Monday, September 29, 2008 Seares: Least admired news sources By Pachico A. Seares News Sense
TO CAP the Cebu Press Freedom Week celebration,beat reporters Saturday night held a party and bashed the news sources they hate.
But it was roundabout. They listed news sources they admire and left out those they detest.
I conceived the CFBJ project and was probably to blame for the timidity. I felt that publicly booing the news sources was hostile and not festive. Whose photos could the reporters have stuck on the wall and pelted with dart? Criteria in the polling were clear enough. Access is primary. Hiding information or stalling its release is reporters’ pet peeve.
Nowadays, a news source can be reached even if he’s holed up in a motel with his girl or boy friend. The phone being “unattended or beyond area of coverage” is a limited excuse.A news source can’t dodge reporters just because the news is bad for him or his office. When he clams up, he goes down several notches in the reporter’s esteem.
Verbose Candor and communication skill rank next. The news source that lies in the reporter’s face deserves to be lynched.The verbose, saying a lot but giving little information, gobbles up precious disc or tape and bores everyone. That news source needs to be sent to a language class before he’s lynched.
Finally, how the news source reacts after the story is published piles up points for, or minuses against, him. A reporter abhors denial of his story or claim of being misquoted or “taken out of context” when the fallout isn’t what the news source expected.
Reporters could’ve drawn up a roster of the least- admired news sources. They could’ve been more direct. Well, maybe next year.
