Broadcast Journalism 101

Published August 27, 1989 in North Shore Sunday.

Fade music ...  Ready camera one ...  Take one ...

Good evening.  Our top story tonight is the downtown shooting of a ...

As the bright-eyed anchorwoman reports the shooting, a film of a man walking downtown appears behind her.  Suddenly pain grips the man as a small pool of red splashes out from his thigh, then his stomach, then his chest.

The film is a simulation of an actual shooting, photographed with years of Hollywood's best special effects technology behind it, and played back in tantalizing slow motion five times and from five different angles.

Of course, this kind of sensationalized simulation of the news has never happened  –  yet.  But it seems to be the direction TV news is headed.

News producers are becoming devoted disciples of that supreme TV commandment:  Thou Shalt Not Bore.  Entertainment is what TV is all about, and the news department is no exception.

The entertainment trend is evident in NBC's Unsolved Mysteries, where real-life crimes are reenacted for the camera.  The people involved in the original events are used as actors as much as possible – and sometimes, incredibly, even relatives and friends of the victims reenact their parts.  Cheap, voyeuristic, sensational  –  sure, but it sells (bringing to mind another venerable TV commandment:  Thou Shalt Not Put Taste Before Profit).

Sensational, voyeuristic entertainment sells so well that two new prime time news shows will feature the reenactment of real events:  NBC's Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow and CBS's Saturday Night With Connie Chung.

But if Edward R. Murrow is spinning in his grave, it isn't just because TV news magazines like these are simulating real events for fun and profit.  This thing is spreading into the straight news, introduced by none other than Peter Jennings on a recent broadcast of ABC's World News Tonight.  Say it ain't so, Pete.

During that broadcast, a poor-quality video (which added a touch of authenticity) showed a man resembling Felix Bloch handing a suitcase to another man, supposedly a Soviet agent.  The video wasn't labeled as a simulation, and millions of Americans believed they were actually witnessing an American spy handing over secrets to the KGB.

A few days later, Jennings apologized for the incident, saying the video wasn't labeled a simulation due to a production error.  But he never apologized for the simulation itself, for obscuring the line between fact and fantasy.  Well, folks, that's entertainment.

The fateful decision to simulate the story was made during this conversation between Peter Jennings (PJ) and an ABC News executive (ABC) just before the broadcast aired:

ABC Peter  –  what are you doing?  You should be in makeup.

PJ What does it look like I'm doing?

ABC But why are you throwing darts at Sam Donaldson's picture?

PJ Because he's after my job.  Because if I throw darts at Sam Donaldson's face like I'd like to, I'd get arrested and then he would get my job.

ABC Never mind that.  We've got a great idea that  –

PJ (throwing the dart harder) Roseanne Barr.

ABC What?

PJ And Nora Ephron.

ABC Nora who?

PJ Talking about sex, for God's sakes.  How can I compete with that?

ABC What are you talking about?

PJ Sam and Diane's news show premiers in a coupla weeks.  They're interviewing Nora Ephron on the first show.

ABC So? 

PJ So Nora Ephron used to be married to Carl Bernstein.  So she's the one who said Bernstein could make love to a Venetian blind.  So people love that stuff.  So Sam's gonna interview her about whether sex prevents men and women from being friends and people're gonna eat it up and I'm gonna lose my job.

ABC But Prime Time Live is primarily a news show.  If there's some big story breaking that week, they'll dump the fluff stuff and concentrate on the news.

PJ Right.  Maybe there'll be a big Mideast crisis or something.  Forgetit.  I'm history.

ABC I know how you can beat Sam at his own game.  Look, this is television, right?

PJ No, this is the starship Enterprise.  Of course this is television.

ABC What do people want on television?  They want pictures.  They want entertainment. 

PJ That's right, and Sam entertains them while I just give them the boring old news.

ABC But it doesn't have to be that way, Peter.  Look ...

And that's the way it was.  Honest.

This dialogue is a simulation of an actual conversation that, for all we know, just might have taken place.