Sunday, April 3, 2022

TV reporter questions


Getting to bottom of journalistically respectable election coverage
For my previous bugging that received no response, see AL TV failing with 54 days to go; AL Broadcasters Assoc. and academics re TV ad asininity; What is your TV station's grade in civics? and More haranguing of TV stations.

The crux of my bugging has been whether Alabama TV stations are or are not doing journalistically respectable coverage of the 2022 elections. 

Possibly the TV stations believe they have been doing journalistically respectable coverage of the 2022 elections. If so, they have declined to say that. 

Possibly the TV stations lack the resources to do journalistically respectable coverage of the 2022 elections. If that is so, I think they should tell Alabamians that, in order that Alabamians can know they should not rely on the TV stations for informing their voting decisions.

Resources include both financial and human resources. 

In terms of human resources, possibly the staffs of the TV stations are not professionally qualified to do what is needed for journalistically respectable coverage.

Further, the candidates in the 2022 elections may obstruct the TV stations from doing journalistically respectable coverage of the 2022 elections.

Such obstruction may include that the revenues that the TV stations receive from the candidates for running the candidates' TV ads may prevent the stations from doing journalistically respectable coverage by declining to be interviewed.

Regardless of reasons if TV stations are not doing journalistically respectable coverage of the 2022 elections, Alabamians need to know that the TV stations are not providing journalistically respectable coverage n order that Alabamians may know that they should not rely on the TV stations for informing their voting decisions.

Given the importance of journalistically respectable coverage in the political and governance processes of the United States and Alabama, I think it is deserving to press on against the TV stations and their reporters.

My new foray here of asking TV reporters about what questions they personally would ask the candidates even though they are not able to ask the questions in TV interviews is to press even harder for responses.

The reporters may answer that they think the questions asked in TV interviews of candidates are wholly adequate for informing Alabama voters, and thus they have no questions they think should be asked but are not asked.

The reporters may answer by saying they think they are not sufficiently qualified journalistically to decide whether there questions that should be asked and that are not asked.

The reporters may answer by specifying questions they think should be asked but are not asked.

The reporters may answer that they are constrained by their TV stations and are not in a position to answer the question in anyway.

If the reporters are silent and do not answer the question in anyway, that would tend to cement the case against the TV stations, to wit, they are not providing journalistically respectable coverage, they will not tell Alabamians that, and the TV stations are complicit in undermining the the political and governance processes of the United States and Alabama.

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