Jun 30, 2008

MMMM #3 - EXCLUSIVE!!!

The word "Exclusive" in journalism used to have power...it used to mean something. Namely that the medium reporting a particular story had "broken" the story...and that it was an important story too. No more! Now TV stations emblazon their screens with that word with even the flimsiest excuse. If they are the only ones reporting a story because it isn't much of a story anyway, they'll label it "EXCLUSIVE"! to make is seem more legit, or do the same to an interview that is theirs alone only because nobody else wanted it in the first place. Exclusive has its place...when a station or newspaper has developed a story through the hard work of its reporters, like the Post-Secondary abuses reported by The Birmingham News, or the entire saga involving former Governor Siegelman developed by The News and The Register. Now those were exclusives. And note that they were broken by newspapers. I'm convinced that if they state's daily newspapers go out of business, there will be no 10:00pm news that night. (Monday Morning Media Memo is a weekly series on this blog)
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1 comment:

  1. Loretta NallMonday, June 30, 2008 8:29:00 AM

    Tim,

    I've been covering the John Alexander Rochester case. As a veteran media guy can you tell me why the news will report some nobody getting busted with a little pot but impose a complete blackout on the story about a Judge's son selling cocaine in the city park? And then getting really special treatment by a judge who should have recused himself from the case?

    I know this isn't an FTR issue but the local paper and the larger papers in that area of the state have a duty to report things like this.

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