AL Broadcasters Assoc. and academics re TV ad asininity

I have sent to the Alabama Broadcasters Association, in care of Dr. Mark Nelson, who is Dean and Professor of the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama, and who is also the Educational Advisor to the Alabama Broadcasters Association, the below email:

From: Rob Shattuck >

To: mnelson

Sent: Fri, Mar 18, 2022 5:01 pm

Subject: For Alabama Broadcasters Association - editorializing by Alabama TV stations

Dear Dr. Nelson,

I could not find on the Alabama Broadcasters Association website an email address for the Association, and I have chosen to send this email in care of you as the Educational Advisor to the Association.

Additionally, I consider your being Dean and Professor of the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama to be advantageous for pursuing the purpose of this email.

I have spent several months pressing Alabama TV stations about their public service editorializing practices, including whether their policy is that their television station does not undertake a public service editorializing function.

The negative impression I have received is that Alabama TV stations choose not undertake public service editorializing. The basis for my negative impression is set out at Editorializing by AL TV stations.

The purpose of this email is to inquire of the Association what the sense of the Association is about the extent to which Alabama TV stations undertake a public service editorializing function. If the Association's sense is that some TV stations do undertake that function, and some do not, I would be interested in learning which TV stations do and which do not.

If my impression that Alabama TV stations generally do not undertake a public service editorializing function is correct, also I would like to learn why.

Is it because of financial and business considerations that the TV stations do not editorialize?

Is it because the TV stations do not have qualified staff who are capable of carrying out a public service editorializing function?

Are there other reasons?

Thank you for whatever consideration the Association gives to this email and such response that the Association is able to give me.

Sincerely,

Dr. Nelson forwarded my email to the Alabama Broadcasters Association President, Sharon Tinsley.

From: Mark Nelson

To: Rob Shattuck 

Cc: Sharon Tinsley 

Sent: Sat, Mar 19, 2022 9:57 am

Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] For Alabama Broadcasters Association - editorializing by Alabama TV stations

Dear Mr. Shattuck,

Thank you for your email. I am forwarding your inquiry to the ABA President, Sharon Tinsley.

Sincerely,

Mark D. Nelson, Ph.D.

Dean

College of Communication & Information Sciences

I replied to Dean Nelson as follows:

From: Rob Shattuck 

To: Mark Nelson

Cc: Sharon Tinsley

Sent: Sun, Mar 20, 2022 7:08 am

Subject: Re: [EXTERNAL] For Alabama Broadcasters Association - editorializing by Alabama TV stations

Thank you very much for for forwarding my inquiry to the ABA President, Sharon Tinsley.

I look forward to receiving any response that the ABA is able to provide.

In the meantime, for what it's worth, I have added to my commentary on the subject, which added commentary can be found at the link: AL TV stations - 66 days to go.

Again, thanks.

Following the above email interchange with with Dean Nelson of College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama, I have sent emails to professors at the Auburn University School of Communication & Journalism, the UAB Department of Communication Studies, the Samford University Communication and Media Department, and the University of Montevallo's Department of Communication. My emails to the professors included my email interchange with Dean Nelson and read as follows:

From: Rob Shattuck
To: ____@auburn.edu
Sent: Mon, Mar 21, 2022 4:22 am
Subject: Broadcast Journalism - editorializing by Alabama TV stations
Dear Dr. Blankenship,
Please take a look at the below email interchange I have had with the Alabama Broadcasters Association, in care of Dr. Mark Nelson, who is Dean and Professor of the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama, and who is also the Educational Advisor to the Alabama Broadcasters Association.
The email interchange concerns the public service editorializing practices and policies of Alabama TV stations, including whether or not their policy is not to undertake a public service editorializing function.
If editorializing by Alabama TV stations is a subject of interest to any Broadcast Journalism professor or student at the Auburn University School of Communication & Journalism, please pass this email along to them.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,

From: Rob Shattuck
To: ____@uab.edu
Sent: Mon, Mar 21, 2022 4:21 am
Subject: Broadcasting Specialization - editorializing by Alabama TV stations
Dear Professor Franks,
Please take a look at the below email interchange I have had with the Alabama Broadcasters Association, in care of Dr. Mark Nelson, who is Dean and Professor of the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama, and who is also the Educational Advisor to the Alabama Broadcasters Association.
The email interchange concerns the public service editorializing practices and policies of Alabama TV stations, including whether or not their policy is not to undertake a public service editorializing function.
If editorializing by Alabama TV stations is a subject of interest to any Broadcasting Specialization professor or student at the UAB Department of Communication Studies, please pass this email along to them.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,

