Political bias in local news? Is there any?

[jennykind]

New topic, I hope you all approve:

in the way that Fox gets tagged conservative or Republcian TV, and CBS, or CNN, different other news stations are tagged as liberal or Democratic Party mouthpieces, has there been that kind of scrutiny paid to our local news stations?

What about commentators? Fox's main hosts are admittedly conservative, then there's Keith Olberman or Lou Dobbs who are share their opinions.

Do we have that in Houston?

Thanks.

[houstonray]

OK, there is absolutely no scientific research for this decision, other than stories I've seen and my 'gut feeling, but to me, Channel 2 seems Republican slanted, Channel 11 seems Democratic slanted and Channel 13 seems sort of split but leans Republican.

Again, just the way I see things from one perspective.

[LarryDallas]

OK, there is absolutely no scientific research for this decision, other than stories I've seen and my 'gut feeling, but to me, Channel 2 seems Republican slanted, Channel 11 seems Democratic slanted and Channel 13 seems sort of split but leans Republican.

Again, just the way I see things from one perspective.

For the most part I agree with your post.

2 - PURE Republican but dumbed down as low as it can go...kind of a "we are good they are bad" mentality of things when it comes to any issue. Their weather reports are as close to calling bad weather punishment from God as you can get without actually saying it.

11 - Libertarian - they are not democratic because they cater to more of the yuppie audience than anyone else. They are very pro-gentrification but at the same time present all of the facts from both sides well. That said, they lack the balls to do hardcore investiagtions when a powerful republican is in trouble; they just spit out a fact when people like Tom Delay are involved but do not elaborate. At the same time they kind of patronize the poor class of Houstonians and give lip service with the old and played out "there is more to the ghetto than meets the eye" angle of things.

13 - heavy republican tilt but designed for the working class. They kind of have this idea that if you are poor and uneducated you should completely leave things in the hands of the republican party and you will come out in better shape for it. I kind of find their special interest stories about poor people insulting and elitist. They will drive to the ghetto and stick a camera and mic in the face of a slum lord to make it seem like they are looking out for the little man when slums have and always will exist in Houston.

26 - Completely LACK comsistency cause they are very Republican in political views but Liberals when it comes to social issues. They dumb it down nearly as much as 2 does but come off worse than 2 because they try to make themsleves seem hip and cool but seem lame.

39 - BEST NEWSCAST in town. Granted, they lean democratic cause they will do major investigations on GOP scandals but do like 11 does when it comes to bad news about the DNC. However, they do not use stupid gimics and points of view to report things. Their presentation is at a high school grad level in terms of how they relay information. They are the average station for the average viewer.

[FilioScotia]

For the most part I agree with your post.

2 - PURE Republican but dumbed down as low as it can go...kind of a "we are good they are bad" mentality of things when it comes to any issue. Their weather reports are as close to calling bad weather punishment from God as you can get without actually saying it.

11 - Libertarian - they are not democratic because they cater to more of the yuppie audience than anyone else. They are very pro-gentrification but at the same time present all of the facts from both sides well. That said, they lack the balls to do hardcore investiagtions when a powerful republican is in trouble; they just spit out a fact when people like Tom Delay are involved but do not elaborate. At the same time they kind of patronize the poor class of Houstonians and give lip service with the old and played out "there is more to the ghetto than meets the eye" angle of things.

13 - heavy republican tilt but designed for the working class. They kind of have this idea that if you are poor and uneducated you should completely leave things in the hands of the republican party and you will come out in better shape for it. I kind of find their special interest stories about poor people insulting and elitist. They will drive to the ghetto and stick a camera and mic in the face of a slum lord to make it seem like they are looking out for the little man when slums have and always will exist in Houston.

26 - Completely LACK comsistency cause they are very Republican in political views but Liberals when it comes to social issues. They dumb it down nearly as much as 2 does but come off worse than 2 because they try to make themsleves seem hip and cool but seem lame.

39 - BEST NEWSCAST in town. Granted, they lean democratic cause they will do major investigations on GOP scandals but do like 11 does when it comes to bad news about the DNC. However, they do not use stupid gimics and points of view to report things. Their presentation is at a high school grad level in terms of how they relay information. They are the average station for the average viewer.

