In a perfect world, television news viewers would tune in because of the high journalistic standards of a broadcast. Because of the thorough reporting. Because of the quiet competence.
In that perfect world, viewers would realize that the vast majority of the reporting is not done by the anchormen and women. That they are, for the most part, news readers - not news gatherers or reporters.Unfortunately, we don't live in a perfect world. That's why stations feel the need to make their anchors viewer-friendly, the need to make them appear to be funny and cute and personable.
While it may not be fair to single them out, the folks at KUTV-Ch. 2 have carried this to extremes in recent months. The talk between the anchors has gotten down-right giddy.
And the station's new promotional campaign sums up a lot of what's wrong with local news in this less-than-perfect world of ours.
The spots are nicely produced and clever. A woman is seen lying on her therapist's couch and speaking plaintively to him.
"Doctor, I'm searching for a meaningful relationship - like Michelle King and Mark Koelbel on 2 News," she says. "Side by side, night after night, sharing all the world has to offer. Never co-dependent, just co-anchors. Communicating with honesty."
King and Koelbel, meanwhile, are acting up a storm. They laugh, they look earnest, they smile into the camera with all the sincerity they can muster.
The spot ends with the tag line, "More doctors recommend 2 News for their patients who watch news."
It would be a perfectly lovely little advertisement were it designed to sell toothpaste or laxatives. But what they're trying to sell is news - and this is an embarrassing way to have to do it.
But it's certainly no worse than all the chatter that clogs up KUTV's newscasts. At times they're all so anxious to gab that you have two anchors plus the sportscaster and/or weathercaster all talking at the same time, step-ping all over each other's lines.
And then there's all that forced laughter and labored joviality. It has nothing to do with news and everything to do with trying to buddy up to the audience.
It comes across as phony as can be.
On the other hand, I could be completely out of step with the majority of viewers on this. (It certainly wouldn't be the first time.) The fact is that, after bottoming out last year, Ch. 2's news ratings have perked up a bit in recent months since happy talk began to run amok.
Certainly Ch. 2 is not alone in trying to make its news less serious and more friendly. It's part of a national TV trend, both in local and network news departments. Just take a quick look around the dial:
- "The NBC Nightly News with Tom Brokaw" has risen to the top of the ratings by lightening its tone - by doing more "soft" features and less "hard" news.
- News magazines like "20/20," "PrimeTime Live" and "Dateline NBC" are becoming more and more celebrity-driven - they get their best ratings when they have interviews with Michael Jackson or Barbra Streisand.
- The chairman of ABC News doesn't boast about the great reporting his staff is doing - he brags about his stable of news "stars."
- NBC has even signed Geraldo Rivera, of all people, to a new contract that will allow him to contribute to its prime-time news cov-er-age.
Not that it's entirely a one-way street, however. CBS anchorman Dan Rather has made much over the past few months of his newscast's "return to our hard-news roots," and the broadcast has indeed improved its position in terms of ratings while doing so.
"We've tried very hard to re-emphasize hard news," Rather said recently. "We hoped the audience would follow us, and I'm pleased to say that some of the audience has. . . . We are, as corny as it may sound, interested in quality, in integrity and in excellence. . . . I think there's an increasingly large part of the audience that agrees that there's a place in the early evening news broadcast for serious news."
Which tends to make the transition between the local news on CBS-owned Ch. 2 from 5-6 p.m. and the "CBS Evening News" at 6 p.m. rather abrupt. There's very little chit-chat on the national newscast - and that's something Rather openly abhors.
"I think we do ourselves and our viewers a disservice when we try to lighten the news with chatter and jokes," he said.
Those of us who are somewhat troubled by just those developments must recognize that this is ultimately a case of giving viewers what they want. Journalism doesn't exist in a vacuum. TV news has to get ratings and sell advertising just the way that newspapers have to gain circulation and sell advertising.
If Ch. 2 has to do happy talk to bring in the viewers, then who is to blame for the resulting giddiness? A large portion of that responsibility lies with the viewers them-selves.
But I'm embarrassed for the anchors and reporters who are forced to play these little games. I'm embarrassed for them as journalists. I'm embarrassed for all of us with any ties to the journalistic profession when any of our number has to sacrifice substance for style.
Which is not to say that reporters or anchors - or TV critics, for that matter - must be somber and serious at all times. There's room for spark and wit and chemistry and taking your job (but not yourself) seriously.
The best broadcast journalists come across as friendly and professional. They win the respect of their viewers.
It's hard to respect anchors who are trying so desperately to be liked that they make goofy, inappropriate comments simply for the sake of trying to win viewers. And I can't help but wonder if, in the end, this isn't going to do more harm than good to a newscast when something serious does happen.
When big, important news breaks, are viewers going to tune to the happy, friendly, perky anchors or the more serious types?
As CBS's Rather put it, "I know . . . that ratings don't last, quality journalism does."
At least in a perfect world.