It Could Be Better

Austin Post Nailed

Recently, a reader of my journalism and media criticism blog nailed it. The reader’s comments could have been written by a media critic, but more significantly, they were written by a news consumer. The reader castigated the Austin Post (www.austinpost.org) for its lack of objectivity and playing fast and loose with facts.

What follows started as a reply on my blog, but as I wrote, I became more and more convinced that I should elevate the observations from mere comments to media criticism addressing the content of Austin Post.

It must be noted that Austin Post is basically a blog, an amalgam of blogs. There are only a few writers who are trained journalists. The stories are, using their words, "lightly edited", meaning that bias may be obvious. I'm sure Austin Post wishes for writers of all persuasions, but it just isn't happening. The Post would like to grow, but I don't think that is possible since it has no real identity.

Yes, I post at Austin Post. I write news along with an occasional, clearly identified screed. I've written less in recent months.

Once I thought that Austin Post might be a model for future journalism. I did, however, tell them up front nearly two years ago that they needed paid writers to cover beats in addition to their editor-in-chief.

So, now, I think the Post has reached its potential. Further, if they do not tighten the reins, if they do not hire professional journalists, they may recede.

Idealist writers came to the Austin Post when it went live seeing the possibilities.

The current editor-in-chief, Karie Meltzer, does what she can with what she has, constantly trying to recruit new writers. When she came on board, Meltzer freshened the home page and changed the editorial philosophy.

Over the months some of the first writers have fallen away. I can't read their minds; I don't know why they no longer post or post with frequency.

I know of at least one original writer who now posts at the Austinist. The Austinist, however, is also a blog staffed by unpaid writers, even though they have advertising.

Research in Austin over the years says that content is king. Any medium can look great, but if it lacks solid content that makes people care, it is doomed. This observation is just as true of some local TV stations as it is of the Austin Post. Content doesn’t just happen. Reporters create content. Fewer or no reporters equals less or no viable content.

It the Austin Post wants to grow, if the Austin Post wants to be a force in Austin, if the Austin Post wants to be taken seriously, it must change.

It must pay some staff members to cover the important "news of the day". It needs original pictures and video. It needs to break news rather than repeat news—stories that people have already heard or picked up from news releases. Worse, some stories are written right out of the daily newspaper. Geez.

The Austin Post must do these things. Or, the Austin Post will continue to be only as good as the person who posts the most. It will not grow. It will not prosper. Sorry.

© Jim McNabb, 2011

Make It Stop

Violence in the Media

Violence in the media was the topic I’ve been churning during the past week. With a bowl game every night on ESPN, I’d have all of the other televisions on nightly programming. I don’t normally write about programming, but I was somewhat stunned by some of the images depicted in these crime shows.

I saw a brief but graphic scene of a victim impaled on what looked like playground equipment. That same show—I think it was Miami SVU or something—depicted the drowning of a man buried on the beach up to his neck waiting for the tide to come in. That show, or maybe it was another one (The all seem the same to me.) showed the charred remains of a woman in a beach bonfire.

People die before our eyes in the worst possible ways. I’ve had more guns pointed at me, the viewer, during the past week that I could ever imagine in real life.

Almost all of these “dramas” have something to do with forensic science. So, they always have macabre shots of corpses on cold, metal tables in the morgue.

None of the images would have been shown on broadcast TV not that many years ago. Something has changed, hasn’t it?

Vietnam has been called the first televised war. War coverage in other eras came from sanitized news reels in theaters, newspaper coverage in long gray columns, or perhaps pictures in Life Magazine. Those photos then came the closest to revealing the grisly elements of warfare. One could also sense the fear and horror of the bombing of London during World War II listening to Edward R. Murrow’s live witnessing from the rooftop. Vietnam, however, was a game-changer.

Repulsed by what they saw on TV, viewers became voters and protesters. I’ll never forget the film of the evacuating helicopter lifting off from the American embassy in Saigon. It was powerful and poignant. It changed our perceptions.

Now, we have endured a decade of continuous, retching, and disturbing video from Iraq and Afghanistan. The suicide bombers, the IEDs, the drones literally drone on and on, wearing away at our senses. The Fort Hood shootings shook and shocked the nation. The extremist Army captain’s horrific mass murder of unarmed fellow soldiers could be seen as an isolated case. Investigators, however, always fear copy-cat killers. The intensive news coverage of the savage event could result in undesired effects on those predisposed to violence or extremism. (Video Games, Television Violence, and Aggression in Teenagers, Joseph R. Dominick, Journal of Communication, June, 1984)

Remember Pacman? Not the football player, but the video game. Now, compare that with what’s available today. I admit that I haven’t played the games, but I’ve seen the ads, usually shown during football games.

