By Scott Libin (libin@poynter.org)

What’s the difference between a story about a multiple murder and a report on furnace-repair ripoffs? Nothing, if you go by the logic of certain “researchers” who are making a living and making headlines these days by trashing television news. They would consider both stories “mayhem.” That’s the latest trendy term for almost anything you don’t like about the news.

Television news is such a tempting target. Certainly the people who produce it should take quite seriously the loss of credibility they’ve suffered among viewers over the past several years. There really is room—and a great need—for improvement in the quality of the product most TV newsrooms generate. Too bad so much of the current criticism has such a credibility problem of its own.

Take the work of a group called Rocky Mountain Media Watch. Recently, in its third annual report, RMMW ranked Detroit’s WXYZ-TV as the worst offender in the country when it comes to coverage of crime, disaster, and all-around bad stuff. This performance landed WXYZ at the very top of what the Rocky Mountain group calls the “mayhem index.”

The RMMW “study” looked at 100 stations—but just one newscast on one night in each case. In the case of WXYZ, it found that more than 90 percent of that newscast’s coverage contained “mayhem.” Sounds like a real bloodbath of a broadcast—until you look at the actual content.

Keep in mind that this survey, like most, didn’t count time devoted to weather and sports. Everybody in the business knows that weather is what most viewers tune in to see, and in markets like Detroit, sports can be pretty big, too. But, whether the audience considers such stuff news or not, the RMMW survey didn’t. Commercials, of course, didn’t count either, so you’re down to a sample of about 18 minutes.

On the night of February 26, when the Rocky Mountain surveyors watched the late news on WXYZ, two stories combined to take up about eight minutes of that 18-minute sample. Each of the two stories ran about four minutes. Both ended up in the “mayhem” category. One story was about furnace-repair ripoffs; the other about how airplane pilots handle turbulence.

Turbulence in the air gets your attention every time; turbulence on the air can be of great interest to frequent flyers. “Mayhem,” however, means “wanton destruction; violent disorder; havoc”—at least according to my dictionary. Isn’t it a bit of a stretch to apply that to a report on training for pilots?

Paul Klite says no. He runs Rocky Mountain Media Watch. He says the turbulence story “definitely played on people’s fear,” using terms like “terrifying” and “potholes in the sky.” Now, some potholes are scarier than others. Maybe in the Motor City the word means more than it does here.

But furnace repair? Even in the Midwest, where winter is serious business, does this really belong in the same category as drive-by shootings? Klite says yes, because WXYZ “hyped the story in a tabloid way.”

Now I happen to like newspapers, and I did even before I went to work for The Poynter Institute, the journalism school that owns the St. Petersburg Times. However, it seems to me some papers are a little too quick to criticize their local television stations. They are, after all, competitors for audience and advertising dollars. The Oakland Press, in WXYZ’s home county, gave the “mayhem-index” story front-page treatment. “Study: Channel 7 most violent,” blared the four-column headline. Even Klite thought the paper overdid that a bit. “They were tabloiding the finding. That was very disconcerting to me.”

It was more than disconcerting to WXYZ station manager John Lansing. “You would have thought the Gulf War had broken out again,” to look at the paper, he says. And, in a rebuttal the next day—also on page A-1 of the Press—Lansing said of the Rocky Mountain Media Watch report, “We think it’s a bad study. It’s the ugliest thing that can happen to somebody.”

Ugly, and a bit ironic. Several years ago, as a news director at WCCO in Minneapolis, Lansing and General Manager John Culliton (now at KCBS) invented what came to be known as “family-sensitive news.” Acting on input from thousands of viewers, his station dramatically reduced the amount of traditional crime coverage in its newscasts, and edited out much of its graphic video. Dozens of stations nationwide imitated the approach, though none with as much groundwork as Lansing and Culliton had done in Minneapolis.

