The Robots Heard 鈥楻ound the World
And now, a little bit about myself.
Back in 1982, I became the entertainment editor for the NBC affiliate in Phoenix, Arizona – KPNX-TV.
That meant I’d review movies and local restaurants, cover concerts, interview movie and TV stars, and have as much fun as allowable by law.
That is, until one day my news director – Al Buch – called me into his office and announced, “I’d like you to start doing television reviews.”
He must’ve seen the panic in my eyes.
Because, I could put myself in certain peril by giving NBC shows bad reviews but shows on other networks good ones.
I agreed to do those reviews, but I gave myself an out. If I felt any pressure from upper management, sales or promotions, I’d be permitted to stop doing them.
You know, that biting the hand that feeds me stuff.
Mr. Buch understood my apprehension. So, he granted me the opportunity to back out of our agreement if I felt the slightest pressure from any corporate forces beyond the newsroom.
A week later, I prepared two TV reviews that aired on the same day.
I gave a negative review for the show that would air on our station (the NBC affiliate), but I gave a positive review for the show that was about to air on the Phoenix’s ABC station.
When I went to work the next day, I expected to get hauled before the station’s management – and fired.
I wasn’t.
In fact, I never caught any heat from sales, station promotions, and, more importantly, from upper management – regardless of whether I liked or disliked our programs.
Of course, that was 36 years ago. TV newsrooms were, for the most part, much freer from corporate forces than they are today.
Take the recent case of Sinclair Broadcast Group.
Sinclair’s 193 stations reach 40% of Americans.
Last week, it got caught mandating that all of its stations would have their news anchors around the country read the same politically charged message.
While there’s no direct mention of President Trump in the message, it does coincide with Trump’s frequent attacks on mainstream media.
Sinclair is unabashedly conservative. So, when local anchormen and women were forced to use their precious local news time to further the agenda of their corporate overlords, it became a national news story.
When the video of those news anchors (from a variety of Sinclair’s stations) went viral showing them reciting word-for-word propaganda it even caught Trump’s attention.
“The Fake News Networks (he means CNN, NBC, ABC & CBS), those that knowingly have a sick and biased AGENDA, are worried about the competition and quality of Sinclair Broadcast,” he tweeted.
Unfortunately, Mr. Trump doesn’t understand that by handing local anchors pre-written scripts and having them read them during newscasts -they aren’t exhibiting “quality.”
CNN, MSNBC, and even Fox News blur political opinions and straight news. But local news stations go out of their way to avoid that.
I’ve worked at eight TV stations. I’ve never known the party affiliations of any of the news anchors at any of them.
It’s troubling that Sinclair forced its conservative philosophy down the throats of their local talent.
Shortly after that story went public, I contacted an old friend and co-worker, who appeared in that Sinclair video.
He was outraged by having to perform the handy-work of a corporation that’s trying to court favor with the Trump administration.
He’s thinking about quitting his job.
I advised him to hang on.
The current controversy could help his ownership tread lightly the next time it tries to use its journalists as political battering rams.
Another Sinclair anchor, whom I don’t know, went public with her feelings.
“I’m angry today. I’ve been angry for days. The Sinclair message you saw me and my colleagues in has damaged the trust you place in us-a trust that’s taken me, in particular, 22 years to build,” wrote an anchorwoman from Rochester, New York on her Facebook page.
The response was overwhelmingly positive.
As it should be.
Edward A. Owens is a multi-Emmy Award winner, former reporter and anchor for Entertainment Tonight and 20-year TV news veteran. E-mail him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net.