Can Both Local and National News Commit to Being Truthtellers in 2024? | Barrett Media (2024)

What does one think about as we enter a new year? I’d like to pay a visit to the subject of truth-telling. This is going to be a packed 365 days and as always there is a great weight and a great deal of responsibility cast upon journalism and the news media. I use both descriptors here because I don’t want to confuse anyone who might be thinking that I am in any way, shape or form including the television and radio talk shows or print/digital opinion columns in my thoughts here.

I am not, for they, as I might have mentioned a time or two before, are not journalism, they are not news. And they’re going to keep doing what they do no matter what anyone says or does.

By the way, this is an opinion column.

I write things about news coverage, journalism, the business, and its people. I’ll keep doing that, until they tell me to either stop or to start covering the cat shows.

But, as I see it, this year is going to be a bear for the real people of news.

Already, military and government officials believe the war between Israel and Hamas will last all of 2024. Where our troops may or may not be by year’s end could be anyone’s guess.

We also face an election year dissimilar in many ways from previous campaigns, with the likely party candidates each more than then three quarters of a century old and both under massive attack by detractors and the legal system to varying degrees.

All this, while the nation faces a migrant crisis most have never seen before.

Toss in Taylor Swift, more rule changes in the MLB, and whether any of it is real or AI, and I’d say legitimacy is going to be rather meaningful this year.

Those major stories and dozens of smaller occurrences will be put in front of our journalists and the truth will take on an almost new level of critical importance. Getting the issues right and doing it the first time will continue to become paramount because once it’s said, shown or printed there are no takebacks.

The information, right or wrong is out there like it is now but the emotions about everything are rising high again, and the criticism and outrage are at peak levels.

The simple words of truth are often the barrier between outrage and violence, it’s often that simple so priorities need to shift a bit in the news game.

Breaking news is going to have to take a back seat for the truth to sit up front. In fact, authenticity is going to have to drive the car. Forget about getting it first, news has to get it right with no exceptions. Newsrooms have to be better. Editors, Producers and Managers, those very same people I said last week need to be acknowledged, must also be better supported so only the truth gets out there.

I worked in too many newsrooms over the last ten years where a second pair of eyes on content was often a luxury and not half as common as it was in the previous decade. Fact checking is all but gone in too many platforms. If copy is checked at all, it’s more for spelling, phrasing and flow than it is for accuracy or prevalence.

Why?

Because most of the time there is nobody there to do it and if there is, how do they know if it’s correct? How many well-versed executive producers or managing editors outside of the network or top-tier markets are out there?

And how many know if what they are proofing is accurate?

Is there time to fact-check?

It’s not just that the staffing isn’t there, the job duties are often misaligned and at often at the very worst times.

Too many newscasts means if you need it for 4 p.m. the chance of it all being confirmed, verified, or whatever can be iffy, at best. God forbid, we hold it until 6 p.m. so somebody can wait for a callback to be sure of what we’re saying.

Job cuts and layoffs are not going to stop and the staffing shortages are not going to suddenly disappear but neither should reliability.

The challenges caused by those facts, however, have to be addressed and overcome because whether it’s truly realized or not, this business (not the corporate kind, the vocation kind) is down on the mat.

Things are in a bad way here. There are far too many people on the streets who have no idea what is actually going on, they only know what they want to be happening and in order to survive, news outlets are catering to the appetites and not the reality.

On the business end, there will always be people out there wringing their hands, talking about what news must be doing to keep in step with society, with what humanity wants.

I say, no, it’s quite the opposite. Journalism may very well be at the mercy of the people but at this stage of the game, it’s up to the people themselves to decide if they really want to know what’s going on and what is true.

People will always trust journalists if they can be sure they are being told the truth. Audiences might be smaller at first but reliance will form and loyalty will emerge. The job and the consumer must each evolve like an old married couple who learn to put up with each other’s annoying habits.

My grandparents were married for almost sixty years and they figured it out. He would turn off his hearing aid when she was talking to him and she would reorganize the bedroom closet when he put the Yankees game on. News audiences can do the same thing, they can watch just the top stories and ignore the sports and business reports or vice versa, if they so choose.

