This is becoming a recurring theme: journalists working in news rooms while also doing paid public relations work.
A Minneapolis-St. Paul TV anchor did it.
A Nashville TV reporter did it. (Although she called me yesterday to explain that she’s not doing it anymore.)
And now Detroit Medical Center announced that it has named a former WDIV-TV anchorman to be its communication director, “providing guidance on media issues and serving as a principal spokesperson” for the medical center. That’s fine. But in the next breath, it’s revealed that the anchorman also has a long-term agreement with WDIV-TV to produce periodic in-depth documentaries for this Detroit-based NBC affiliate.
How does the audience know which hat the anchor/PR man is wearing at which times?
As critics said at the time of the Minneapolis incident cited above, journalists who cross these lines between journalism and public relations raise warning flags. Questions of credibility, conflict of interest (real or perceived), and truthfulness arise when you’re being paid by someone to make them look good in the media — at the same time you’re supposedly being an independent, objective journalist in other venues.
Opinions on other issues in news, journals, PR, advertising, marketing
Even when stories get the facts right, they often fail to provide crucial context and caveats that would help audiences make sense of the news — or lack thereof, says @garyschwitzer of @HealthNewsRevu https://t.co/b7YO2fYt0a
Why fact-checking is not enough to prevent the spread of misleading health care news...@HealthNewsRevu https://t.co/fzC2JbDYGV
Simply fact-checking an article "fails to capture questions of nuance and context that arise – or should arise – whenever evaluating medical evidence." https://t.co/HrYkGj12q1
Comments (2)
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brittney
August 8, 2005 at 3:16 pmRudy Kalis is a man.
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