News and Society

Not long ago, I met with a radio and TV veteran of the industry. He'd been reporting on the news, been a station manager in several major US cities. Today he runs his own radio show, and is enjoying himself and retirement, although I guess we could call it semi-retirement in that case. Anyway, he has the most excellent stories about his interviews with big-name politicians. He'd gotten up and asked some pretty tough questions of some pretty high ranking politicians running for many of the highest offices in the country.

Without naming names, he told me one story that went something like this; he had to cover for one of his reporters that was doing another news story in another part of the country, a presidential candidate had come to town, and since he had clearance from the Secret Service he was able to sit in the front row with reporters to ask questions. When the individual was done with their speech, and began taking questions he asked some really hard-core questions.

The candidate had dodged those questions, and as he began to ask more, he was being nudged towards the aisle, and duly escorted out of the facility. Other reporters saw what was going on, and they didn't like it, and because everyone knows everyone else in the media industry, they asked follow-up questions along the same lines. At that point the candidate was looking pretty bad, and told everyone thank you very much, that he had to get to some other appointments.

When my acquaintance came back to the studio, and it was an affiliate station, he got a call from New York, as the candidate's staff wanted to know who he was, why he was there, and where on earth he got his facts and figures, and if those facts and figures were correct. The New York newsroom told the staffer from the candidate's HQ that they knew of this reporter, he'd been in the industry a long time, and if he asked the question, then he had his facts to back them up, not to worry about it. The campaign staffer hung up the phone.

Apparently, the presidential campaign staffer wanted to get him fired for asking the questions and embarrassing the candidate on TV. Because the candidate had a huge budget for advertising they tried to pull their weight with the New York office. It didn't work. Thankfully, we still have freedom of speech and freedom of the press in this great country. But that just goes to show you some of the underhanded and disgusting things that happen behind the scenes.

He explained to me that although he would never agree to it, often reporters would agree to stick to a scripted number of questions, and not go off track as a condition for getting the interview. Not only that, they would give those scripted questions in advance to the candidate, so they could have their staff work on the perfect answer. As a radio listener, and a TV news junkie, I am completely concerned about these things, and ask; is the news even real anymore? Apparently it isn't, but there are some hard-core reporters still left the aren't so easily intimidated. Thankfully they still believe in freedom and liberty in this nation. Please consider all this and think on it.

Lance Winslow is the Founder of the Online Think Tank, a diverse group of achievers, experts, innovators, entrepreneurs, thinkers, futurists, academics, dreamers, leaders, and general all around brilliant minds. Lance Winslow hopes you've enjoyed today's discussion and topic. http://www.worldthinktank.net/ - Have an important subject to discuss, contact Lance Winslow.

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