News needs to climb the ladder to truth at a much faster pace. Those lines of demarcation between accuracy and truth and misinformation, street gossip, and the games of casual fact that talk shows and social media play are dissolving quickly.

The truth is out there they say and this coming year we need it more than ever, no skimping and no cutting corners. A great deal depends upon it.

Welcome to the new year, please make sure you’re doing the job right.

There comes a point in time, sadly, when a self-labeled News/Talk radio station forfeits the right to describe itself as such. That generally happens when you are providing no or at least so very little actual news product that you should just call yourself a Talk station and move on.

That concept is starting to climb the staircase to reality again thanks to last week’s developments in the ever-struggling world of broadcast media.

I was hoping to go at least six months without having to say the words Audacy or layoffs. No such luck. In fact, I get to put the two words together.

This is a company with well over 200 stations, covering nearly 50 markets across the country. What are they best known for in the last five years by my observations?

Failure.

An Audacy spokesman says the company is reducing its workforce by “less than 2%”.

Yeah okay, so that’s supposed to make us feel better somehow? That works out to nearly 100 people. All in the effort to try and reduce Audacy’s almost $2 billion in debt.

Bankruptcy and delisting weren’t enough, apparently.

In the spirit of full transparency, I worked under the Entercom and Audacy banners on two separate occasions, some 20 years apart. It seems under the old name — and prior leadership — things fared more than a tad better. Read into that what you will.

I’m no business person but I can read and I do have the ability to form the occasional coherent thought every once in a while. So, based upon what I’ve observed over the past quarter century, perhaps there’s some merit to the saying, “Bad things happen in Philadelphia.”

In most corporate settings, business ventures, and other fields of play, when the team is taking hit after hit and not recovering or regaining any ground, it’s time for an overhaul.

My dad ran a restaurant for several years and during that time he faced challenges, man-made and otherwise. And while he was no Wolfgang Puck or Toots Shor, never once did he think of adding me to the mix to try and improve the product or the business environment. Not everybody is a chip off the old block as no doubt everyone in radio has seen by now.

Interestingly, the company has once again made major cuts as it continues to tell us the focus and priorities are on streaming, podcasting, and the website. Laudable efforts, I suppose, but if you so decimate your core product there will be no platform left where you can promote all of these fabulous ventures, or more accurately there will be no audience to inform. I would think this is something a sharp or even moderately competent business person might recognize.

But the fact of the matter is no matter what you say or do, you are a radio station first. And to promote your podcasts and your website, there has to be something to listen to on your station.

These are the things that a sharp or even moderately competent businessperson might recognize.

At some point, there has to be a come about if there is to be much left at all for the radio lobbyists to fight for. The very essence of the radio product is what disappears when these slashes occur, and the voices, the names, and the people creating the content disappear. Somehow, those making the poor decisions, the individuals executing the wrong moves, or even more accurately, no moves at all, remain.

Those overseeing the poor decision-makers are themselves poor decision-makers. The proof is in the end result. Could single ownership of stations do any worse? Perhaps it’s time for the Titanic to cast off the lifeboats before they hit the really big iceberg that’s inevitably coming. They’ve hit enough of the smaller ones and perhaps at least a few of those in the lifeboats stand a chance.

I for one would give a station owned by a guy named Morty a listen or two. WKRP didn’t do too badly under the Carlson family.

In any case, if you have not surveyed the latest damage: major markets got hit, again, with this latest round of layoffs.

Just after launching their dedicated sports brand, Audacy made cuts in Pittsburgh, Boston, Hartford, and New York.

I’m guessing those now part of the new sports portfolio are overwhelmed with confidence.

Oh, and did I say Hartford?

Yes, two people I sat across from just a couple of years ago at Audacy were shown the door. Sad on a personal level and mind-numbing from a business angle as it leaves us to wonder exactly how low they can go before the station offers no news value at all to the market. Doesn’t leave much else to choose from either.

But after all, it’s not personal, it’s strictly business.

There comes a point in time, sadly, when a self-labeled News/Talk radio station forfeits the right to describe itself as such. That generally happens when you are providing no or at least so very little actual news product that you should just call yourself a Talk station and move on.