I don't agree with any of your assessments and here's why. It takes some ability to think to have a political bias one way or the other, and I don't think any Houston TV anchors or news reporters are intelligent enough to have a bias.

As the late great Mike Royko once said: television reporters are, as a species, the stupidest creatures on Earth. There are some exceptions of course, but they are very rare and they usually don't last long. They get tired of working in a business so dominated by empty headed people.

[MidtownCoog]

Ch 2 Republican?

To me it looks like a station taken over by illegal aliens.

[TJones]

Channel 2 was pretty biased, especially in the editorials (which weren't at all Republican) that allowed no rebuttals at equal time, until the parent company shipped Steve Wasserman off to another station.

[editor]

Try not to look too hard at local newscasts for points of view. Local news is a very different beast than national. In most local news operations the people are just scrambling to get something on the air -- they don't have time to think about liberal vs. conservative bias. They're just trying to survive the day.

One thing I will agree with that was posted above is that 39 has the best newscast in Houston, especially considering that its entire news staff is smaller than the other stations' cleaning crews. 39 should have won a freaking Emmy for coverage of the Columbia disaster. I used to have it on tape and watched it over and over. It was magnificent.

Sadly, 39 news isn't expected to last too much longer. Not because it isn't good or isn't making money, but because its parent company is $13 billion in debt and has been selling its smaller stations (Atlanta, Miami, DC, Boston so far) or outsourcing the news to other stations in the market (Philadelphia, San Diego so far).

Remarkably, the people at 39 keep plugging along as if nothing is wrong, trying to put out a quality product each night and just waiting for corporate to swing the axe. If you can, I encourage you to watch 39 as often as you can while Houston still has this unique resource.

[stan the man]

2 - PURE Republican but dumbed down as low as it can go...kind of a "we are good they are bad" mentality of things when it comes to any issue. Their weather reports are as close to calling bad weather punishment from God as you can get without actually saying it.

It should be no surprise that 2 tends to lean towards the GOP, given that Dominique Sachse grew up in the Memorial area and the first female reporter the station hired was Kay Bailey Hutchison. It does take a soft news approach, which from my own recollections is evidence of a newscast's appeal to more conservative locales.

11 - Libertarian - they are not democratic because they cater to more of the yuppie audience than anyone else. They are very pro-gentrification but at the same time present all of the facts from both sides well. That said, they lack the balls to do hardcore investiagtions when a powerful republican is in trouble; they just spit out a fact when people like Tom Delay are involved but do not elaborate. At the same time they kind of patronize the poor class of Houstonians and give lip service with the old and played out "there is more to the ghetto than meets the eye" angle of things.

Channel 11 is definitely not Democratic, but they definitely get more of the professional and intellectual viewership which seems to be common among Belo stations. They have historically been known as the thinking man's newscast in Houston, which explains their target audience. There are health specials and such on 11 and a lot of professionals here are involved in medical practice (I have even seen State Rep. John Zerwas in several Memorial Hermann inserts during the 10pm news).

Their sports department is especially evidence that 11 is not Democratic. Giff Nielsen was mentioned on Roll Call (a major newspaper serving Congress and Capitol Hill) as a potential candidate at one time for Tom DeLay's old seat after Nick Lampson won it (he admitted to considering the seat but has never pursued it), and the station once had as Sports Director none other than State Senator Dan Patrick. To top it off, the late Sylvan Rodriguez was married to Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, who took over DeLay's seat before Lampson started his new term, and Shelley made quite a show of it.

In other words, 11 is more eclectic than most people give it credit for.

13 - heavy republican tilt but designed for the working class. They kind of have this idea that if you are poor and uneducated you should completely leave things in the hands of the republican party and you will come out in better shape for it. I kind of find their special interest stories about poor people insulting and elitist. They will drive to the ghetto and stick a camera and mic in the face of a slum lord to make it seem like they are looking out for the little man when slums have and always will exist in Houston.

Channel 13 does have a reputation for serving working-class and majority-minority neighborhoods. There are a lot of stories done at this station that fall into these subjects, and that's also the kind of stuff that Marvin Zindler did for 34 1/2 years. Zindler himself even considered running for Congress as a Republican (he had previously been a Democrat) but still continued to support socially liberal issues even well before his death. That being said, what district did Marvin try to run in when he considered running for Congress? I know that CD18 has always been staunchly Democrat, CD7 has favored Republicans (it was Bush 41's district), and CDs 25, 29 and the current incarnation of 9 never existed when he mulled a run.

