Writers Guild of America, East:Broadcast Newswriters Speak About News Quality

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

Executive Summary
Rationale

What we have always understood as "journalism" is evolving very quickly. Traditional media outlets, including newspapers, television, and radio, still produce most of the original news reporting in America. Yet the combined pressure of profit expectations and the loss of audiences and advertisers to "new media" are causing media companies to examine every aspect of how they do business. That has led to many changes in the workplace for journalists. The question is: do these changes help or hinder the provision of quality news to the public?

Despite the growth of new media options, local television remains by far the most popular news choice for Americans. The Project for Excellence in Journalism found in their most recent report that 65.5% of the public gets news from local TV; another 28% from network TV.<1> Local newspapers are at 28%.

CBS Corporation and The Walt Disney Company, two of the largest media conglomerates in the world, also dominate the world of television news. They own and operate TV stations that reach more than 60% of the country's population.<2> Their network news programming runs on affiliate stations as well as on owned-and-operated outlets; few if any media markets in America are beyond the reach of their programming. Their network news programs (CBS and ABC) are watched by millions.<3> Their radio networks and stations also reach many millions of listeners.
For these reasons, taking an inside look at the changing circumstances of news production at ABC and CBS is an important and unique contribution to the debate over news quality and its relation to the public interest.

http://corky.wgaeast.org/broadcast_news/736.html#_Toc164744157

[aquart]

1. Not one candidate plans to be a trustbuster, I note.

[KoKo]

2. Does alot to explain why MS Journalism/Media just gets worse and worse...

and it's not just the RW Sympathies it's the "bottom liners" helping.

[L. Coyote]

3. So-called T-V "journalists" do not even know who writes the lines they read!

There are only a very few exceptions, like Bill Moyer. I have had this conversation with a broadcaster, complaining of what was said, and got this response, "I just read the news." That is a lot worse than a simple cop-out. They don't know who writes it!

[AuntPatsy]

4. This should be an election issue, its important to getting the truth out.