getting the interview next time. But, when management wants a controversial show, this is the game you play!!!
Art
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JCW
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Posted: Fri Aug 24th, 2007 04:06 pm |
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OK, I can sense you dislike VDJ a lot and that might be coloring things here a bit.
I don't know Cantrell but I really have a hard time with what you're posting here making it look like this guy has a lack (or at least a lapse) of journalistic integrity. It's entirely possible that Cantrell had no idea Jericho was going to take the audio and what was going to be done with it.
You've been in radio. People are in and out of studios all the time. When I worked at Journal back when 1260 was still classic country and Morris roamed the halls wild and free I would see a ton of traffic in and out of the newsroom. Someone could easily have gone in and taken a tape with audio on it without the newsperson in the studio even realizing it had happened.
Add in the fact it's the digital age and with a station's computers networked Jericho, his producer or anyone else in the building could call up that file in a production room and mix and match it to their hearts content.
I agree with Art that this is nothing new. I didn't hear the segment so perhaps Jericho's take on it was more aggressive than Springfield hosts in the past but that doesn't mean this is breaking new ground.
Look, you have a right to your opinion and I'm not trying to shut you down from the boards but before we pin it on the news department and say they're at fault here we need to consider the possibility they (meaning newsroom staff and Cantrell personally) had no idea what Jericho was about to do.
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1340-1971
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Posted: Fri Aug 24th, 2007 05:33 pm |
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We are all in agreement that talk show hosts using available audio is nothing new. My personal feelings about the host has nothing to do with my professional opinion that this action, regardless of how the audio was aquired, does damage to the credibility and ability of the newsroom. Again, newsmakers will be less willing to work with this news operation not knowing if the interview is for actual news or to be used by "the Entertainment Division." Are we to assume that this is to become standard operating procedure for this once proud newsroom? If the host took the audio w/o permission, or simply doesn't need permission, then perhaps someone from KTTS/KSGF can join this discussion and set us all straight. Please let us know that we can count on you to be objective in your reporting. I can't imagine Dan Shelly or Curt Brown ever letting this cross-contamination happen while they were there.
Also JCW, please clarify for me...are you defending this?
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XGM
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Posted: Fri Aug 24th, 2007 07:03 pm |
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| You are right, this is not a proper way to run a news operation by handing off tape made for news to a talk show host who is known for trying to stir up trouble on every occasion. The person on tape (in this case the Mayor) should have at least been asked if such usage was OK with him. As for Sheppard's view of not ever picking on advertisers or government leaders...sorry I don't buy that at all. For 15 years I did editorials on a variety of subjects from local to inter-national and yes, I did occasionally "pick on" both of the above mentioned factions. Journal purchased the stations in 1999 and with it came a first rate news department, to their credit, they haven't bothered the news department all that much. I advised Carl Gardner, then VP of broadcasting for Journal not to mess with the news department, it brought us lots of listeners, especially in the cume numbers. i.e. people who usually listened to "other stations" for music, etc. but knew where to get the real news. I can't understand why Rex or his superiors hold on to this "loose cannon" who continues to cause them problems at many levels. The ratings are not all that whoopee. It reminds me of when this type conversation would come up back when. I would say, we could use the "F" word every morning at 7:20 and people would tune in everyday to see if we were stupid enough to do it again...but that doesn't mean we would ever do it... i.e. ratings at any cost is NOT the answer.
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JCW
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Posted: Fri Aug 24th, 2007 07:09 pm |
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What I'm posting about concerns:
1. Someone hiding behind an alias--which was just signed up for the initial post apparently--without any contact information so this could easily be someone who is a competitor of KTTS and/or someone with the city or other organization that has a beef with Jericho.
2. Slamming a local news department for having a "breach of ethics" when this person cannot prove the news department in question actually had a breach in their ethics.
3. Calling into question the integrity of an individual news reporter again without any proof that the reporter gave the audio to VDJ or endorsed it's use on VDJ's show.
I know you couched your initial post to try and make it look like you could have been referring to KSGF or KWTO but with the recent negative rage against VDJ on this and other forums it wasn't hard to figure out about whom you were talking. You made a giant leap in concluding that there was a breach of ethics here without any proof to back it up.
Now, you can express your opinion on the idea of a talk host getting audio from a news source for their show. You went further and made it specific to Springfield instead of a general discussion on ethics. Now you're asking people to pass judgment on KTTS and criticize KTTS instead of having a general debate on ethics and you want it based on what you think may have happened. I'm not ready to slam a news department for breaching their ethics without knowing whether or not that's really what happened in the situation.
We can discuss the issue all day but when you don't identify yourself and try to claim that KTTS has breached their ethics without any kind of proof to back up that it was a delibrate breach it raises a red flag with me. (You did accuse them of delibrate breach when you said in your initial post they "handed off" the audio.) The thread and your posts just smell like a smear campaign instead of a real attempt to discuss the issue of talk show hosts using interviews of politicians and public figures obtained by news departments attached to the talk show host's station.
