Thursday, August 30, 2007

From the Emailbag

Paul Giacobbe

Some random thoughts from viewers over the past several weeks . . .

***

      A West Greenwich man suggests that there is too great a concern with “political correctness” in the occasional descriptions of crime suspects given in the course of a news story.  If the police say they are looking for “a man in his twenties with short dark hair and a mustache,“ shouldn’t the news report indicate whether he’s black, white or Asian?  Frequently, the caller says, a racial description is missing, to the detriment of the intent of the story; that is, to provide as complete a description as possible.

***

      Frequently no one is happy with stories that relate to illegal immigrants.  The recent stories about the arrest of a number of workers at a Fall River factory brought complaints from viewers who either felt the stories were slanted in favor of the illegals, or from viewers who felt the stories did not adequately explain the plight of the foreign workers.  Of the complaints, it is clearly an emotional issue for some and a financial issue for others.  Reporters have a limited time to tell a story and each story appears to include the basis position of each side but does not—and cannot—include all of the points that each side feels are important, and that’s what appears to upset many viewers: That the issue they felt was the most important was not included.

***

Margaret emails her concern that a recent series about obesity used illustrative footage of people who were obese.  While the video did not show faces, it did show the lower body of people in public.  Writes Margaret:

“I think it’s terrible and insulting how the camera is just placed on people going about their own business and before you know it Channel 10 is taking pictures of these obese people . . . It’s bad enough that these people have to know it’s them when they watch the news.”

        While viewers may recognize their body type in these videos (and, perhaps, find that embarrassing) it’s unlikely that they would recognize themselves or anyone they know.  The particular footage Margaret refers to was, the reporter says, obtained from a source that provides video material.  It probably was taken in another state.  It is, the reporter says, the same footage used almost every time the station does a weight related report.

Thursday, August 16, 2007

Out, damned spot!

Paul Giacobbe

      It wasn’t Lady MacBeth, but George Scheck, who emailed:

      I have two things that annoy me greatly. First, your station isn’t alone
in doing this but having the station logo appear on the lower right of
the screen all during the news report just drives me crazy. I can’t
count the number of action shots or sport shots where the action ends
right behind the logo. Don’t any of you people notice that?

  The second most annoying feature of your news show is that the
writers or anchors seem to have no idea what the word “next” means.
Almost any night they will say before taking a commercial break that the
weather report will be next. Then they come back from the break and do
two or three more stories before they get around to the weather.

  If you have to trick me to keep watching your news show then you
don’t deserve an audience.

Thank You,

George Scheck 
 

      First of all, Mr. Scheck is fortunate that there are only two things that annoy him greatly.  He does, however, raise issues which are an occasional source of complaints.

      Those ubiquitous logos in the lower right corner of the screen are annoying.  I find them distracting, but they are really offensive on sports programming, where they frequently block out a score, statistic or some other information that seems important at the time.

      Betty-Jo Cugini, the NBC10 news director, says the logo that runs during the news show (“the bug,” she says it’s called) is meant to be informational, displaying the time and temperature.  Because they know it can block out material, she says, the news programming is formatted with a “bug safe zone,” a corner of the screen which should be free of visuals the bug might cover.

      Another reason that NBC10 (and most other broadcasters) uses the bug is to protect the material it airs from being misused.  It has become so easy to copy and rebroadcast programming on sites like YouTube,  that it is important to be able to identify video that may have been copied.

      As to the “coming up next” issue, I suspect it’s done so that you won’t change the channel.  A lot of people watch the news primarily for the weather report and station executives want to keep you watching as long as possible. I think “coming up next” means “in the next segment,” not necessarily the very next item.  There are mini weather reports during the news program, as well as the full weather report which usually runs at the same time every show, so most people who are only interested in the weather know what time to tune in or pay attention.