Of course, given the recent scandals of the GOP, many of the more notorious scandals in Houston television have seemed to usually come out of 13, including a much-publicized one in 1989 that many recall. At least the person involved in the scandal cleaned up his image in time before retiring. Finally, back to the working class, a lot of the investigations that Wayne Dolcefino has done has been against the Houston political machine (anybody recall that one investigation where they baked a pie full of money?) and charter schools in working class neighborhoods, especially Alphonso Crutch. One time in my high school days, the men's JV basketball team was slated to play Alphonso Crutch in a tournament but they never showed up, and it ended up being our coaches vs. the refs, which didn't surprise me given that the Crutch (and most other Houston charter schools) has been known for corruption and bad morals.

26 - Completely LACK comsistency cause they are very Republican in political views but Liberals when it comes to social issues. They dumb it down nearly as much as 2 does but come off worse than 2 because they try to make themsleves seem hip and cool but seem lame.

To me, Fox 26 seems to have a somewhat suburban mood, since every time I tend to watch this newscast it almost always reminds me of Sugar Land as far as the feel goes, and also they have a lot of segments that cater to suburbanites such as the Predator Check segment that it considers especially important in siphoning suburban viewers away from other stations. You may also recall the City Under Siege segments in the 90s, to me they also seemed to have a suburban effect to it since crime is a factor in why so many families of all ethnic and cultural backgrounds move out to the suburbs. Sports fans are another common suburban viewer cluster, and Mark Berman is the most aggressive sports reporter in town.

Overall, it is a local Fox News Channel with diversity, given their anchor lineups.

39 - BEST NEWSCAST in town. Granted, they lean democratic cause they will do major investigations on GOP scandals but do like 11 does when it comes to bad news about the DNC. However, they do not use stupid gimics and points of view to report things. Their presentation is at a high school grad level in terms of how they relay information. They are the average station for the average viewer.

I'm not sure if 39 leans Democratic, since their parent company's flagship newspaper (the Chicago Tribune) is known as the more conservative of the two Windy City papers (it endorsed Bush 43) and favors the affluent north side of the area (as opposed to the working class, liberal leanings of the Sun-Times which endorsed John Kerry). I do recall that a lot of prime time newscasts seem to have the stigma of a conservative viewpoint (the newscasts on Sinclair-owned stations during Bush 43's first term is one classic example).

For the most part, Houston newscasts tend to favor a pro-business agenda. I have to wonder what political biases exist on 45 and 47, because even Spanish-language stations have political biases.

[editor]

I'm not sure if 39 leans Democratic, since their parent company's flagship newspaper (the Chicago Tribune) is known as the more conservative of the two Windy City papers (it endorsed Bush 43) and favors the affluent north side of the area (as opposed to the working class, liberal leanings of the Sun-Times which endorsed John Kerry). I do recall that a lot of prime time newscasts seem to have the stigma of a conservative viewpoint (the newscasts on Sinclair-owned stations during Bush 43's first term is one classic example).

The Chicago Tribune has ZERO editorial influence on channel 39. Most of the people at the paper don't even know that 39 exists. Heck, the Tribune doesn't even exert editorial influence on co-owned WGN-TV which is just 13 miles away from the paper. The two entities are in very different branches of the company (Tribune Publishing vs. Tribune Broadcasting). The paper doesn't even mess with CLTV (24-hour cable news channel), which it owns, and is part of the publishing division, and is even located in a Tribune Publishing office building.

The same can be said for Belo. As much as I like to bash 11News, the Dallas Morning News has nothing to do whatsoever with its operation. As stated above, most local broadcasters don't have the time to think about stuff like that. They're just churning out the news so they can collect a paycheck and go home at the end of the day.

TV news sounds glamorous, but it's really very much like working in a plastic fork factory.

[Subdude]

TV news sounds glamorous, but it's really very much like working in a plastic fork factory.

Don't you think you're being a little too harsh on plastic fork factories?

[Mark F. Barnes]

Did anybody catch 20/20 this weekend, very interesting!

