"Are we that shallow?"
Category: Local... TV & Radio... Thinking Allowed...
Posted Wednesday, June 20, 2007 at 11:25 AM [GMT-6]

Following up on the previous post about Making News: Texas Style, I revisited Geoff Fox's blog to get his impressions of the second episode. The title of this post was lifted from his report; here it is in context:

"Are we that superficial?" I asked in a quick email to a friend who was recording it too.

The problem with the newsroom being shown in this Cinéma Vérité treat is, there's no one (with the possible exception of the news director) with any intellectual depth. Stories are covered superficially by superficial people.

Geoff uses "we" in the first sentence because he's a TV weatherman at WTNH in Connecticut. He's experienced and competent (they don't give Emmys to just anyone) and so it's a bit surprising to me that he'd even ask the question.

Yes, Geoff, you are that superficial. But, really, it's not your fault; we've made you that way.

We – the TV audience – judge you on-camera folks on the most shallow of criteria: Are you thin enough? Are your teeth white enough? Is your smile winsome enough? Do you have good hair (weathermen and, occasionally, sportscasters get a pass on this one)? If you're not at least as pretty as what we see when we look in our mirrors, then your credibility takes a hit. Your career is dependent on whether you can entice us to keep putting your channel on at 6 and 10, instead of watching Seinfeld reruns.

The good news is that you're no more superficial than anyone else in America who makes more than a subsistence income and thus has the time and energy to worry about what other people think about them. You just happened to have chosen a profession that requires you to stress over the issue.

If I have a beef with your observation, it's that you've labeled as shallow people you don't know. You, of all people, should know how the camera and the editor can join forces to make a silk purse from a pig's ear, or a saint from a horse's rear. Judging the competence of the news crew at KOSA – and especially their "intellectual depth" – based on a few minutes of "reality TV" is unfair at best. (And before you take me to task for doing the same thing, keep in mind that I've observed many of these folks on TV and in "real life" for years.)

Maybe we don't have as many life-or-death issues out here in the flatlands of west Texas, or perhaps our discussions aren't often burdened with an excess of gravitas. Frankly, that's why we like living out here. (Lord knows it isn't for the scenery.) Having nothing to cover except a basketball game featuring some waitresses doesn't make the reporter any less serious about his profession, or any less competent. We all have to work with what we've got.

I know. Perception is reality. That's the curse, and the pleasure, of so-called realty TV. But heaven help us when we start believing everything we see.

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Comments

Wait wait wait wait....you're saying...TV isn't real? Even Reality TV?

Come on now...get, well, real!

(:

Posted by: beth at June 20, 2007 06:14 PM

Hey! I liked the scenery in West Texas. Really, I did.

Posted by: Jim at June 20, 2007 09:15 PM

Great post, Eric!

Posted by: Janie at June 20, 2007 09:23 PM

Beth, I guess I'd better not mention that thing about Santa Claus, huh?

Jim, I was just being self-effacing, in order to ingratiate myself to the vast readership. I'm actually kinda partial to being able to see the horizon, myself.

Thanks, Janie. I was kinda hoping it would stimulate some discussion, and perhaps some input from some MSMers.

Posted by: Eric at June 20, 2007 09:28 PM

While I haven't seen the show in question, I would caution any watcher of "reality" TV to remember the power of editing.

What we see is what the documentarian culls out of everything he or she filmed to tell the story he or she wants told.

I'm in Houston, and I'd take Midland's newscasts over Houston's any day.

Posted by: Kelly at June 20, 2007 10:36 PM

I was up in New York last week, and picked up a copy of Monday's Daily News, which contained a pretty favorable review of the show.

And Kara Lee doesn't fare any better in this review, though that's pretty standard for young TV reporters with their eyes on the prize -- I was in Pecos back in the late 1980s waiting for Gov. Clements to meet with U.S. District Judge Lucius D. Bunton on a lawsuit involving the state court system, which attracted some of the big TV stations out of Dallas and Houston.

Clements was late, and we were treated in the interim to the young female reporter from KOSA smoozing with the folks from WFAA and telling them not only wasn't she from West Texas, she still had a home in the Dallas area and went back there every weekend, unlike the other poor rubes and small-market lifers out here. Pretty funny stuff, and Kara's just following in her footsteps.

Posted by: John at June 20, 2007 10:49 PM

Kelly, there's something to be said for small(er) town reports and reporters. And please accept my condolences for having to be in Houston. ;-)

John, thanks for the link to the Daily News article! It was quite interesting to hear another perspective from a metropolitan industry observer.

Um, care to identify the young female reporter in your story? A bunch of us might remember her. ;-)

I can't be too hard on Kara. There's some truth to the saying that any publicity is good publicity, and she'll end up being the character that everyone talks about.

Posted by: Eric at June 20, 2007 11:00 PM

Eric:

I wish I could remember the striving young reporter's name, but I was having a hard enough time up in New York remembering the names of the current KOSA news staff not included in the story when I was talking with my friend about the Daily News article (getting old stinks). The main thing I remember about the Clements visit, other than the "I'm not like these people" conversation, is they snuck the governor through the downstairs Post Office up to Bunton's chambers to avoid all the press, which didn't make anyone outside very happy, especially the ones who travelled 400-plus miles to stand in front of a building with no one to interview.

Posted by: John at June 21, 2007 04:22 PM

No problem, John. I realized that even if you did remember her name, I probably would have forgotten it (reference your remark about getting old).

Posted by: Eric at June 21, 2007 05:18 PM

I want more scenes with Kara doing her hair, maybe its just a personal problem I have.

Just kidding. The show is really cool because I never even knew news reporters actually did any work! I figured someone put makeup on their face and they read a cue card.........

Posted by: double dee at June 22, 2007 11:03 AM
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