Do you get upset when you turn on a network radio newscast and hear
an anchor who sounds as if he is trying to read copy and chew licorice at
the same time? Good. I'm not alone then. There's an anchor at CBS News,
Radio who does this. I wonder why. Does he think it gives his voice a
juicy, informal, inviting quality? Has no one ever told him this style -
or whatever it is - is very distracting?
My guess is you too have lots of questions about what you see and
hear on the air and on the Internet. Here are a few of mine.
When someone at MSNBC.com writes a headline, is it edited by
another person before it appears on the website? If so, is the editor who
approved "Military Tightens Rules On Military Discharges," the same
one who okayed "Whales Perform For First Time Since Death"? And
could it have been this same individual who missed the implications in
a picture caption about Hugh Hefner? The caption said the founder of
Playboy was "still hard at work."
News organizations, big and small, have problems with headlines. In
2005 my hometown paper, The Times of Frankfort, Indiana, told readers
"Developer Pulls His Mulberry Project," which frankly sounds like it
could have been fun. Last year Newsday, the major Long Island paper,
declared "Nut Recall Widens." And not a moment too soon.
But back to the questions. How many AP subscribers either asked for a
refund or gave notice they were cancelling their contracts after the
agency reported that Paul Harvey, a "talk show pioneer," had died? Why
do I suspect whoever wrote this had never heard a Paul Harvey
broadcast?
Why do anchors, especially those at Fox News, tell viewers "you won't
believe this next story"? How do they know what any of us will or won't
believe?
Are other networks thinking of changing the way their anchors and
reporters say "headquarters" now that CBS News has let actor Morgan
Freeman drop the final "r" in that word in his nightly introduction of
Katie Couric? Does CBS News plan to have its anchors and reporters also
ignore the last "r" in the word "quarters"? How about in "Borders" and
"borders" and "boarders"?
Why do radio announcers doing basketball games tell us a team
is "moving right to left"? Doesn't that depend on where you're sitting? To
those on the other side of the floor from the announcer that team would
be moving left to right. And what does the "moving right to left"
description add to our knowledge of what's going on in the game?
Why would an anchor at WCBS Radio in New York say in late
February, "I know we were all hoping for no more snow"? No one likes
snow? How about all the skiers, snow boarders, ski lift operators and ski
resort employees, the guys with pickups who make extra money plowing
roads and parking lots?
Ready for still more? Okay. Did the AP get angry phone calls from
subscribers or readers the day it ran a story from Mexico City about a
109- pound meatball, described as the heaviest meatball ever? Have not
most of us met, either in or out of the news business, a meatball or two
who clearly weighed over 109 pounds? Absolutely.
Was that an exclusive by Agence France-Presse last February when it
said "hazardous roads killed two people" during a storm along the East
Coast? Was there any explanation of how the roads did this? Any
amateur video from cell phones? Do car insurance companies pay
survivors' benefits when all of a sudden a road turns nasty and starts
killing people? Can killer roads be prosecuted?
How long do you think it will be before the CBS News budget includes
enough money to buy Lesley Stahl a comb? And then how long before a
person in authority tells her she has to use it?
Why do anchors (A) waste air time thanking correspondents for doing
a report? Isn't that their job?
Why do anchors (B) waste air time with silly transitions - "turning to
the Middle East," "back in this country," "turning now to news closer to
home"? Isn't a simple pause an effective means of indicating a switch to
a new story?
When Fox News flashes a graphic on the screen saying "Fox Fact,"
what comes into your mind? Do you wonder if it's really a fact or only
something those employed by Fox News believe to be true?
Is what Fox News does any more troublesome than what the CBS
Evening News did last August in running a graphic that said "FACT"
when quoting a White House denial of something North Korea had
said? Is it the view of CBS News that anything the White House says
should be labeled a fact?
Do reporters or stringers who predict the future get an extra fee for
being a fortune teller? Last December a reporter in Brazil told listeners,
in a very authoritative voice, what the toughest problem a young boy in
a custody case would face in the future. Not MIGHT face in the days and
years ahead but WOULD face. How could anyone know that? How could
an editor and an anchor let that go on the air unchallenged?
Did anyone besides me tune into a CBS News special on the death of
Ted Kennedy mainly to see what had happened to Katie Couric? In
closing the CBS Evening News, Couric promoted the special on Senator
Kennedy coming up at 8 p.m. Eastern and said "until then I'm Katie
Couric." I couldn't wait for 8 p.m. to roll around. When I turned the TV
back on at 8, who would Katie be? Charles Osgood? Harry Smith?
Oprah? Buster Keaton? Nope. Couric looked the same to me. She hadn't
changed a bit. It's not the first time a broadcaster has disappointed me.
Doesn't such clumsy wording - "until then I'm Katie Couric" - grate on
anyone at CBS News management?
From time to time I send e-mails to Sean McManus, the president of
CBS News, usually pointing out things I think CBS messed up or should
have skipped altogether. His responses tend to be brief. In fact, he has
responded only once and then in one word - "thanks" - when I praised an
Evening News piece for being very clever and well done.
Recently when I was spouting off in front of the TV about some
damnable thing that had just been on the CBS Evening News, Irene told
me to put a lid on it and suggested "they must think you're a crank."
Where in the world did she come up with that idea?
(Posted April 21, 2010)