> I did not click on each of the links above, but I am going to go out on a > limb and assume that each of the recognized newspapers listed here clearly > indicate that the story comes from AP. That is what credible news > organizations do. That is what the local newscasts did not do. > > I am not criticizing them for putting on a puff entertainment piece, as you > note, newscasts and papers legitimately have those. I criticize them for > not being transparent with their viewers, and sacrificing their credibility.
I see that of the four links that Steve provided, only the SFGate has the reporter's byline. (All four credit the AP.) Is this a lack of credibility or just a style decision? The Conan clip didn't show the report. I'd be surprised if it doesn't end with Sandra Hughes identifying herself, probably as "Sandra Hughes, CBS News". And we should also add that a couple of anchors changed a bit of the wording. If stations are spending time on more important things than rewriting intros to nationally distributed video, that's a good thing. (Of course, there's a good chance they're not doing something important.) I have seen at least one local station take stories that appeared on the network news and had their (local) anchor read the same copy over the video that the network anchor or correspondent had read. That may be closer to an ethical problem, although nobody's claiming that the report is local. It's even possible that some of the stations who ran the Conan clip had their anchors read the Sandra Hughes copy. -- TV or Not TV .... The Smartest (TV) People! You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "TV or Not TV" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/tvornottv?hl=en