[Firebird65]

Local news is a very different beast than national. In most local news operations the people are just scrambling to get something on the air -- they don't have time to think about liberal vs. conservative bias. They're just trying to survive the day.

1000% correct. This is one of the more laughable threads on this website.

I believe the national news is slanted to the left. But local news? C'mon... how's a car chase or house fire or dirty restaurant or even the wacky hurricane coverage political?

[editor]

1000% correct. This is one of the more laughable threads on this website.

I believe the national news is slanted to the left. But local news? C'mon... how's a car chase or house fire or dirty restaurant or even the wacky hurricane coverage political?

Bingo.

Of course, there are some influences because people are involved, but there subtle and almost always benign. I know one producer in Houston who always puts news from Hawaii in her newscast as often as possible. She loves it there and takes all of her vacations there and would live there if the cost of living wasn't so high and the pay for TV producers so low. But just about every month she manages to run a story from Hawaii. Maybe when she's depressed.

I know another producer (in another market) who hunts high and low for pumpkin stories in October. Preferably giant pumpkins, if possible. Last I heard, he's managed to have a pumpkin story in every newscast he's produced this month. It's an annual thing for him.

It's not the big brass you have to worry about skewing your news -- it's the producer -- the person who actually decides what goes on the air. The shirts (and more often than not these days, skirts) in the offices are too busy worrying about budgets and personnel issues to bother getting dirty with the day-to-day business of news.

The talent, for the most part, are just along for the ride. They'll cut a dozen promos talking about how much they care about the news and are really plugged in to their community, but then they'll show up 15 minutes before the newscast reeking of booze and refuse to put on their pants until you convince them that yes, they are valuable, and the people do love them, and they can save the world by giving the camera just the right kind of Derek Zoolander glare and yes that transition you made from the dead baby story to the puppies in the sewer great last night, and no, no one faults you for running to Canada during the Vietnam War, and no, no one's going to tell the newspaper about it and ruin your career which has already gone from network to syndication to local affiliate to local independent and is on the fast track to local cable news if you don't shut up about the stone gnomes in your garden laughing at you because I know you don't have any gnomes in your garden because I was at your house for the Halloween party last year when you dressed up as Hugh Heffner and while the silk jammies may have been nice, they don't qualify as a costume if you wear them every day and I know you do because there was another pair out back by the pool near the garden where there are no gnomes, and who builds a pool right next to a bayou anyway how stupid is that what are you going to do when it floods but then I guess you don't worry about that you'll just buy another home since you're making nine figures and never leave the safety of your gated mansion or your BMW SUV or your private yacht which is the only thing you ever talk about other than how you're a man of the people and a Regular Joe even though you spend your weekends on your yacht which you never even bother to take out of the marina so what's the point of paying a third of a million dollars a year for a place to park a boat that never goes anywhere at least you could park it in your driveway so you wouldn't have to run between the marina and your Beemer with a hat pulled over your face so your imaginary fans don't swarm you. Yes, I said they're imaginary because they are. No one cares about you and your golden voice except for you and you only got that authoritative sounding rumble with the hint of a Southern twang from smoking too many cigarettes in the rain. Here's a clue: That isn't fan mail you throw out without reading, that's letters from shut-ins and psychos and stalkers and people in prison who think you're talking to them personally when in reality all you're doing is reading the words that someone else put on the prompter. Someone who does your writing for you. Someone who does your thinking for you. Someone who makes sure that you don't end up homeless and broke in an alley with one shoe talking to the walls because that's his job and he's damned good at it even if he makes four figures less than you and the company just cut the health benefits for people in his tier, but keep on smoking your cigarettes and talking about how you'll quit and then you just start up again next summer when you find some old Cubans on your yacht, and how did you get those anyway? Oh, right from all those "fact finding" missions to Havana where you spend two weeks getting in and getting out and only turn 60 seconds of tape because you're so devoted to your craft that you're a consummate professional, after all you must be because you remind the rest of us of it every day.. every hour, even, but somehow only barely manage to make it to work on time because you're always flying in from Atlanta or New York or Toronto or God-Knows-Where at the last minute and traffic is sooooo bad even though we're located next to the airport and some day you're going to miss the beginning of the show on a day when there's no co-anchor to cover for you and when the newspaper asks WTF happened I'll accidentally let it slip about how you changed your last name to something a little more "Hispanic" and spend two days a week in a tanning booth in order to keep up the illusion that you're one of the Fred Lunchbuckets out there just punching a clock and telling it like it is because you know how hard life is, after all you're only able to make it to Miami three or four times a year and never stay in the condo that you own out there because they know you so well at the Four Seasons back home since you never cook for yourself and when you're lonely you check into the hotel with your stupid smelly dogs who live better at the hotel than most of the Mike Six-Packs that you're broadcasting to do every day because they have to pack their own lunches because they don't have the luxury of calling up the hotel and having room service delivered TO YOUR HOME which is not what room service is for but you don't care because you live in a bubble and haven't given a crap about anyone else since market 179 when you were a good enough anchor to throw up in a garbage can on the set during a sound bite and keep on going for the rest of the newscast but now you can't even walk from your bedroom to the medicine cabinet without someone there to validate your existence and let me tell you that Julio or whatever his name is really isn't all that into you, because "personal trainer" isn't a profession, it's an excuse and if he was really some sort of physical fitness trainer wouldn't he work at a gym instead of in your house and have some kind of training that involves a degree or an education or reading something longer than the back of a bottle of coconut oil?

