Do you think that female news anchors and weather girls dress too provocatively?
Now my wife has an issue with some of the female news anchors and weathers girls on the news. Now I live in the San Francisco bay area and there are several news stations, some local and some network. My wife says that some of the women just dress too slutty and should dress more professional. I argue that why does a woman have to dress like a man to be professional ie dress suits. What's wrong with wearing something more flattering? I don't mean very ow cut tops or wearing spandex cat suits but a well fitting dress to me is just fine. What do you think?
Can a news reporter be fired for laughing while he/she is reporting a serious matter?
A few years ago, I saw a local TV newcast, and one of the anchors passed gas so loud that the mike picked it up. They really tried not to laugh, but couldn't hold back. Everyone in the studio, including camera ops, were hysterical. They laughed for about 2 minutes. That was the funniest thing I've ever seen and I think it was shown later on a blooper show.
Do you think journalists/reporters should take a stand on a social issue when it is needed to raise public awareness?
Journalists already raise public awareness on social issues. The difference is that they make a distinction between their opinions and the results of their research.When a journalist reports on a public misdeed or some kind of wrong doing, they inform the citizenry in order for them to make an informed decision and take action. Isn’t that a way of taking a stand?
What do news anchors do during the commercial breaks?
When I worked at World News Tonight, Peter Jennings had his hair and makeup retouched, reviewed any edits on the script and prepped himself. Interestingly, the person that handed him things during the broadcast was his hair and makeup person. I kind of assumed that everyone does that too. In the world we would like to imagine, they'd play football in the studio, hook up, have a sandwich and talk about last nights game. The fact is, there isn't enough time to do much else besides prep yourself for the next segment, especially since there could be technical problems. Anchors need to be ON all the time. I can't speak for every one of the anchors, but unless they're producers as well, they really don't have too much of a job besides sitting in front of the camera. They may or may not attend meetings to talk about possible stories, or pitch ideas to other producers, but at least in my experience, some of them show up two hours before broadcast, get their makeup done, hit on the interns and go on camera. Peter Jennings, on the other hand, showed up at about 7:30am to executive produce the entire show, work with all of the segment producers, talk to the researchers... he was really hands on. A true newsman in the purest sense. In smaller stations I know that the anchors have to produce some of the segments (especially if they're field reporters too).
Why do reporters/journalists lie?
They don’t all lie. When they do lie, it is often because they are paid by those in charge to lie, meaning they have to lie to keep their jobs. Or they are afraid to tell the truth because it will cause to much trouble. Or because truth isn’t always black and white, and if they discussed all the nuances, it would take an entire newspaper to tell a single story, and even then they probably would not get every single instance right.Mostly, they get the most basic facts right, because they’d quickly lose their jobs if they got the really basic, obvious things wrong, because all of their intended audince would call them on it, and they’d lose these customers. But they often get the details wrong, sometimes accidentally, and sometimes on purpose, and sometimes because they don’t know any better.Here in the United States, the conservatives have complained about “liberal bias” for so long and so loudly that the media is terrified of reporting anything that might be perceived as liberal bias. So in the past election campaign, you had a lot of reporters saying that both Trump and Clinton lied, which is true in so far as it means that at some point in time each of them told at least one falsehood, but it would have been more accurate to say that Clinton lied about as often as most politicians lie, whereas Trump can’t seem to tell the difference between truth and falsehood, and not to care if there is a difference. So did the press tell the truth when it said both sides lie, without noting that one lied far more than the other?
Tomorrow is my first day of my career. I'll start as a news reporter. Any advice on how to stay on top of things and thrive?
When you make a mistake -- not if, but when, because you're only human -- own up to it. You'll earn respect.On my first day at a non-college paper, I went to a school board meeting. At least one board member was absent and there was a tied vote on a contentious issue. (I have long since forgotten what this issue was.) Ideally, the board president would have explained what the procedure is for handling a tie vote, but that didn't happen. Since it didn't, I should have approached him after the meeting and asked, but I neglected to do that. Under the parliamentary procedure I was familiar with, a tie vote meant the motion failed for lack of a majority. So I reported the motion failed.The board president phoned my editor and explained that under their procedure, the tie vote meant the motion was brought up for reconsideration at the next meeting. My editor, thankfully, was calm about it and told me not to make that mistake again. We printed a correction on page 2, since the company that owned the paper insisted on a consistent place for corrections. We thought that was that.But it turned out at the next meeting that a lot of people in the audience had seen my original article, but not the correction. There was a lot of confusion in the room. I stood up, identified myself, explained that I'd made a mistake and apologized for the mistake and the confusion I'd caused.People applauded. They weren't used to seeing someone own up to a mistake like that.So, be sure to ask questions like the one I failed to ask to avoid mistakes like that in first place. But eventually, you will make a mistake and it will be highly visible. Own up to it.
Is every journalist's job risky?
The “risk” depends on what you are doing as part of your profession.Not every journalist travels to war zones or other dangerous areas. There’s always the risk of being attacked by an insane and/or fanatical person, like the terrorists who were “defending Islam” during the Charlie Hebdo attacks of two years ago, but that sort of thing can happen in just about any context.I’ve been threatened by a few individuals before for stuff I’ve written in various publications I’ve worked for. My response has varied. If they’ve threatened me with legal action, I usually just say, “so sue me, good luck.” (I always make sure of my facts and sources before printing anything.) If they threatened me with physical harm, well, that’s why I always made sure I maintained a good relationship with the local police. Very few people ever made such threats to my face, anyway. I’m not exactly a small man…The worst thing that ever happened to me occurred at a high school football game in September of 2003. I was working a game from the sidelines and got run over on power sweep to my side of the field. I got up from the pile stiff and sore, but didn’t realize I had injured myself until moments later, when a similar play came my way and I jumped back, but in the process, felt a sharp pain in my lower back. Turned out that I had damaged a disk in my lower back, probably when I got run over, and I’ve had problems with it off and on for the last 13 years (although thankfully, it’s never fully ruptured and I’ve avoided surgery).I knew there was risk involved in doing what I was doing then, but I accepted it in order to get better photos for my story. And I’ve taken the same risk many times since then. But that’s not a “risk” in the same sense that I think you mean it. If I get run over at a football game and hurt again, I’m not going to die from it.Saying that every journalist’s job is risky because some reporters have gotten killed in war/conflict zones is like saying that driving a car is risky because some Formula One drivers have died while driving their cars.