How Sports Has Destroyed Television’s Local News Credibility.
As we’ve watched local newspapers’ slow decline into journalistic irrelevancy and doom, we’ve turned to local television for the latest news coverage. Oh, sure, we occasionally hear from the investigative reporter who has uncovered the local Watergate-esque story of the century. But such revelations are confined to a very few local newscasts or stations.
Local television news must seriously take its role replacing the authoritative voice of local newsprint journalism or it will suffer the same fate as paper and ink. Weekdays, local television stations do their best to offer coverage of the local community. Excellence in local news coverage is in what TV must excel for ratings and advertising dollars. Meanwhile, network news will supply the national and international coverage. But local news rules, except to young, uninformed, unconcerned, disinterested or those who wish to cast their fate to the wind.
TV management focuses on the choice between revenue and journalistic excellence every weekend. The siren song of dollars vs. news credibility is the issue. Each weekend viewers find themselves in local news purgatory because sports coverage has pre-empted local news and, often, the network’s national news coverage. Is it because nothing of any interest has happened locally? Unlikely. Instead, coverage of college or pro-football advertising is more profitable than what is happening in the community. And so, credibility as a legitimate, authoritative news organization suffers, not worthy of the kind of respect the local newspaper enjoyed.
Each weekend one may marvel at the broadcast of games and teams with few or no alumni in the coverage area. This is not a suggestion that games of local great interest should not be broadcast, but ought to be delayed or streamed for those viewers who want to see every play in vivid HD detail. For television news to fully take the place of local newspapers, it must be as dependable and consistent as the publication and delivery of the morning paper used to be and not sacrificed in the name of ad dollars.