But I digress.

[stan the man]

Ok, let's put it this way: In Houston, as I mentioned earlier, news departments just like the city and metro area are pro-business and socially responsive. Examples:

• The TV news is generally Blue Dog Democrat/Bush 41 Republican (not necessarily Bush 43 Republican) in general. A Main Street Partnership crowd nonetheless.
  
• Talk radio is predominantly conservative Republican and Constitution Party-slanted (the latter party is where the third-party opportunity is likely going to come from if the Religious Right don't get what they want from the GOP). It's no wonder Dan Patrick received Paul Burka's wrath in Texas Monthly.
  
• Newspapers are either New Democrat (e.g. Clinton, Gene Green, not Al) if it's the Chronicle (they are center-left, I'm told) or Libertarian/Green if it's the Press, because alternative newspapers have historically been known for their appeal to coffeehouse constituencies.
  
• Suburban weeklies vary but in Sugar Land, one paper is led by a former GOP precinct chair who endorsed Lampson and a slate of Democrats last year (this was the same paper that once had the "Mayor Osama" commentator that slandered CD22 candidate Dean Hrbacek, but we at least don't have to worry about him slandering Hrbacek anymore and stirring up the "base" because he's gone).
  

Question to top it off: Which station do you predict will be the first to accept an anti-Hillary ad by a conservative fringe group?

[westguy]

If it's the Chronicle (they are center-left, I'm told)

I'm not sure when or if the Chronicle has ever endorsed a non-Republican for President. They went with our current disaster even in 2004.

[ricco67]

I have to agree that the local news agencies are scrambling to just get something on the air and try to scoop the other station to worry about any "slant" on a problem (I have to admit, that 26 is the only one that I see that is being bad at this), but to simply put out a story.

Whether it's Left or Right depends on one's viewpoint on a particular subject. In fact, I don't know a single person (literally) that is consistantly on the left OR the right in all topics that would be relavent to that particular political slant. The same thing for the newscasts.

As far as national newscasts goes I don't really see a bias one way or another in a consistant way.

I think if we simply get off our respective high horses of "Your viewpoint doesn't match mine, you must be a <insert derisive political name here>-winger!"

We need to get off this crap and simply view the others person's right to an opinion as the other and not to deride or dismiss that person simply because they have a viewpoint that disagrees with yours.

I'm sure that if I posted my personal beliefs quite a few of you would consider me a hard core right winger or a hard core left winger, depending on which ones I put up.

[sifuwong]

The Chicago Tribune has ZERO editorial influence on channel 39. Most of the people at the paper don't even know that 39 exists. Heck, the Tribune doesn't even exert editorial influence on co-owned WGN-TV which is just 13 miles away from the paper. The two entities are in very different branches of the company (Tribune Publishing vs. Tribune Broadcasting). The paper doesn't even mess with CLTV (24-hour cable news channel), which it owns, and is part of the publishing division, and is even located in a Tribune Publishing office building.

