Journalists are tasked with holding persons in positions of power accountable. We are also supposed to remain objective at all times, at least when we're on the job. This is probably easier for print journalists who can scowl or laugh with colleagues behind closed doors as they hammer out their latest treatise for print or online consumption.
Broadcast journalists have a steeper hill to climb, though, and that has never been more apparent than during the Trump era. While CNN's Wolf Blitzer does a sterling job keeping a poker face, Anderson Cooper recently and famously rolled his eyes when speaking to Kellyanne Conway and Jake Tapper frequently smirks during interviews.
CNN has a history of hiring reporters whose emotions are easy to read. Remember the Piers Morgan era and his passion for gun control? What about Don Lemon getting so drunk on New Year's Eve that it was embarrassing to watch? While these issues, one can argue, are morally poles apart from a journalistic perspective they are equally wrong. (Note, Lemon still works at CNN.)
Keeping a straight face is imperative, because to do otherwise shows the audience what the journalist is feeling and thinking. Eye roll? Cooper thought Conway was full of mullarkey. Tapper's smirk? It reads that he thinks he's better, more knowledgeable, and above the person he's interviewing. Notice how he doesn't assume that pose when interviewing someone he probably respects.
I like Tapper and Anderson, and 90 percent of the time, their passion for this profession fuels the best part of them and their journalism - asking incisive questions, surmounting perceived obstacles, striving for transparency and honesty.
Print journalists should also be careful, but the job is more subtle. Watch verbs and adjectives and other ways of subtly disclosing one's
opinions. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got from a producer was "use says". I was insisting that I could say things like "he demurred" or "he enthused". In strong journalism, a reporter mustn't color or slant the story. See the difference: "John said his daughter was his favorite." Versus: "John gushed that his daughter was his favorite."
With the current presidential administration the subject of daily controversy, it's time for journalists to hunker down and get to work. No one cares whether or not you think Sean Spicer will race toward you Melissa McCarthy-style from his podium or that you'd rather be marching on Washington than covering it.
These times call for all the truth we can muster. Rise to the challenge.
PHOTO: Wikimedia Commons Images, Pete Riches, 2011.
Keeping a straight face is imperative, because to do otherwise shows the audience what the journalist is feeling and thinking. Eye roll? Cooper thought Conway was full of mullarkey. Tapper's smirk? It reads that he thinks he's better, more knowledgeable, and above the person he's interviewing. Notice how he doesn't assume that pose when interviewing someone he probably respects.
I like Tapper and Anderson, and 90 percent of the time, their passion for this profession fuels the best part of them and their journalism - asking incisive questions, surmounting perceived obstacles, striving for transparency and honesty.
Print journalists should also be careful, but the job is more subtle. Watch verbs and adjectives and other ways of subtly disclosing one's opinions. One of the best pieces of advice I ever got from a producer was "use says". I was insisting that I could say things like "he demurred" or "he enthused". In strong journalism, a reporter mustn't color or slant the story. See the difference: "John said his daughter was his favorite." Versus: "John gushed that his daughter was his favorite."
With the current presidential administration the subject of daily controversy, it's time for journalists to hunker down and get to work. No one cares whether or not you think Sean Spicer will race toward you Melissa McCarthy-style from his podium or that you'd rather be marching on Washington than covering it.
These times call for all the truth we can muster. Rise to the challenge.
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