TV News: Practice What You Preach

BiB Contributor | Anonymous News Director

Coming out of Journalism school, reporters are taught they are not public relations experts; their jobs are to report the facts in a non-biased manner. The argument is narrow-minded. Although I agree that reporters should never allow themselves to become a public relations arm of any organization or individual’s agenda, the ability of reporters to make contacts and keep will play a large role in their survival.

Reporting is a highly competitive job. Our credibility is measured, in part, by our ability to be first and right. Some government officials recently became upset with a reporter who told them the reason she wanted to interview them was for “reason x,” but proceeded to ask questions about “reason y.” Since this was the second time I had received a call about this particular reporter, I had a rather terse discussion with her. She didn’t believe she had misled the individuals in question. She thought they needed to be better prepared to answer her aggressive questions.

This logic is twisted for two reasons. First, the reporter didn’t tell the organization the real reason why she wanted to interview them. Second, the reason the officials were ill-prepared to answer the aggressive questions is because the person we interviewed wasn’t the right person to answer the questions.

As reporters, we are charged with reporting the truth. In the end, credibility and trust are all we have. If we are sneaky or underhanded in how we obtain our information or interviews, can we really expect others to trust us? This is how we become our own public relations machine. We practice what we preach. What are your thoughts?