Category: Uncategorized (Page 21 of 45)

Everyone who has come in the shop today has commented on tomorrow’s weather. We called that “Top of Mind” back when I was in radio, a phrase to indicate the populist thinking of the moment, that thing that should be the primary focus of our programming.

The Tulsa World buried the weather story in this morning’s edition. Page 10. Even there, the headline doesn’t read “Winter Storm Due,” or “Snowy Weather Ahead.” They pin it directly on the originators of the forecast: “Forecasters Warn of Snow.” You see, the SNOW isn’t the news in the opinion of the World, only that some have issued a warning.

It is another example of the disrespect the local newspaper has for the electronic media in general. The sports page is the most obvious daily reminder of the bias. The local sportswriters seem to search for opportunities to take stabs at announcers and their employers, although the most vicious of the attacks are done anonymously (The Picker).

Not every newspaper takes such a position. Some have regular media columns that treat the broadcast medium as entertainment, (rightly or not) to be reviewed – thumbs up or thumbs down – like a movie. Others offer schedules of events to be broadcast, of a local nature. If the Tulsa World touches on such coverage, it is so infrequent as to be invisible.

The argument that they are reporting only the news, and not prognostications, will not hold water. In the arenas of politics and the economy, stories are published all too often that report trends, surveys, and other gossip – as a prediction of an outcome. It’s simply political weather forecasting, and pans out just as often as not.

What is it that is crippling the newspapers of the United States? Why are they increasingly cutting staff, reducing local content, and – in the most dramatic cases – going out of business completely?

My own guess (they never call and ask my opinion…) is that the old school journalistic paradigm of telling people “what they need to know,” is no longer valid. It is a business model synonymous with classroom teaching. In an age of diverse educational and entertainment opportunities, some prefer a delicatessen approach to information. We can select the items most palatable to our tastes and pass on the rest.

In the Tulsa World deli, cheeseburgers and fries are at the back of the store, hidden behind the brussels sprouts and broccoli. Even though the burgers and fries outsell the vegetables, we’re expected to first chew through what is good for us to get at the stuff on everyone’s mind.