The Last Day

Today was my final day at work. I have been a news producer for the past 7 years or so. In that time, the industry has gone to hell in a handbasket.

First of all, about half of all news producers hired these days hold film and television degrees, not journalism degrees. That trend began some time ago; due to the fact that news channels don't want to pay their off camera employees very much; so they began making producers out of cameramen and video editors.
That's not to say that cameramen and editors can't be good producers. I think I was, for as much as I was permitted to be; but not everyone (even some "journalist") have ethical standards.

Another trend leading news channels in a downward spiral, is their massive dependence on corporate america. At my now former station, we were required to call our station manager before running any story that would negatively reflect upon anyone who bought ads during the news. Our manager claims she would never require us to ignore a story; but she wants to notify advertisers so that they can drop the ads (and get a refund). If that keeps up enough, or if a large enough advertiser threatens to pull their ads permanently... that policy of not asking us to drop a story could easily change.

Except for local stories, most of the information and video that we use comes from corporate entities; particularly CNN (Time Warner) and Fox (Newscorp). And of course both of those have particular political biases; and both are subject to influence of the U.S. government. Fox is often a willing White House bitch. Despite Fox's claims (and many politicians, as well) that CNN leans left; they also are more than willing to "play by the rules" set up by the government regarding what they will and will not reveal.

Political bias is also a problem on the set. Anchors and reporters infuse their own beliefs into stories. A story about the phenomena of husbands "coming out of the closet," turns into a one-sided tale of the wife done wrong. The story about the catholic priest in Italy who tells his congration that condoms are OK, because he sees a rising tide of HIV infections, has the anchor tossing out an unscripted "of course condoms don't prevent AIDS," despite CDC figures showing that they are more than 98% effective. And then; that anchor refuses to correct herself; and the management tells the producer "you'll have to agree to disagree;" because of course, facts aren't really facts at all. In a story about Texas' constitutional ammendment to ban same-sex marriage; that very same anchor deletes all references to the fact that the bill would also outlaw civil unions, and forbid any state or local governmental entity from recognizing even legal same-sex marriages or civil unions performed in other states. Again, she is never asked to tell the whole truth.

The folks watching at home are partially to blame too. Especially those with Nielson meters. Apparently the truth isn't particularly popular with America, either. We producers are blasted for using the word "invasion," regarding the U.S. invasion of Iraq. You get upset when we mention race in descriptions of criminals, so our news director forbids doing so unless we have the fine details to go along with it. Even then, every black-skinned person is an "African American," regardless of whether they are American or not. Even the subject of a news story gets to define how they will be presented. Hurricane Katrina victims are "evacuees," not refugees; even though the displaced victims of every other hurricane and tsunami before that were refugees... whether they had to leave their home country or not. I'm all for English being a living language; but it should be an accurate language as well. And news should be free of politically motivated coloring (or decoloring).

So, that's one big reason for me leaving my job. But, I was planning a move anyway. I have been wanting to move back to Austin ever since Sunny passed away, so now I'm doing it. Now I plunge into job insecurity. I am hoping to land some film work, but it's been years since I've worked in a production office. Even longer since I gripped (which one's a baby mole again?). I just figured that as long as I'm producing half-truths and entertainment, I might as well get paid like an entertainment producer. Hopefully someone is willing to pay me while I relearn the business.

Wish me Luck!