That concept is starting to climb the staircase to reality again thanks to last week’s developments in the ever-struggling world of broadcast media.

I was hoping to go at least six months without having to say the words Audacy or layoffs. No such luck. In fact, I get to put the two words together.

This is a company with well over 200 stations, covering nearly 50 markets across the country. What are they best known for in the last five years by my observations?

Failure.

An Audacy spokesman says the company is reducing its workforce by “less than 2%”.

Yeah okay, so that’s supposed to make us feel better somehow? That works out to nearly 100 people. All in the effort to try and reduce Audacy’s almost $2 billion in debt.

Bankruptcy and delisting weren’t enough, apparently.

In the spirit of full transparency, I worked under the Entercom and Audacy banners on two separate occasions, some 20 years apart. It seems under the old name — and prior leadership — things fared more than a tad better. Read into that what you will.

I’m no business person but I can read and I do have the ability to form the occasional coherent thought every once in a while. So, based upon what I’ve observed over the past quarter century, perhaps there’s some merit to the saying, “Bad things happen in Philadelphia.”

In most corporate settings, business ventures, and other fields of play, when the team is taking hit after hit and not recovering or regaining any ground, it’s time for an overhaul.

My dad ran a restaurant for several years and during that time he faced challenges, man-made and otherwise. And while he was no Wolfgang Puck or Toots Shor, never once did he think of adding me to the mix to try and improve the product or the business environment. Not everybody is a chip off the old block as no doubt everyone in radio has seen by now.

Interestingly, the company has once again made major cuts as it continues to tell us the focus and priorities are on streaming, podcasting, and the website. Laudable efforts, I suppose, but if you so decimate your core product there will be no platform left where you can promote all of these fabulous ventures, or more accurately there will be no audience to inform. I would think this is something a sharp or even moderately competent business person might recognize.

But the fact of the matter is no matter what you say or do, you are a radio station first. And to promote your podcasts and your website, there has to be something to listen to on your station.

These are the things that a sharp or even moderately competent businessperson might recognize.

At some point, there has to be a come about if there is to be much left at all for the radio lobbyists to fight for. The very essence of the radio product is what disappears when these slashes occur, and the voices, the names, and the people creating the content disappear. Somehow, those making the poor decisions, the individuals executing the wrong moves, or even more accurately, no moves at all, remain.

Those overseeing the poor decision-makers are themselves poor decision-makers. The proof is in the end result. Could single ownership of stations do any worse? Perhaps it’s time for the Titanic to cast off the lifeboats before they hit the really big iceberg that’s inevitably coming. They’ve hit enough of the smaller ones and perhaps at least a few of those in the lifeboats stand a chance.

I for one would give a station owned by a guy named Morty a listen or two. WKRP didn’t do too badly under the Carlson family.

In any case, if you have not surveyed the latest damage: major markets got hit, again, with this latest round of layoffs.

Just after launching their dedicated sports brand, Audacy made cuts in Pittsburgh, Boston, Hartford, and New York.

I’m guessing those now part of the new sports portfolio are overwhelmed with confidence.

Oh, and did I say Hartford?

Yes, two people I sat across from just a couple of years ago at Audacy were shown the door. Sad on a personal level and mind-numbing from a business angle as it leaves us to wonder exactly how low they can go before the station offers no news value at all to the market. Doesn’t leave much else to choose from either.

But after all, it’s not personal, it’s strictly business.

Many of the biggest names in conservative media secretly want President Biden to win again in November.

Sure, the evidence — from recent polling — suggests he could be a one-and-done president. But that doesn’t mean many in television, radio, and online media business don’t want him back for another go-round. Simply put, Biden’s material makes captivating and shocking television.

Take, for example, podcast host Megyn Kelly and guests last week, who had a rip-roaring good time discussing President Joe Biden’s latest teleprompter gaffe, in which he read a word that was meant to tell him what to do.

“Here he was yesterday, speaking in front of members of North America’s Building Trades Unions in Washington D.C. It was such a simple assignment. It was so simple. Here’s how it went,” Kelly said as she began the segment with Josh Hammer, host of America on Trial with Josh Hammer, and Sara Gonzales, host of Sara Gonzales Unfiltered.