I believe that we’ve become a nation inoculated by the powerful images and violent actions. There is research to back this up. “Exposure to violent video games is significantly linked to increases in aggressive behaviour, aggressive cognition, aggressive affect, and cardiovascular arousal, and to decreases in helping behaviour. Experimental studies reveal this linkage to be causal. Correlational studies reveal a linkage to serious, real-world types of aggression.” (“An update on the effects of playing violent video games”, Craig Anderson, Iowa State University, October, 2003)

Generally, young people who are predisposed to violence are more likely to exhibit violence after significant exposure to violence from most any media—Television, film, and/or games.

Further, this desensitization is revealed in the language we use. Civility left the room long ago.

Congress member Gabrielle Giffords, whose district was targeted using a crosshairs graphic by a Sarah Palin political action, was disturbed by the depiction months ago.

“We’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list,” Giffords said in March. “But the thing is the way that she has it depicted has the cross hairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they’ve got to realize there’s consequences to that.”

An apparently disturbed, 22-year-old gunman shot her in the head during a Tucson community meeting January 8, 2011. While she fights for her life, six others including an innocent nine-year-old girl and a federal judge died, and up to 14 others were wounded.

Investigators are still asking, “Why? What would trigger such unthinkable aggression?” I don’t know if he watched violent TV programs or news. I don’t know the effect of watching war for nearly half of his life. I don’t know if he played violent video games. I do know that he posted problematic screeds online.

Words do matter. "We're getting ready to celebrate this weekend the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., who admonished us that we are going to regret in this generation not just for the vitriolic words and deeds of bad people but for the appalling silence of good people," House Assistant Democratic Leader James Clyburn (S.C.) told Fox News Sunday, January 09, 2011.

What are the answers? What actions are available to individuals? We can start by being polite. We can teach our children to say, “Yes, Sir”. And where the media is concerned, we can turn off the TV and unplug the video games. We can talk to our children about what they are seeing in the news.

It starts with each of us. It starts at home.

© Jim McNabb, 2011

"Uncle Fred" Leaving the Airways...For Now

Fred Cantu On “Pause”

Fred Cantu is gone from KEYE TV (CBS) after December 30, 2010, but he’s not retiring.

“I’m leaving KEYE because they couldn't offer me the right position to do what I do best which is anchor,” Cantu told me. “I want to stay in the game. I have no plans to retire... EVER.”

Cantu joined the KEYE staff in August, 2002, after a pretty successful six-year run on KVUE-TV (ABC)’s morning show. Most recently, Cantu was co-anchor of the KEYE/Telemundo local news broadcast, working in the evenings. Before that he anchored the morning news on KEYE. He was moved to the evening news for a while before Ron Oliveira rejoined Judy Maggio behind the desk, and Cantu moved back to mornings.

In that position, Cantu endeared himself to many who began to refer to him as “Uncle Fred”. “Fred is just the perfect morning show anchor...friendly, upbeat, funny and professional,” says Judy Maggio in her KEYE blog. “With Fred, what you see is what you get. He never puts on an air, he never loses his temper, he works hard and quietly, and then [he] produces an amazing story or anchors a great newscast.”

The Austin Chronicle’s readers’ poll named Cantu “Best Anchor” four times during his run at KEYE. In October, 2009 KEYE eliminated it’s locally produced morning newscast choosing to use “The JB and Sandy Show” from Mix 94 radio with KEYE local weather cut-ins.

After bouncing from newscast to newscast over his eight year tenure, Cantu believes it’s time for a change.

“I know this pause is scaring my wife of 34 years. But she and I know this is the ‘for better or for worse’ that we talked about in our marriage vows. We went through this eight years ago and came out ahead. I'm sure the same will happen again,” Cantu said.

Change is a constant in broadcast journalism, and Cantu knows it. His broadcasting career began in Brownsville. “I started in radio while still in high school in the early 1970s, a time my daughter refers to as ‘when dinosaurs ruled the earth.’"

He reinvented himself in the 1980s here in Austin. While continuing to do radio news at KNOW AM, KVET AM, and KLBJ AM, he completed his BA in Broadcast Journalism at The University of Texas in 1990.

I first worked with him when he was an older-than-average and very savvy “intern” at KVUE TV in the late 1980s. After finishing his degree, he made the jump to TV news as weekend anchor at KTBC TV when it was still affiliated with CBS.