Monday, August 06, 2007

A Viewer Writes About Plagiarism and Attribution

Paul Giacobbe

      A viewer has a concern about the manner in which a recent story was presented on the 11 p.m. news:

      On 7/31/07 Patrice Wood did a voice-over of a CNN interview with a female friend of one of the Connecticut home invaders.  The original interviewer was almost completely edited out.  Wood’s voice-over was almost identical to the original narrative.
      At best the source should have been attributed.  At worst it was flagrant plagiarism.  To say I’m disappointed in WJAR and Patrice Wood is an understatement.  I wonder how often this happens.
Barbara Anderson

      Ms. Anderson’s email was referred to Chris Lanni, the executive producer of that night’s 11 p.m. broadcast:

      Thank you for your concern regarding the CNN story Patrice Wood voiced over Tuesday evening.  We appreciate your point of view and admit this might be considered a gray area.

        However, “retracking” news packages (as this process is called) is a common practice in the industry, here and across the country.  It is considered an issue of ownership.  Like most news organizations, NBC10 News subscribes to several news services (like CNN, NBC and the Associated Press).  Because we pay for the news content these services provide, the stories are considered ours to repurpose provided, of course, that the story remains fair, accurate and balanced.  While I agree the original author is not credited in this process,  that is also an industry norm.  I, for example, write numerous stories for Patrice Wood every day and you’ve probably never heard of me.

Please feel free to call any time if you would like to discuss this further and again thank you for your input.

Chris Lanni,  Executive Producer

Ms. Anderson’s letter does raise an interesting question, but I’m not convinced that the issue is one of plagiarism, which I think of as the misappropriation of someone else’s unique words or ideas.  News stories are, by their nature, a recitation of facts.  In this case, NBC10, as well as many others, paid the news service reporter to reuse and rebroadcast that reporter’s description of certain events.

Ms. Anderson’s remarks about attribution is probably more of a concern. While it is not a common practice and likely would be awkward when using news service material, by failing to attribute ANY factual representation, a reporter adopts those facts as his or her own and takes the ultimate responsibility for their accuracy. A reporter, then, gambles his or her reputation on the accuracy of the original provider of the facts. Because of that, I can’t imagine the circumstances where a reporter or anchor would not independently verify the facts of each story he or she reads on the air.

      NBC10 provides the space for this blog, but the opinions here are mine alone.—P.G.

Wednesday, August 01, 2007

Oscar the Cat

Paul Giacobbe

(Revised from a Previous Post)

An email regarding the recent story about Oscar, the Steere House cat who is purportedly able to predict imminent death:

I find it very reprehensible that a professional person as Gene Valicenti would use the term,“grim reaper” as a nomen for the cat at the Steere House who has the innate ability to sense when a dementia patient is in the dying process. The dying process is a natural process of life and not one to be mocked at with an off handed,crude remark from a so-called professional reporter/anchor person.
This is not the first time Gene has been glib and insensitive about real life issues of death and dying as well as other human frailties that affect us.I have no idea why he was voted as a ‘best anchor man’. He does not deserve that acclaim for his continued insensitivity and brashness.
Sincerely,
Father John J.Rainone
Director
Department of Pastoral Care
St. Joseph Health Care Services

    As, I suspect, I will frequently point out in this blog, the Viewers’ Voice is designed to address viewer concerns of fairness, accuracy and balance in news stories.  In that role I have tried to avoid issues which are outside my “fairness, accuracy and balance” responsibilities.  However, I can’t imagine that the station officials expected the folks who participate in this blog to not dip into other areas, including issues such as this. On the other hand, while NBC10 provides this space,

the opinions here are mine.

    Gene has a particular style which viewers either like, or they don’t.  It is a choppy, sometimes witty, conversational style that is sometimes offensive to viewers.  The term “grim reaper” seems to be universally defined as “the personification of death,“ a cloaked figure carrying a scythe. The story suggested that Oscar sensed impending death, not that he caused death or even that he brought death with him. 

    The style, however, works for Gene.  When it spills over to others, however, it sometimes doesn’t work.  In a recent introduction to a story about former Mayor Cianci being released from prison, I winced when I heard Patrice say that Cianci was getting “out of the pen.“  My first thought was that she had inadvertently read Gene’s copy.  It was disconcerting, almost like hearing Patrice say a dirty word.  It didn’t fit what we’ve all come to know as Patrice’s style.  Not only was it an outdated term—I haven’t heard “pen” since the old Cagney movies—but it was inaccurate.  “Pen” is short for penitentiary, and Cianci was not in a federal penitentiary, a particular class of facilities.