From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
To: ____@samford.edu
Sent: Mon, Mar 21, 2022 6:35 pm
Subject: Communication and Media -editorializing by Alabama TV stations
Dear Professor Carey,
I am contacting you in Samford's Communication and Media Department because your biography shows your teaching area to be print and online journalism, which seems to be closest of the Department biographies for the purpose of this email.
Please take a look at the below email interchange I have had with the Alabama Broadcasters Association, in care of Dr. Mark Nelson, who is Dean and Professor of the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama, and who is also the Educational Advisor to the Alabama Broadcasters Association.
The email interchange concerns the public service editorializing practices and policies of Alabama TV stations, including whether or not their policy is not to undertake a public service editorializing function.
If editorializing by Alabama TV stations is a subject of interest to any professor or student in Samford's University Communication and Media Department, please pass this email along to them.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,

From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
To: _____@montevallo.edu
Sent: Tue, Mar 22, 2022 6:18 pm
Subject: Mass Communication - editorializing by Alabama TV stations
Dear Dr. Cofield,
Please take a look at the below email interchange I have had with the Alabama Broadcasters Association, in care of Dr. Mark Nelson, who is Dean and Professor of the College of Communication and Information Sciences at the University of Alabama, and who is also the Educational Advisor to the Alabama Broadcasters Association.
The email interchange concerns the public service editorializing practices and policies of Alabama TV stations, including whether or not their policy is not to undertake a public service editorializing function.
If editorializing by Alabama TV stations is a subject of interest to any Mass Communication professor or student in the University of Montevallo's Department of Communication, please pass this email along to them.
Thank you very much.
Sincerely,

4/8/22 update

From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>

To: [email addresses of  Professors Nelson, Blankenship, Franks, Carey and Cofield]

Sent: Fri, Apr 8, 2022 6:29 pm

Subject: Journalistically respectable Alabama TV coverage of 2022 elections

Dear Professors Nelson, Blankenship, Franks, Carey and Cofield,

I have previously sent you emails about Alabama TV stations editorializing (or not) relative to the 2022 elections. My emails can be found at https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2022/03/al-broadcasters-assoc-and-academics-re.html.

I am an Alabama citizen who desires journalistically respectable coverage of the 2022 elections by local Alabama TV stations.

My opinion is that there is not journalistically respectable coverage unless the TV stations provide their own commentary to viewers about candidates and issues in the election.

Such commentary may be directly expressed to viewers, or be indirectly expressed by means of questions that are asked of candidates in TV interviews.

For weeks I have been pressing the TV stations about their journalistic coverage of the 2022 elections.

The stations have provided no response, except that one TV reporter said, "Local TV stations don't editorialize. We leave that to newspapers and cable."

Based on what I have been able to observe and based on the non-response from the TV stations, my conclusion is that the TV stations have not provided journalistically respectable coverage of the 2022 elections to date (i.e., have not provided their own commentary to viewers about candidates and issues), and it seems unlikely they will provide such commentary during the critical next 45 days before the May 24th primary.

If my conclusion is correct, there are possible explanations, including financial and business considerations preventing the TV stations from providing commentary (particularly the revenues the stations receive for running the TV ads of the candidates), and a lack of qualified staff capable of formulating and presenting commentary to TV station viewers about candidates and issues.

Further, if my conclusion is correct, I believe that the TV stations not providing commentary to viewers about candidates and issues contributes to the debilitation of our democracy that the United States (including Alabama) is experiencing.

I do not know the extent to which your communications/journalism departments interest themselves in advancing an objective for local Alabama TV stations to carry out journalistically respectable coverage of elections (including what the departments teach students who go on to be employed by Alabama TV stations).

In writing this email and my other emails to you, I am urging for your university/college communications/journalism departments to try to advance the aforesaid objective.

Thank you for your attention to this email.

4/10/22 update

From: Rob Shattuck

To: [email addresses of Professors Davis, Brown, Lewis, Horn and Doerfler]

Cc: [Prof. David Hughes;Professors Nelson, Blankenship, Franks, Carey and Cofield]

Sent: Sun, Apr 10, 2022 10:12 am

Subject: Fwd: Journalistically respectable Alabama TV coverage of 2022 elections

Dear Professors Davis, Brown, Lewis, Horn and Doerfler,

Yesterday I sent the below email to professors at UA, UAB, Auburn, Samford and Montevallo who are in the academic fields of communications and journalism.