At the current CBS station, KEYE, he developed a continuing segment called “Gadget Guy”. Cantu totally gets technology. He also gets how technology is changing TV news.

“People used to gather at the end of the day to catch up on the news. Thanks to the Internet, that doesn't happen anymore. But local TV news can be the go-to source at the end of the day for insight into what's happening locally,” Cantu told me.

What will he miss about TV news? It’s too soon to tell. “I'm not really gone. My career is just on pause.”

© Jim McNabb, 2010

Does the Media Take a Holiday?

No, Not Really

In the “golden days” of traditional media the holidays were special. One KXAN TV (NBC) holiday party was very special for me. It was the first date for me and the lady who exactly one year later became my wife.

That holiday party was at the elite Green Pastures restaurant in South Austin. It was icy cold that winter night. It was the sort of “norther” that would burn your face with the chill, but it was warm and special inside the fine old mansion. There was food, beverages, music, and dancing. There was a special room for those who wished to indulge in what were said to be excellent cigars. They all smell the same to me. And, there was murmuring.

That night, there was a certain buzz. I wasn’t aware that everyone was talking about my date for the evening. I was managing editor at KXAN then. For several years past, I had attended the holiday parties alone, but that year was different. I had a date.

Media holiday parties in past years were formal in many ways. We dressed up, and there were speeches and awards. In what might have been the glory days of the golden days of TV in Austin when I was at KVUE TV (ABC), KVET/KASE radio, and KTBC TV, AM and FM going back to the 1970s, holiday celebrations were grand. At KTBC when Lyndon Johnson was still among us we were invited out to the LBJ Ranch for the party.

Some eschewed the parties, but I always considered them a fringe benefit for working at that particular Austin medium.

That was then. This is now. Gone are the formal, glittering events with ice sculptures and dancing. Although media stocks advanced somewhat recently, the formal parties disappeared several years ago.

The Austin Post (www.austinpost.org) media party this past week at a South Austin bar was somewhat of a throwback. No, it wasn’t formal. There was laughter, food, snacks, drink, a photographer, and, well, joy, at this party. Editor Karie Meltzer explained that Austin Post could do this for its unpaid writers because of the site’s low budget. Austin Post is a not-for-profit, citizen contribution “news” site.

There may have been fun and even joy at other media in town too, but it wasn’t the same as it was in the past.

“We have not had Christmas parties for several years,” says Fred Zipp of the Austin American Statesman. “We continue to offer year-end bonuses, though.” Bonuses could be an entirely viable source of joy. Money or party? You choose.

“Instead of having a Christmas party this year, we instead had a summer party,” Says Frank Volpicella, KVUE TV (ABC) news director. “We asked the staff if they would rather have a picnic with their children, or a Christmas party. They choose a picnic, so we had one in mid-September.”

In the 1980s and 1990s we used to have BOTH summer and holiday parties at KVUE and KXAN.

KVUE did have a “diversity lunch” in the newsroom this week. The TV station provided the main course, and the staff brought side dishes. Staff members were recognized for their years of service. Many received “swag”, stuff that builds up during the year—caps, T-shirts, and other things held back for distribution to the staff. This kind of thing is typical of all media.

KEYE-TV used to have formal parties too, says Suzanne Black, news director, but that changed with the times. “Even with the change, we have some pretty phenomenal employee gifts and door prizes for this year, as well as years past,” Black says. “We do still have our [station-wide, catered] holiday lunch – and I’m looking forward to it! The news managers are also holding a holiday lunch for the news staff. We’re cooking for them!”

Nowadays, however, most members of the media celebrate the holidays in their work places with no formal attire, no ice sculptures, and no bands. Then, they go back to work, banging out the news of the day. Some of the staff is stuck at the court house or elsewhere unable to make it, but that’s the way it is. If they have seniority or if they’re lucky, they may have the holiday off to celebrate with family and friends.

Me? I’m glad for the “glory days”. Our anniversary is coming up!

© Jim McNabb, 2010

Job Opening: Newspaper Publisher

Vivio Promoted

The Austin-American Statesman has a opening for a new publisher.

Michael Vivio, publisher of the local newspaper and CEO of Statesman Co. for more than two years, is being promoted by parent company, Cox Media Group. Vivio will be president of Cox Target Media/Valpak effective in early January located in Largo, Florida in the Tampa/Saint Petersburg area.

The next publisher for the paper has not been named.

During his two-plus years in Austin, Vivio greatly expanded the revenue streams flowing from Statesman Co. Maximizing revenue streams is essential to keep a traditional newspaper afloat when the future of newspapers nationwide is in flux.