Kelly then played a clip of the Democrat President.

“Imagine what we can do next. Four more years. Pause,” Biden said, as the crowd began the “four more years” chant.

“Oh my God,” Kelly interjected, suppressing the laughter. “Four more years….pause. Pause. And when the White House transcription guy, God love this poor slob, who knows what he’s had to go through. They changed it to ‘unintelligible.’ They refused to write ‘pause.‘ Sir, we know what it was. It was very clear. He said ‘pause.’ He embarrassed himself again and he cannot be saved by the White House transcription guy! Sara, I will start with you on it. I really think this is the kind of thing that will horrify and stick.”

“I agree. I mean, look. We have watched gaffe after gaffe after gaffe with Joe Biden throughout these three and a half years. And even I, as critical as I am about Joe Biden and as aware as I am that this is basically a Weekend at Bernies presidency, even I was like, I still cannot believe this happened,” Gonzales said. “I saw it yesterday afternoon and even in the evening I’m like, I still cannot believe what I just watched here. This man has been in public service for what, forty, fifty years and he still cannot read a teleprompter? It’s because he’s not here.”

As conservative media personalities, Kelly, Hammer, and Gonzales know how to read from a teleprompter. Even media newbies know this.

The trio then watched the clip again, and again shook their heads in disbelief.

“It also can’t be lost on everyone that the four more years chant was clearly, completely staged, because they wanted him to pause,” Gonzales said. “Because they couldn’t trust the audience to be that enthusiastic. They had to map it all out. Unfortunately, they overestimated Joe Biden’s ability to read from a teleprompter, which I’m sure we’ve all read from. It’s very clear when they want you to pause. It’s written differently in the prompter. There’s no reason for him to make this mistake, other than the fact that the man is half dead.”

The title of Kelly’s program episode read, Why Joe Biden’s Massive “Pause” Gaffe Could Lose Him the Election, and she made the point repeatedly that Biden’s continuous mistakes simply reinforce the narrative that he is not up to the job of being president. She went on to play a few other clips of Biden similarly reading the instructions from the teleprompter during written speeches.

“Megyn, I’m really happy you mentioned what the White House transcriber reproduced this as, because what that actually reminded me of was that viral moment from the NASCAR race two and a half years ago. Where the crowd starts chanting F Joe Biden, and they’re like, they’re saying Let’s Go Brandon. That was a Let’s Go Brandon moment in a nutshell right there,” Hammer said, alluding to the depths the media has gone to protect the Democrat. “And I think you both are right that things like this are actually going to matter.”

Hammer continued, saying that these occurrences are nothing new.

“I think it’s worth pointing out that Joe Biden has been a gaffe machine for the entirety of his political career. He’s palpably senile at this point. It’s not a fun thing to say. I have a 94-year-old grandmother. I mean, these things are difficult. I mean, it’s not fun to discuss. But he obviously is senile,” Hammer said. “But that can’t necessarily hide the fact that he’s been a genuine gaffe machine since the moment he first set foot in Washington, D.C. back in the 1970’s.”

Certainly, if it weren’t so serious and dangerous, it would be even funnier.

“This is a major issue insofar as you look around the world, Megyn. I don’t need to be the one to tell you. You cover it every day. But the world is on fire right now,” Hammer added. “The universities are on fire. All of our enemies are looking at this stuff. Shi Jin Ping, Vladimir Putin, they’re kicking their feet up on the table and they are getting a bigger laugh out of it than the three of us just got on your show.”

Kelly finished the segment by playing a segment from the movie, Anchorman, in which Ron Burgundy pulled a Joe Biden and embarrassed himself by reading verbatim from a teleprompter.

“It’s Bernie Burgundy,” Kelly laughed. “It’s so funny to me.”

Conservative media knows Joe Biden is probably toast in this November’s election. The mainstream, liberal media knows it too.

But that doesn’t mean they don’t secretly, and selfishly, want another round of material, with which they can shock and entertain audiences for four more years.