Sunday, September 23, 2012

Reporters, not Candidates Ignore the Issue

There's an excellent article from the AP hightlighted on Huffingtonpost.com on how the presidential campaigns are ignoring the crucial issue of climate change.

But it's not the candidates who ignore this issue, it's reporters in market after market after market.
That's not the fault of reporters.   Reporters learn in a hurry not to suggest stories management doesn't want.   This story is too important to ignore.

Without question, there has been a candidate or two who has addressed climate change, and that gets reported because the press is really good at stenography.   But each and every member of Congress should be held accountable on this issue.  The fact that they aren't isn't a failure of reporting as much as it is a failure of management. 

It's difficult for any editor or news director examining page views and ratings to think that reporting on climate change is more important than covering Sunday's game.   It's the sports clips that drive page views.   But if we don't do such a great job covering the game, it really doesn't matter.   If we fail to cover climate change it does.  

Top corporate management at Scripps, Gannett, Belo and the rest need to make sure their news organizations focus on issues that matter, not blather that doesn't.   When journalism fails, bad things happen.   And failing on this issue will be really bad for generations to come.
                                                             ###

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.