The same can be said for Belo. As much as I like to bash 11News, the Dallas Morning News has nothing to do whatsoever with its operation. As stated above, most local broadcasters don't have the time to think about stuff like that. They're just churning out the news so they can collect a paycheck and go home at the end of the day.

TV news sounds glamorous, but it's really very much like working in a plastic fork factory.

So true, if you watch your local news, they just regurgitate the news from the AP wires, etc.

[editor]

So true, if you watch your local news, they just regurgitate the news from the AP wires, etc.

A common notion, but also very wrong.

Small market radio does this. Large market TV does not.

For the most part the TV stations look at the wires just for planning purposes and to make sure they didn't miss anything. Radio and print lean on the wire, TV does not. New writers coming up from smaller markets get a serious tongue-thrashing if they do this. Experienced writers would be fired if they just clipped AP wire, and it would be painfully obvious because even the Broadcast Wire isn't written in broadcast style.

The only common cut-and-paste you're likely to see is the early morning shows copying stories from the night before.

But even if the stations ARE doing rip-and-read AP, who cares? That's what the AP is for. It's not like you've caught the newsrooms in some great big media secret -- that's what the AP was founded to do.

Each station pays AP tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars a year for access to AP's original stories, audio, video, and the stories, audio, and video of the other AP stations. Why shouldn't the stations use stories that they've paid for? Do you consider it "regurgitating" when KPRC runs video of a jet crash from WNBC in New York? It's the same thing -- they're both on the same team (in this case, NBC). You don't expect KPRC to have its local reporters run up to New York to cover stories there, do you? The AP serves to fill in the gaps in coverage that the member stations can't.

And I say "member stations" because the AP is a non-profit cooperative. So when you think you've caught some media outlet "regurgitating" AP news, very often it's the AP regurgitating the news from a member station or paper.

One of the big problems with the internet is that it has made everyone believe they're an expert in things they know nothing about.

[jennykind]

A common notion, but also very wrong.

Small market radio does this. Large market TV does not.

For the most part the TV stations look at the wires just for planning purposes and to make sure they didn't miss anything. Radio and print lean on the wire, TV does not. New writers coming up from smaller markets get a serious tongue-thrashing if they do this. Experienced writers would be fired if they just clipped AP wire, and it would be painfully obvious because even the Broadcast Wire isn't written in broadcast style.

The only common cut-and-paste you're likely to see is the early morning shows copying stories from the night before.

But even if the stations ARE doing rip-and-read AP, who cares? That's what the AP is for. It's not like you've caught the newsrooms in some great big media secret -- that's what the AP was founded to do.

Each station pays AP tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars a year for access to AP's original stories, audio, video, and the stories, audio, and video of the other AP stations. Why shouldn't the stations use stories that they've paid for? Do you consider it "regurgitating" when KPRC runs video of a jet crash from WNBC in New York? It's the same thing -- they're both on the same team (in this case, NBC). You don't expect KPRC to have its local reporters run up to New York to cover stories there, do you? The AP serves to fill in the gaps in coverage that the member stations can't.

And I say "member stations" because the AP is a non-profit cooperative. So when you think you've caught some media outlet "regurgitating" AP news, very often it's the AP regurgitating the news from a member station or paper.

One of the big problems with the internet is that it has made everyone believe they're an expert in things they know nothing about.

Thanks for all these ideas, and insight! Reason this topic hit me was listening to local radio, and thinking how political, openly our local radio is. I thought maybe someone out there would have better insight about local tv, and this has answered my questions.

[stan the man]

I'm not sure when or if the Chronicle has ever endorsed a non-Republican for President. They went with our current disaster even in 2004.

The Chronicle has been attacked by the Harris GOP and Dan Patrick's army for strongly advocating light rail, giving to Planned Parenthood and smearing Tom DeLay. A reporter for the Chronicle pressured the pro-Bush family of a fallen Iraq War veteran for an anti-Bush quote that was published. Bill O'Reilly even unleashed his anger on the Chronicle.

Even the Houston Press (yes the Press) critiqued them.

[editor]

In a one newspaper town, every side will attack you. The only way to know you're doing a good job is if both sides are angry.

[moni]

Bingo.