My below email concerns how well Alabama TV stations are serving Alabama voters and serving the functioning of democracy in the 2022 elections.

My below email states my conclusion that I believe the TV stations have not provided journalistically respectable coverage of the 2022 elections to date (i.e., have not provided their own commentary to viewers about candidates and issues), and it seems unlikely they will provide such commentary during the critical next 44 days before the May 24th primary.

I don't know whether the professors to whom I sent my below email will agree with my conclusion or whether there is anything they can do to advance an objective for Alabama TV stations to carry out journalistically respectable coverage of the 2022 elections.

I have identified you as professors in the political science departments at UA, UAB, Auburn, Samford and Montevallo, whose biographies indicate your having an academic interest in the working of democracy in the United States. AUM Professor David Hughes has seemed to show an interest in the subject in his tweeting on #alpolitics, and I am copying him on this email for that reason.

I am sending this email (and forwarding the below email to you) for the same purpose as my sending the forwarded email to the addressees of that email, to wit, to present to you my above conclusion about Alabama TV stations not providing journalistically respectable coverage of the 2022 elections to date, to solicit whether you agree with my conclusion, and, if you do, to solicit whether there is anything you can do to advance an objective for Alabama TV stations to carry out journalistically respectable coverage of the 2022 elections.

Thank you for your attention to this email.

Sincerely,

[forwarded email is above April 8, 2022 email]

2023 emails with Alabama Broadcasters Association

From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
To: Sharon Tinsley <stinsley@al-ba.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 2, 2023 at 06:45:22 PM CDT
Subject: Re: Will AL TV stations do anything to counter AI in 2024 elections
Thank you again, Sharon.
I think you are aware of my goals and that I have also contacted journalism and communications professors in Alabama to try to enlist their support for my goals. I will likely communicate to the professors more. I don't think anything I say further to them will catch you off guard, but, if you want, I will copy you on my emails to the professors.
PBS NewsHour has a segment this evening "How the loss of local newspapers fueled political divisions in the U.S." https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-the-loss-of-local-newspapers-fueled-political-divisions-in-the-u-s.
One of my goals is for Alabama TV stations to help lessen the partisan political division in the U.S.I am sure you are sympathetic with that goal, but I appreciate you are limited in what you can do.
Sincerely,
Rob

----------
On Wednesday, August 2, 2023 at 08:08:28 AM CDT, Sharon Tinsley <stinsley@al-ba.com> wrote:
You do not need to copy me on your communication to stations.
Sharon
---------
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 2, 2023 7:08 AM
To: Sharon Tinsley <stinsley@al-ba.com>
Subject: Re: Will AL TV stations do anything to counter AI in 2024 elections
Thank you very much for replying, Sharon.
I do have goals I am trying hard to accomplish, and for which I want to be effective. Your comment is duly noted.
Do you wish to be copied on any emails I send?
Or do you wish to be left off any communications I make?
Thanks.
Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck
-----------
On Tuesday, August 1, 2023 at 11:43:40 PM CDT, Sharon Tinsley <stinsley@al-ba.com> wrote:
Feel free to email whomever you please. The ABA does not advise our members on editorial or any other content in the manner you are suggesting.
As an aside, threats aren't a very effective way of accomplishing any goal.
Sharon M. Tinsley
President
Alabama Broadcasters Association
2180 Parkway Lake Drive

Hoover, AL 35244
205-982-5001
--------
From: Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com>
Sent: Tuesday, August 1, 2023 6:32:42 PM
To: Sharon Tinsley <stinsley@al-ba.com>
Subject: Re: Will AL TV stations do anything to counter AI in 2024 elections
Sharon,
If you are not inclined to reply to me, I am inclined to send emails directly to the directors of the Alabama Broadcasters Association.
Just thought I would tell you that before I start emailing them.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck
----------
On Friday, July 21, 2023 at 06:06:27 PM CDT, Rob Shattuck <rdshatt@aol.com> wrote:
Dear Sharon,
Please tell me whether the Alabama Broadcasters Association is giving any consideration to formulating suggestions for its member TV stations about things the stations should consider doing regarding the use of AI in political ads the stations run in the 2024 elections.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Rob Shattuck
(for filing in https://al6thcongdist-ihaveuntiljan13.blogspot.com/2023/06/al-tv-stations-and-artificial.html)