Mistakes . . . and a Wedding Giveaway

by Paul Giacobbe

News reporting generates the occasional mistake.  Television reporters are asked to take sometimes complex issues and condense them into 90 seconds.  Generally the best post-error course of action is to acknowledge the mistake, do a correction when possible, and move on.

Earlier this month a viewer complained that facts in a story about the court struggle between the state administration and the state employee unions* were wrong.  The story, which ran during the 11 p.m. news, said that the planned furloughs of certain state workers would save 68 million dollars.  In fact, as the viewer pointed out, the layoffs would save less than a third of that amount, and were a part of a larger plan to fill the 68 million dollar budget shortfall.

The viewer complained that he immediately called the newsroom to tell them of the error, but that no correction was made during that same news show, nor at any other time. 

The reporter said that, upon review of the story “we realized it may have been confusing if not misleading.  So we changed it for the morning news.”

The story as aired was neither misleading nor confusing.  It was clear, and it was wrong.  The morning reporter and/or producer got it right, as have others who reported on the story both before and after the error was made.

It may not be reasonable, however, to suggest that the story should have been corrected during the same newscast, based on the viewer’s call.  Changing the flow of an ongoing newscast, absent truly compelling developments, can be awkward, even if it is clear, at that time, that the viewer is correct.  There is no reason, however, that the story could not have been corrected during the following night’s 11 p.m. news.

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A viewer emailed to complain about the station’s lack of coverage of gay and lesbian issues, and as part of that complaint objected to the station’s refusal to accept her and her partner’s application for the station’s “wedding giveaway” contest.

“Relationships are relationships regardless of the gender of the people in them,” she wrote.  “To define a relationship as one man and one woman for the purposes of your contest is, quite frankly, a disgrace.”

A news department manager responded that, as a Rhode Island based station, the NBC10 rules for the wedding giveaway must comport with existing state laws, particularly since the wedding giveaway includes a marriage license.  If Rhode Island law changes to permit same sex marriages, he wrote, the station will accept entries from same sex couples.

NBC10 provides this space, but the opinions are mine alone – Paul Giacobbe

*To the extent that it may be pertinent to the opinions expressed here, this blogger occasionally represents state employee unions in the course of a law practice. – P.G.