Of course, there are some influences because people are involved, but there subtle and almost always benign. I know one producer in Houston who always puts news from Hawaii in her newscast as often as possible. She loves it there and takes all of her vacations there and would live there if the cost of living wasn't so high and the pay for TV producers so low. But just about every month she manages to run a story from Hawaii. Maybe when she's depressed.

I know another producer (in another market) who hunts high and low for pumpkin stories in October. Preferably giant pumpkins, if possible. Last I heard, he's managed to have a pumpkin story in every newscast he's produced this month. It's an annual thing for him.

It's not the big brass you have to worry about skewing your news -- it's the producer -- the person who actually decides what goes on the air. The shirts (and more often than not these days, skirts) in the offices are too busy worrying about budgets and personnel issues to bother getting dirty with the day-to-day business of news.

The talent, for the most part, are just along for the ride. They'll cut a dozen promos talking about how much they care about the news and are really plugged in to their community, but then they'll show up 15 minutes before the newscast reeking of booze and refuse to put on their pants until you convince them that yes, they are valuable, and the people do love them, and they can save the world by giving the camera just the right kind of Derek Zoolander glare and yes that transition you made from the dead baby story to the puppies in the sewer great last night, and no, no one faults you for running to Canada during the Vietnam War, and no, no one's going to tell the newspaper about it and ruin your career which has already gone from network to syndication to local affiliate to local independent and is on the fast track to local cable news if you don't shut up about the stone gnomes in your garden laughing at you because I know you don't have any gnomes in your garden because I was at your house for the Halloween party last year when you dressed up as Hugh Heffner and while the silk jammies may have been nice, they don't qualify as a costume if you wear them every day and I know you do because there was another pair out back by the pool near the garden where there are no gnomes, and who builds a pool right next to a bayou anyway how stupid is that what are you going to do when it floods but then I guess you don't worry about that you'll just buy another home since you're making nine figures and never leave the safety of your gated mansion or your BMW SUV or your private yacht which is the only thing you ever talk about other than how you're a man of the people and a Regular Joe even though you spend your weekends on your yacht which you never even bother to take out of the marina so what's the point of paying a third of a million dollars a year for a place to park a boat that never goes anywhere at least you could park it in your driveway so you wouldn't have to run between the marina and your Beemer with a hat pulled over your face so your imaginary fans don't swarm you. Yes, I said they're imaginary because they are. No one cares about you and your golden voice except for you and you only got that authoritative sounding rumble with the hint of a Southern twang from smoking too many cigarettes in the rain. Here's a clue: That isn't fan mail you throw out without reading, that's letters from shut-ins and psychos and stalkers and people in prison who think you're talking to them personally when in reality all you're doing is reading the words that someone else put on the prompter. Someone who does your writing for you. Someone who does your thinking for you. Someone who makes sure that you don't end up homeless and broke in an alley with one shoe talking to the walls because that's his job and he's damned good at it even if he makes four figures less than you and the company just cut the health benefits for people in his tier, but keep on smoking your cigarettes and talking about how you'll quit and then you just start up again next summer when you find some old Cubans on your yacht, and how did you get those anyway? Oh, right from all those "fact finding" missions to Havana where you spend two weeks getting in and getting out and only turn 60 seconds of tape because you're so devoted to your craft that you're a consummate professional, after all you must be because you remind the rest of us of it every day.. every hour, even, but somehow only barely manage to make it to work on time because you're always flying in from Atlanta or New York or Toronto or God-Knows-Where at the last minute and traffic is sooooo bad even though we're located next to the airport and some day you're going to miss the beginning of the show on a day when there's no co-anchor to cover for you and when the newspaper asks WTF happened I'll accidentally let it slip about how you changed your last name to something a little more "Hispanic" and spend two days a week in a tanning booth in order to keep up the illusion that you're one of the Fred Lunchbuckets out there just punching a clock and telling it like it is because you know how hard life is, after all you're only able to make it to Miami three or four times a year and never stay in the condo that you own out there because they know you so well at the Four Seasons back home since you never cook for yourself and when you're lonely you check into the hotel with your stupid smelly dogs who live better at the hotel than most of the Mike Six-Packs that you're broadcasting to do every day because they have to pack their own lunches because they don't have the luxury of calling up the hotel and having room service delivered TO YOUR HOME which is not what room service is for but you don't care because you live in a bubble and haven't given a crap about anyone else since market 179 when you were a good enough anchor to throw up in a garbage can on the set during a sound bite and keep on going for the rest of the newscast but now you can't even walk from your bedroom to the medicine cabinet without someone there to validate your existence and let me tell you that Julio or whatever his name is really isn't all that into you, because "personal trainer" isn't a profession, it's an excuse and if he was really some sort of physical fitness trainer wouldn't he work at a gym instead of in your house and have some kind of training that involves a degree or an education or reading something longer than the back of a bottle of coconut oil?

