Monday, February 25, 2008

KEZI News: Not exactly the last bastion of ethical journalism

* Full disclosure alert: I used to work at the "news" outlet that I'm about to savagely degrade as a shining star in the universe of bad decisions. Also, the subject of my rant is a former colleague whose work I generally respect, or as far as respect can go when it comes to TV news *

In a painful lesson of journalism ethics, Rick Dancer, a now-former anchor at KEZI News here in Eugene, announced his own candidacy for secretary of state on the evening news, complete with a highlight tape of himself that included various community-oriented events in which he participated. The excuse for the tape was his imminent retirement from the station after some 16 years. But as for his coverage of his own candidacy during a news program, I have yet to hear any excuses, most likely because it is inexcusable.

Allow me to offer a parallel example for the newspaper industry. Imagine if a veteran reporter from The Daily Shitpile decided it was time to call it quits and run for state governor. He decides that all those years of dedication and loyalty to his craft and his publication have afforded him a bit of publicity, so he writes a story about his own candidacy and slaps it on the front page of his own newspaper. Does this seem even remotely legitimate? Can any argument be made to justify that?

An analysis of this ethical dilemma brings up two main issues. The first, obviously, is that reporting on yourself is generally a bad idea when your ultimate goal in modern American journalism is to deliver a fair portrayal of a given situation. Clearly, if you are conveying a story about yourself, you generally won't be too savvy about including any other viewpoints. So unless you are practicing Gonzo journalism, which nobody should ever attempt because they will fail miserably in the shadow of Hunter S. Thompson, reporting on yourself is the pinnacle of amateur journalism at best, and at worst a complete violation of all established ethical guidelines.

The second problem is newsworthiness. It would seem that the first Republican to throw his hat into the ring for secretary of state is reasonably big news, especially for a Sunday night. But Dancer led the whole news hour with his story, which is basically like telling your viewers that your candidacy is the most important news of the day. Forgive me, but I don't think 16 years can buy that kind of presumption. In fact, a lifetime in journalism can't buy it.

The sad part about this whole spectacle is how easily it could have been avoided. For instance, the co-anchor for the Sunday broadcast could have done the ENTIRE story on Dancer's run for office, complete with an assurance to viewers that he was not involved in the story. And when I say the entire story, I don't mean introducing Rick Dancer and letting him pitch his campaign, like KEZI did. Then, later in the broadcast, Dancer could appear to do his farewell and show his tape of reporting highlights over the years -- but outside the context of his run for office.

I respect Rick Dancer. I think he has a wide body of work in TV news, which I admittedly despise, but he is a genuinely nice guy and solid journalist whose views I don't wholly disregard as insane. When he described his politics to a reporter for The Register-Guard, he portrayed himself as a moderate Republican who believes in traditional conservative values of small government and self-reliance. He is also a very religious man but has stated that his faith is something he will continue to keep out of his public life if elected. I can respect his religious and political viewpoints, even if I disagree, because he does not strike me as a hysterical Republican evangelical.

I respect Rick Dancer, but beyond that I view KEZI as a fucking tragedy. If Shakespeare wrote a play about the organization, the protagonists would most likely end up beating each other to death after four of five acts of low-quality squabbling. In the future, I truly hope the station will think twice before airing such a stupidly unethical piece of journalism, but I know in my heart that any hope of that will be relegated to some dank hall of misplaced dreams, much like where KEZI keeps a majority of its staff.

To see the announcement: Click here!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I am sick to my stomach. These people are horrible, horrible journalists. How can that seem OK to anybody to anybody at that station. If I were station head, I might tell people we were going to do that story in advance, and then promply fire people who don't object to it, as a way to weed out unethical morons.
Christ, I need a drink ... and a newspaper.

Anonymous said...

I was surprised to hear Rick announce his candidacy on the news program and wondered if fair and equal time would be given at prime time the next week to all the candidates. Very bad journalism!