Notably, Vivio guided the newspaper to through an uncertain time when several Cox newspapers were for sale and sold. Eventually, the American-Statesman was taken off the market, probably because of its profitability and potential.

During his time at the Statesman, the organization launched two successful community newspapers, a website called hookem.com [more on that in a moment], and recently purchased InFactDaily, an online newsletter offering in-depth coverage of City Hall. This spring the newspaper was named Best Metro Newspaper by the Texas Associated Press Managing Editors, and Statesman.com was named Best Metro Online Newspaper by the same organization. It is also the largest printing facility in Central Texas.

“The challenges in this new job will be similar to those facing everyone in the traditional media business,” Vivio told me. “We will need to transition an established and profitable print operation into a digital future. Valpak has considerable brand awareness and momentum in digital coupons and I hope to build upon that to make the business strong long into the future.”

“Michael is an innovative leader with an excellent track record in media sales, marketing and digital business,” said Doug Franklin, Executive Vice President of Cox Media Group. “His people-centric management style will benefit our Valpak franchisees and Cox Target Media (CTM) employees. He also will be a great champion of the mailbox, our business clients and developing a complimentary digital portfolio to grow the Valpak brand and CTM businesses,” said a Cox news release.

“While the thought of leaving The Statesman Co. and Austin saddens me, I am energized by the new challenge ahead,” Vivio said. “Cox Target media/Valpak delivers savings and value to more than 40 million homes per month and is a national leader in the growing online coupon business. I see enormous potential to help build on the momentum established by the current team at Valpak,” Vivio said in a story in the December 6, 2010 Statesman.

“I will start commuting [to and from Florida] after the first of the year. My family will move over the summer,” Vivio told me. “Vivio is married to Beth Vivio, a full-time community volunteer, and has two sons, ages 8 and 12. He serves on the boards of the Salvation Army, Greater Austin Chamber of Commerce, United Way Capital Area, and the Texas Daily Newspaper Association,” the American-Statesman story said.

As a footnote, also announced in the Monday, December 06, 2010 American-Statesman, www.hookem.com is making big changes, hooking up with the 247sports.com network. Hookem.com becomes a “subscription-based website with premium content that is linked to, and part of, the national 247Sports.com,” the newspaper says.

The key words here, of course are “subscription-based”. “The new Hookem.com/247 Sports site stands with InFact Daily as a statement to our belief that readers will pay for highly specialized valuable content,” Vivio told me.

Yes, it’s another revenue stream, and it will, indeed, take “premium content” to attract readers. There is lots of more well-known competition for sports news.

InFactDaily.com is a subscription only electronic newswire covering city hall and Austin politics for insiders and others who are willing to pay for full access to its content.

© Jim McNabb, 2010

Benz There. Done That.

News Ate

Another “Big J” broadcast journalist is exiting an Austin news channel. Kevin Benz was at Time Warner Cable’s (TWC) News 8 from the beginning. In less than a year, he ascended from assistant news director to news director.

“Twelve years is a long time,” Benz says. “I am leaving a great company, a great TV station, and an even greater bunch of people. I am so proud to say I worked with them. Launching a TV station is not for the faint of heart but that's what we did in 1999 and the result is something I am most proud of.”

“I can’t say that it was my idea [leaving News 8], but the timing was right,” Benz told me. Benz’s departure was a mutual decision, sources say.

There was a meeting of “corporate brass” this morning [Monday, November 29, 2010] with Steve Paulus, TWC’s senior vice president of news of News 1 in New York City which now oversees News 8. Benz was not invited. Shortly after the meeting, Benz left. The staff was notified in an afternoon meeting.

Newsroom sources say Benz departure can be viewed as news philosophical differences going in opposite directions.

Benz showed class as the News 8 door closed.

“Early next year News 8 will change its name to YNN, [“Your News Now”]. It seems like the right time for me to turn over the leadership reins to someone else and as good a time as any to take on something new. I will rooting for the station from the stands now as it makes its transition,” Benz said. “I’m very comfortable with the outcome.”

Benz, of course, had made News 8 a go-to news medium in many Austin viewers’ minds as a local 24/7 news/weather/sports operation. It was the first of its kind in Austin, and Benz put his hard-core, “Big J” Journalism brand on it. Recognition followed.

“In a very short time News 8 won a National Murrow Award, two Sigma Delta Chi Awards for Journalistic Excellence, three National Walter Cronkite Awards for Excellence in Political Reporting, and was a Finalist for a DuPont - Columbia Award. Our democracy needs more stations like News 8, and journalism needs more dedicated people like those working there,” Benz says.

