Water Cooler Conversations

Written by Pat Perry
President, ERC 

There are many reasons why the newspaper industry is dying a slow death in this country.  Primarily, they are not offering value to their readership. What was once considered news is now an array of shock headlines of information most of us learned about prior to the morning paper delivery.  Technology has afforded us instant access to information from across the globe.  Incredibly, the newspaper industry “leadership” is stubborn to change, making them the modern day horse and buggy.

Not far behind are the mainstream television stations and cable networks.  The nightly news has for some time pandered to the negative; reflecting the media’s censorship of what they believe is the news of the day – murders, rapes, robberies, corruption.  Ironically, they try to make it all better by closing the show with a “feel good” story after most everyone has tuned out or turned off the “newscast”.

The media’s defense is that they have a “responsibility” to report the news…that is true…but it has been a long time since they have been responsible.  Here is a revelation for the media - good news is also considered news.  And, believe it or not, our region has a ton of good news.  It is there for the taking.

Since our local political leadership has fallen by the wayside the past few years, perhaps an opportunity to lead the region can be ignited by the local media.  The power to influence is still alive and well…people are praying and hoping for real leadership…real risk taking and real positive change. 

The local media still has tremendous power to influence its readership and viewers.  I would challenge all of them to try something different, even if it would be for one day…don’t report any negative information or spin including the shock headlines.  Leave words like crisis, doom and failure out of the vocabulary for one day or better yet for one week. Imagine the psychological impact – it would be a cool thing.  In fact, I would bet if the local media tried this for a week, they would be hard pressed to go back to the status quo - maybe that is what they fear.

And, if I’m wrong, nothing is lost but a few days of bad news.

Written by Pat Perry
President, ERC 

Several weeks ago we took the kids up to the Sandusky area.  A friend of ours let us use his house on the lake for our stay.  It was a great getaway - so much so that we rarely looked at a clock, did not watch any television or see a newspaper.  We really felt removed and boy did it feel great.  Then it hits you like a “lead balloon” when you arrive back home - negative, sensationalized news at every corner…radio, TV and newspapers.  Even with just a few days away from all this junk you realize upon being reengaged how much negativity permeates the media.

The big news this week of course is the FBI raids of County officials’ homes and various businesses.  No indictments yet, but you know that when the FBI pulls up a few U-Hauls arrests are not far behind.  Just another wonderful bit of news to add to the apparent erosion of our local community.  That story of course is followed by stories of murders, arson, robberies, etc. - all to the point that it is really not “new” news…just a replay of what happened yesterday and the day before and the day before - just different people are involved.

Funny, that each of the local stations desperate for ratings goes to all sorts of lengths to be the first at the murder scene and/or video tape the fire and other tragic events.   They all tout their Doppler radars yet give the exact same forecast and show us all the same clouds.  I wonder how their ratings really are.   Seinfeld re-runs are so much better than all the negative stuff - the only thing funny about the local news is that the anchors actually think they are celebrities of some sort because they can read Teleprompters and can half-act that they care about the hundreds of tragedies they report on each year.   

I think we are really entering a new day and age, particularly with Gen X and Y folks coming up the ranks.  People that I know are sick and tired of the old, negative and orchestrated newscasts.  They don’t watch and neither do I (except for the sports).  How cool would it be if one of the local stations actually took a risk and reported only good news and special interest stories for one week.  No bad stuff…at all.  There is no lack of positive news in our community and it goes under or unreported.

I’ll bet you that the “good news of a week” experiment works - the ratings would probably go through the roof.  Then the anchors fake smiles and silly laughter could actually be genuine. 

They say that what is on the news hour is what we want - I don’t believe that for a minute.  If that’s true, we are in a heap of trouble and that would be truly bad news for our community.