Media: Commercial vs Non-Profit Newsrooms

      Consider this description in a N.Y. Times story today about "Me-Too" complaints at Public Radio:

 

"WNYC’s human resources department seems to have its hands full with complaints and counter-complaints of bullying, including those against two prominent women who joined WNYC from sharp-elbowed commercial newsrooms."

     

     I've worked in both commercial and public television newsrooms, and that description, in addition to being wonderfully descriptive writing, got me thinking.

    Were there more "sharp elbows" in the for-profit newsrooms where I've worked than at Alabama Public Television, where I worked for almost a decade?

     I can certainly remember run-ins, sharp elbowed or not, in both places (involving me or just observed by me). Some were mere disagreements, others rose to the level of HR complaints.

     Ironically, one almost-brawl happened during a staff meeting led by an outsider hired to deal with some bad blood that had developed. 

      Let's face it , probably moreso than at an insurance company or in a factory setting, there are seriously big egos in places where some of the daily work is done on-camera as many many thousands of people watch.

     And I don't think it made a significant difference whether there were commercials running in the on-air product. But I'll admit there were differences. 

     The first time I walked into the APT newsroom I was struck how quiet it was! No blaring police radio monitor, less shouting across the newsroom, and a generally more conversational than confrontational ambiance (with, as I've written, some exceptions). 😞

  That's me in 2009, carrying my tie collection out of the APT studios in Montgomery when my position was eliminated and "For The Record" was cancelled. Next stop: back to commercial TV.