Local News and the Populist Uprising
Posted on Wed, Feb 03, 2010 @ 10:10 AM
Are you part of the populist uprising?
If you haven't noticed, there's a populist uprising goin
g on in the country. People are mad. They don't think government works for them and those fat cats down at the bank who took all that taxpayer money are now denying loans while writing themselves obscene bonus checks.
In this environment, local television news should hardly be sitting on the sidelines. In Chicago, long-time WBBM reporter Jay Levine reported on a wealthy suburb's plan to renovate its high school - to the tune of $174 million dollars. As Levine pointed out, that's more money than President Obama originally sent to Haiti for earthquake relief!
Today, the critic's chorus in Chicago is taking Levine and WBBM to task. Levine, they say, is "pontificating." He's unfairly characterizing the proposed underground parking at the high school as "heated." (Hey, it's 10 degrees on a Chicago parking lot this morning - underground is 50. That IS heated!) His report, say the critics, may have even led voters to defeat the bond issue (62% of almost 13,000 voters rejected it) for school renovation.
Hogwash!
At a time when local television news better get off its duff if it wants to survive, we need more reporting like Levine's. The usual "straight down the middle," bland, vanilla reporting is going to be lost in the noise. Why do we want to produce material that is so easy to ignore?
If you live in South Chicago and your kid's school is a dump, you're sitting on the couch asking the same questions Levine is raising about the gold-plated renovation. Why shouldn't television news have an attitude? Your viewers certainly do. And they might actually appreciate - and not turn off - a newscast that takes a risk or two.
- John Altenbern