If you are a 36 year radio veteran and member of the RTNDA then you should be someone who wants to see the facts. Prove to me that the KTTS news department willingly gave the audio to Jericho and then we can talk about the ethics of that. As is, there is a reasonable doubt that the audio could have been obtained by Jericho or his producer without the news department's knowledge.
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1340-1971
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Posted: Fri Aug 24th, 2007 07:55 pm |
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It's in support of our journalism that inspired me to make this my first posting here. What I heard on KSGF this week got me "off the couch" as the morning host would say. I am neither a competitor of KTTS/KSGF nor do I work for the city, and I ask you allow me to retain the first year at my first frequency as my "air name" here.
I really don't disagree with anything posted here today, and I appreciate the civility of the discussion, I'm just a little touchy about what appears to be a news operation either being used as a tool by a talk show host, or compliant in his program of propaganda. Either way, it sucks for our profession.
When I tuned in to KSGF that 6 o'clock hour, the host intro'd the cuts as "obtained by our intrepid reporter Bill Cantrell". Thus positioning it as news.
It didn't take long for me be saddened by what I heard. For our profession,I will be glad to give Bill Cantrell the benifit of the doubt as to knowing how the fruits of his labor would be used. I am curious though of who sent him on this interview, and the nature of Cantrell's pitch to the Mayor when he asked for comment. Did Bill Cantrell know his audio was going to be used to ridicule his subject when he asked for the interview? JCW raises a good question: Was the audio simply taken w/o permission?
How much of that audio was used in an actual newscast? I have no idea, but we all know 10-15 seconds would be the norm and a long one at that.
Some might see KSGF's AM show as entertainment. The host sees a way to use his opinion to shape public opinion, first about himself, then about the city, public schools, secular persons, war, immigration and so on.
Journalists have another mission, and a code of ethics to go along with that mission.
Rex, Louzader, VDJ or Bill.. KTTS/KSGF, NPR, FOX or Air America....it doesn't matter who is holding the swizzle stick, the profession suffers when mixed with a partisan potion.
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morrisjames
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Posted: Fri Aug 24th, 2007 09:10 pm |
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I agree with 1340. It was wrong to use the interview obtained in that manner. I would have Mr. Jerk by the neck and headed for Rex office to talk about it and demand something be done (which by the way, probably nothing would happen).
One thing for sure, Rex would know my FURY and see just how red my face gets! (He has seen it before)
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1340-1971
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Posted: Fri Aug 24th, 2007 09:30 pm |
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JCW writes: "The thread and your posts just smell like a smear campaign instead of a real attempt to discuss the issue of talk show hosts using interviews of politicians and public figures obtained by news departments attached to the talk show host's station."
My initial posting: "Is anyone else bothered that a radio news room secures an interview with the Mayor of Springfield and then hands the audio off to a talk show host so he can broadcast selected cuts out of context, and then ridicule what was said? 36 years in this biz and this bothers the hell outta me. Just wondering if any other journalists are aware or concerned.. "
That WAS an attempt to discuss "the issue of talk show hosts using interviews of politicians and public figures obtained by news departments attached to the talk show host's station."
and it look like it's working we are discussing the issue. You, JCW wanted to know specifics, I provided what I remember hearing on the station in question. You accuse me of a smear campaign for giving the info you seek?
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Turner the burner
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Posted: Sat Aug 25th, 2007 01:00 pm |
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Ethics in talk radio don't seem to coexist. Most of today's talk show host seem to think that the rules do not apply to them and DO and say all the things that they slam others for.
I heard that great american Neil Bortz yesterday hyping his novel idea that voting should be tied into your income...the more money you make, the more your vote counts...no income = no vote. Speaking of "great americans", Sean Hannity spent an hour this week blaiming Bill Clinton for not capturing Bin Laden, talk about beating a dead horse. That silly Savage (Michael) spent an hour talking about what an american treasure HE (Michael) is....and all of them would not allow opposing voices to be heard, they simply shouted them down then cut them off. Talk radio reminds me of nazi propaganda.
The most absurd words I hear this week came from President Bush at the VFW convention in K.C. comparing the Iraqi occupation to that of Japan following WW2 and comparing Iraq to Vietnam. Oh, I forgot, apples and oranges are both fruit.
Now back to latest on Linsay Lohan, Nicole Richie ect, ect, ect and oh yes another special on Princess Diana.
I must add that Mike Murphy's excerpts from former KC mayor Chas Wheller was comedy and done with the mayor's blessing. I don't think that VDJ's stich was intended as humor but rather to low blow the mayor of Springfield.
I have a suggestion for all these good american self righteous self professing religious believers...end each who with "in Jesus name", maybe then they might watch what they say.
Have a good un...and God bless.
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