Posted July 1999

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TV Journalists Face Questions About Standards
By Al Tompkins, The Poynter Institute

"Do you people have any standards?" a Baltimore CPA asked a roomful of journalists.

For a few moments, two dozen journalists were silent, wanting to explain that, yes, they do have standards. But they also knew there is a wide disagreement about what those journalistic standards for ethical conduct should include.

Jeffrey Pollack, the accountant, was not trying to be condescending or mean-spirited in his question. He is like thousands of American TV news viewers who have concerns about why broadcast journalists use undercover cameras, unnamed sources, and sweeps month tactics. Pollack was a member of one of 16 citizens’ focus groups that will meet in 1999 and 2000 to talk about media ethics. The Radio and Television News Directors Foundation (RTNDF) is coordinating the workshops so newsroom decision-makers can hear, first-hand, the concerns of the people they serve.

In Baltimore, a diverse citizens’ group had been recruited to represent an entire broadcast market. Their opinions almost exactly mirrored the findings of the RTNDF national survey that showed news consumers are increasingly skeptical of what they see and hear.

A second-grade teacher told the journalists she used to tell her students to watch the evening news and report back to the class what they learned.

"I can’t do that anymore," she said, noting that the violence and graphic images that pervade newscasts make them too disturbing for her students.

The workshop facilitators asked the focus group to watch two television stories about a man who had climbed to the top of a radio tower. After several hours on the tower, the man fell to his death in full view of a gathered crowd.

The Baltimore focus group said they were disturbed by how the local newscasts "got so excited about the story." They wondered if the story should have any place in a newscast.

Businessman Chuck Farrell, who says he watches local news every day, commented that the two versions of the story had wide disagreements about the facts of what happened. One station said the radio tower was 200 feet tall. Another reported it was 300 feet. When the journalists said they were surprised Farrell caught the factual disagreements during one quick viewing, Ferrell shot back: "They must think we are stupid."

The citizens in the focus group had many other concerns about what they see on local TV and hear on local radio news:

Confidential sources: The majority of the citizens said journalists use confidential sources too often. "Sometimes they do it to make the story look bigger than it is," one man said. The RTNDF survey showed that when confidential sources are used in a story, listeners and viewers believe only half or less of what the source says.

Undercover cameras: The focus group said that most often TV stations use undercover cameras to target "little guys," not big violators. They said if TV stations are going to use undercover investigation techniques, they should invest more time to be sure that what is shown on TV is part of an ongoing pattern, not just a one-time occurrence. The citizens also said that undercover tactics should only be used for stories with overwhelming public importance.

Commercial concerns: Almost all the participants said it was reasonable to believe that people who buy commercials on a TV or radio station could reasonably expect to get favorable news coverage. The RTNDF survey showed the majority of the public believes advertisers, big business, and politicians improperly influence news content.

 

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