Responsible Journalism

Today, I was forced to run a story I thought had no business being in the newscast... and certainly not off the top of the show as a "news alert." It made me think about responsible journalism. I always tell myself... You do not have permission to waste a viewer's time. Those are words from the very wise Al Tompkins. Al says a million brilliant things a day but this one rings true to me. It's true, we... in media... do not have permission to waste someone's time. They turn on the news expecting to get relevant, important information. But I wonder how often this actually happens. I'm going to do an experiment. I'm going to watch a few news programs and count how many stories I felt were a waste of my time. I encourage you to do the same. If you do, write a post or email me and tell me how many there where and what they were. I'm worried too many people are obsessed with what is "new" even if it's not relevant, close in proximity, or important to any of our viewers. In fact, I don't think anyone would have known where the story was taking place or what it meant, but someone "Just now" said it, so we get to add bells and whistles and call it an alert. Too much show... not enough relevance = waste of time. Call me old school but I think people would rather hear about something that had happened locally that is important to them... even if it a whole hour ago.