While the other broadcast news departments in Austin chose to cover so-called routine news events with a pool camera, Benz stood his ground, refusing to join. Thereby, News 8 photojournalists had a different take on local news events if for no other reason they shot their own video. Yes, it could have resulted in cost savings, but Benz wouldn’t have it.

News 8 also relies on the one-man-band approach to TV news—a reporter who shoots, writes, and edits content. Call it “Doing more with less” as I have, but at least one Austin broadcast station is moving in that direction. If you hear the phrase “multi-platform”, think one-man-band. Those “platforms” nowadays are many, including posting stories to the Internet and social media.

During the past year, News 8 has been without a general manager, and Benz had been acting GM as well as news director. Also, however, during the past year since the beginning of the oversight of News 1, Austin’s News 8 has been under scrutiny.

In the meantime, the news channel recently completed major upgrades to its facilities just north of the State Capitol, something Benz oversaw with pride. Benz insists that the upgrades are evidence that journalistic excellence will continue.

“News 8 matters,” Benz declares. “It matters to Central Texas and it matters to journalism and Time Warner Cable gets it. They understand the importance of doing relevant, responsible journalism that improves our community, and I honor them for that.”

Michael Pearson is the interim News Director.

For his part Benz says journalism is still a huge part of his life.

“As Chair-elect of RTDNA (The Radio, Television, Digital News Association) I am charged with leading the planning for the National Excellence in Journalism Convention next year. I also serve on the Board and do training for the Carole Kneeland Project for Responsible Journalism which is based here in Austin. Those projects will begin taking up significant amounts of time for me and I'm excited about them.” Benz says.

Benz says this is the third time that he has re-invented himself, and each re-invention has been better than the last.

The TV news business is like that. Change. Constant change or eventual change. That’s probably applicable to life in general.

© Jim McNabb, 2010

Some Want to Bust Me!

Scarborough Busted Now

Now, MSNBC’s Joe “Morning Joe” Scarborough is on a two-day suspension for making political contributions to Republican candidates in past years. Just like Keith Olbermann before him, the former newspaper man and congressman-turned-TV-morning show host will be back on the air Wednesday, November 24, 2010.

There was much comment at the time about whether Olbermann is a journalist, a commentator, a host or what? I even mused that maybe Mr. Olbermann should return to sports at ESPN.

Then, I remembered the words of the long-time and long-ago sports director at KTBC TV in the CBS days. Phil Miller weighed in on a newsroom debate one night say, “Sports IS news”. He was and is right. How many times has Mack Brown appeared on the front page of the Austin American-Statesman this fall? How many times, has the sports anchor appeared in the first news segment as will as during sports?

Sports reporters and anchors have been involved in the reporting of major news events, such as Charles Whitman’s fuselage from the UT Tower in 1966 or the Munich massacre at the 1972 Olympics reported by Jim McKay.

Most sports reporters and anchors receive the same Journalism training as those who focus on “hard” news. Both Olberman and Scarborough should have known better. As one writer to the newsmcnabb blog put it, “Rules are rules.”

Interestingly, several others, however, took Olbermann’s side. I assume that they would take Scarborough’s side too.

“WRONG, JIM.” Anonymous posted.

“As a US Citizen, Olbermann has every right to give what he wants to give to a political campaign, and without having to ask permission from his corporate overlords.

“Get off your journalistic high horse!”

And another anonymous using the same terminology agreed.

“Once again, Mr. McNabb, your double standard is perplexing,” wrote Anonymous #2. “ You - the self-proclaimed, self-appointed local "watchdog" of all things pure in journalism - apparently still consider yourself a journalist...and yet you have held events/fundraisers at your home for candidates (RE: "Blame Partisan Media," June 10, 2010). There's little difference between you and Olbermann, so get off the high horse. The real question is: Who watches the "watchdog"?”

Yes, I do still consider myself a journalist. I’ve often said, “Once a journalist, always a journalist,” but I am a retired journalist. I no longer work in day-to-day mainstream Journalism. I do teach at the university level on the adjunct faculty at St. Edward’s University, but I am teaching “Presentational Speech”, not journalism. There is a difference.

Further, Anonymous #2 knows that I have indeed worked in politics and participated in political fundraisers since my retirement because I said so in the interest of transparency. It is no secret.

I sometimes wonder if Anonymous must feel some heat from this journalism/media criticism column. Perhaps a good investigative piece might be to search local lists of political contributions for names of working journalists. Some don't use their legal names on the air or in bylines.

Finally, “Who watches the watchdog?” The answer is, you. You and Anonymous.

© Jim McNabb, 2010