{"id":245,"date":"1982-01-04T18:07:56","date_gmt":"1982-01-05T01:07:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=245"},"modified":"2015-02-06T14:27:18","modified_gmt":"2015-02-06T21:27:18","slug":"a-sampler-of-reactions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/?p=245","title":{"rendered":"A sampler of reactions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Click<\/a>Dr. Hollstein is a professor of communication at the University of Utah. <\/em><\/p>\n

“Now I know\u00a0how many of\u00a0the people I have covered over the years must have felt\u00a0about some of the stories\u00a0I did on them and their activities.”<\/p>\n

That’s from a letter I received from a newsman mentioned in one 1981 Media Monitor column. It’s not untypical\u00a0of responses from people who rarely see their name mentioned in print except as a byline. After the initial shock of seeing their work criticized in print, some have taken the trouble to write, often\u00a0many close-spaced pages, about any expectation of seeing their replies in print. Some have agreed, some disagreed with my appraisals, but all have added to my appreciation of their work.<\/p>\n

In one of the earliest columns, I mentioned that media failings result from the hard realities of news gathering, not from sinister motives. These responses have fortified that belief.<\/p>\n

So here is a sampler of the reactions, altered in the seasons redemptive spirit:<\/p>\n

Ted Capener<\/strong>, vice president of Bonneville International, on a column about KSL’s Washington bureau, which he formerly headed: “Many of\u00a0those stories were, as you indicated, ‘quick and dirty’ – done under extreme time pressure. But some were not. What’s more, we often put more time into producing a\u00a0\u00a0radio or TV story than do newspaper\u00a0reporters. As for the air time given a story, admittedly that is a problem . . . I always try to stretch the attention span of the viewer to accommodate vitally important information . . . With\u00a0few exceptions,\u00a0all reporting is too\u00a0sketchy . . . I totally\u00a0disagree that the legislators\u00a0played me ‘like a fiddle.’ They sometimes tried in do that. But I always carefully edited their comments.”<\/p>\n

Steve Tuttle,<\/strong>\u00a0executive news producer, KTVX, on a column that pointed out the station failed to tell viewers that portions of\u00a0its “Stolen Innocence” series were obtained from a syndicate: “Yes, we superimpose the Channel 4 logo over material supplied exclusively to us in this market even though\u00a0the reporter is not directly employed by us. We debated this practice for some time\u2026 The reasoning is solid:\u00a0We stand behind the facts and the method of presentation and want the viewer to understand that.”<\/p>\n

Lavor K. Chaffin,<\/strong>\u00a0long-time education editor of the Deseret News, on a column that suggested reporters show what the schools accomplish: “For the kind of reporting you talk about a great deal of time is required. If it is done well, there us no way to\u00a0accomplish the necessary research and background expertise but to go into the classrooms, talk to teachers\u00a0and students\u00a0until you get an understanding and then take careful concern to write in terms your\u00a0readers can understand. (Among the many time robbers) is board meetings. There is no consistently reliable way to judge from agendas –\u00a0when you have them – when meetings will be productive \u2026 I think that in the public interest they must be covered and that to do it in a way consistent with accuracy and continuity\u00a0the reporter must attend and listen\u00a0to virtually everything that’s said.”<\/p>\n

N. LaVerl Christensen<\/strong>, former editor of\u00a0the Daily Herald, Provo, on a column that compared yesteryear’s Herald unfavorably\u00a0with today’s: “Let’s talk about\u00a0those 30 years. This was a period of unprecedented growth\u00a0and modernization.\u00a0It’s quite a story, maybe unmatched by any other Utah daily in\u00a0that era. Do you really think we could have earned public support without a vigorous and effective editorial department? Overall we had a solid, well-accepted product that supplied the family’s needs for \u2026\u00a0news.” And Ben Hansen,<\/strong>\u00a0the current editor, wrote that ”I wish you had taken a longer look\u00a0at the man I succeeded and\u00a0his contribution to the Herald.”<\/p>\n

Bob Woody,<\/strong>\u00a0business editor\u00a0of the Tribune, on last weeks column pointing out that he accepted a free trip\u00a0to London on Western\u00a0Airlines’ inaugural flight last April, says that not only did I single him out when other newsmen\u00a0were aboard but that I also neglected in mention that his two\u00a0weeks in London, mostly at Tribune expense,\u00a0produced many stories from his British contacts. Among these were an interview with Sohio’s\u00a0chairman at British Petroleum, the parent company, after its acquisition of Kennecott Corp.<\/p>\n

Forgive me. gentlemen, if in whittling down your comments I miss the mark, and\u00a0stories and columns\u00a0so often do. And thanks for helping me get rid of some\u00a0old baggage as we ride into a new year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr. Hollstein is a professor of communication at the University of Utah. “Now I know\u00a0how many of\u00a0the people I have covered over the years must have felt\u00a0about some of the stories\u00a0I did on them and their activities.” That’s from a letter I received from a newsman mentioned in one 1981 Media Monitor column. It’s not… Continue reading A sampler of reactions<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[41,12,27],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1949,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions\/1949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gashler.com\/nlc\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}