But I digress.

Hey, hey, hey...this is really good. Definitely a keeper. Have you written a book?? I love to read and you are a talent.

[ricco67]

pst. moni. Don't kiss up to editor. It doesn't work (much).

[Subdude]

Media should be biased. There's nothing wrong with it. It is what freedom of the press is all about. What are probably the two best newspapers in America, the Wall St Journal and NY Times, are both biased (in different directions) and make no bones about it. Much better biased quality than bland pabulum like the Chronicle that goes out of its way to avoid offending anyone. When people gripe about biased reporting, what they inevitably mean is "It doesn't agree with what I think."

[CDeb]

Media should be biased. There's nothing wrong with it. It is what freedom of the press is all about. What are probably the two best newspapers in America, the Wall St Journal and NY Times, are both biased (in different directions) and make no bones about it. Much better biased quality than bland pabulum like the Chronicle that goes out of its way to avoid offending anyone. When people gripe about biased reporting, what they inevitably mean is "It doesn't agree with what I think."

When people gripe about biased reporting, they aren't referring to the editorial content, which should take a stand one way or another.

[Firebird65]

Media should be biased. There's nothing wrong with it. It is what freedom of the press is all about. What are probably the two best newspapers in America, the Wall St Journal and NY Times, are both biased (in different directions) and make no bones about it. Much better biased quality than bland pabulum like the Chronicle that goes out of its way to avoid offending anyone. When people gripe about biased reporting, what they inevitably mean is "It doesn't agree with what I think."

An interesting thought, especially about the Chronicle in comparison to the WSJ or NYT.

[houstonmacbro]

In a one newspaper town, every side will attack you. The only way to know you're doing a good job is if both sides are angry.

Speaking of, do we only have 1 newspaper because we cannot support 2? Or is there some other reason I am missing? Don't most major cities here in the States have at least 2 major papers (forgive me for leaving out Ruumbo, Forward Times, and the African American News, and the thousands of other papers that litter thew bus stops).

[stan the man]

Speaking of, do we only have 1 newspaper because we cannot support 2? Or is there some other reason I am missing? Don't most major cities here in the States have at least 2 major papers (forgive me for leaving out Ruumbo, Forward Times, and the African American News, and the thousands of other papers that litter thew bus stops).

We only have one major daily because the Post dropped the ball on us just before the OKC bombing. It has been a one newspaper town since. And my family had been Post subscribers for years, we only rarely received the Chronicle until the Post shut down.

That being said, what kind of bias did the Post have?

[TJones]

Media should be biased. There's nothing wrong with it. It is what freedom of the press is all about. What are probably the two best newspapers in America, the Wall St Journal and NY Times, are both biased (in different directions) and make no bones about it. Much better biased quality than bland pabulum like the Chronicle that goes out of its way to avoid offending anyone. When people gripe about biased reporting, what they inevitably mean is "It doesn't agree with what I think."

You are right Subdude, so I would guess that you are AGAINST the "fairness doctrine" also ?

[Subdude]

When people gripe about biased reporting, they aren't referring to the editorial content, which should take a stand one way or another.

It doesn't matter. Editorial content or not, any newspaper has every right to be as biased as they like, and that's a good thing.

You are right Subdude, so I would guess that you are AGAINST the "fairness doctrine" also ?

Correct, but I didn't think that was still in existance.

Speaking of, do we only have 1 newspaper because we cannot support 2? Or is there some other reason I am missing? Don't most major cities here in the States have at least 2 major papers (forgive me for leaving out Ruumbo, Forward Times, and the African American News, and the thousands of other papers that litter thew bus stops).

Cities with 2 major papers are a thing of the past. Many would argue that newspapers in general are a thing of the past.