Hugh Smith got up out of his grave to call me and tell me what he heard in the heavens...days earlier...that his alma mater, WTVT, Channel 13, the Fox affiliate in Tampa, Florida will now be sharing news video with WFTS, Channel 28, the ABC station. Yes, the economy has apparently gotten the best of journalistic ethics. No longer can viewers expect exclusivity...it won't even matter which station you may be watching.
At first look, this isn't really a big deal. Two stations have decided to get cheap because the recession has caused revenues to decline sharply. What they won't tell you is viewship has been down for a very long time as cable, Verizon Fios, satellite, the Internet and other outlets have so diluted viewership that the most practical thing will ultimately be to bring the news into individual homes for private showings.
It's long been a practice for stations to pool video under special circumstances and that has worked out well. But to join cameras in a long term marriage is a whole other story. I started working in television news in the Tampa Bay market in 1965 as a stringer for WFLA. Sharing our film with another stations would have been unthinkable. We were friendly competitors but we were guarded about information we might share...NEVER, EVER would we give away video content.
It's scary the way things are going now. There's so much more news to cover...and the stations can only afford to hire mostly beginner street reporters. That's OK, they have to get their experience somewhere. However, it sickens me that we will be now raising a new generation of television journalists who share their work product incestuously and think because it's disclosed and endorsed by management that it's the right thing to do.
Not only is it the wrong thing, it's repulsive and irresponsible. If a station is having economic problems, it ought to just get out of the news business...or go non-profit and raise money for operations through a foundation.
I don't think I'm going to get my digital converter after all. I prefer to watch snow.
Nah, Nah, this has got to be an April Fools joke...OK, I'll go along with that!
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