Now atop the “mayhem index,” Lansing objects strenuously to the conclusion that his new station has the country’s most violent newscast. “The people who performed the study said it should not be used this way,” to scrutinize the work of any one newsroom, he says. And, at least about that, Lansing and Klite actually agree.

“Any one story is open to question,” Klite says. He acknowledges that there might be a better way to examine newscast content. “We are talking a lot about how to improve our methodology. We are definitely re-examining our approach.”

But Klite makes no apologies for his conclusion that crime and disaster are the predominant topics on local TV news. Previous RMMW studies didn’t include WXYZ; Klite says other stations that have been in all three surveys have registered consistent results.

“The idea of the mayhem index was to dramatically pinpoint the propensity to over-cover crime,” he says. “We are very pleased with the results in that respect.”

Rocky Mountain Media Watch has been in operation three years, Klite says. Most of its money, he says, comes from foundation grants; the rest is from individual contributions. Klite describes it as a low-budget non-profit group. He describes himself as a former public radio host, artist, research scientist, and physician. Klite says his days in radio made him realize the power of television—“and what it doesn’t do.” But he says his days in epidemiology made him realize something else.

“Television is almost a toxin,” Klite says.

Part of the problem, according to Klite, is that human beings are “hard-wired” to respond to threatening or violent images. Such visual and aural messages of “mayhem” affect the body’s autonomic nervous system, he says. And TV spends too much time appealing to that primitive instinct, Klite believes.

He’s not alone, and certainly not the first, in that belief. It’s easy, and these days quite fashionable, to dwell on all that’s wrong with TV news. At Poynter, we focus a lot on the ways television journalists select, pursue, and present their stories. We also direct a lot of energy toward something the “mayhem index” doesn’t cover: practical ways to do a better job. Encouraging and examining new ideas is an important but untidy process that doesn’t lend itself quite so well to snapshot surveys.

Television stations are for-profit businesses with no reason to apologize for wanting to attract customers. Yes, they have an obligation to do more than just generate ratings and revenue. Like lawyers or doctors or even research scientists, journalists are supposed to think about more than making money. That’s why the Constitution grants special protection to their line of work. But it doesn’t mean they have all the answers.

When I was in college, the journalism professors were gruff guys from big daily newspapers, which were more plentiful back then. “News is what I say it is,” they told us. Things have changed. Television stations and even newspapers now listen to their customers. They use market research to do it. And often the guidance they get from that research leads them to extremes in areas like crime coverage. It’s out of vogue to say so publicly, but most research indicates that only weather outranks crime—specifically how to protect yourself from crime—among the interests of TV viewers.

At a Poynter seminar a couple of years ago, John Lansing—the same one whose station now wears the most-mayhem label—said something I like a lot about the use of graphic video. Somebody had pointed out that viewers watch such material for the same reason drivers rubberneck when they pass an accident on the highway. Yes, Lansing answered, that’s probably true; but it’s not why those drivers chose that road. They didn’t get behind the wheel in hopes of glimpsing a wreck. The highway has a more important purpose.

So does news. And many of those who produce it would really like to learn about better ways to do their job. But there’s nothing in the “mayhem index” for them except the same sort of sloppy research that might have led them to some of their past mistakes.

In fact some television journalists are learning to distrust researchers the way some viewers distrust television. In both cases, the trustworthy suffer with the unworthy. Sue Carter is a Michigan State University professor working under Poynter’s sponsorship and supervision. She wants to look into something a bit more specific than “mayhem.” Carter hopes to examine the way local TV news treats victims of violence. And, because she is nearby and used to work in Detroit television herself, she wanted access to WXYZ’s newsroom. Too bad Rocky Mountain Media Watch got there first. The station is, if you’ll pardon the expression, a bit gun-shy. It’s had enough “research” for a while, thank you.

So, while the broad-brush critics smear the good with the bad in TV news, TV news types begin to fear even legitimate researchers. Nobody gains, with the possible exception of obscure pressure groups that might wring more money out of all the attention they get.

I don’t think pseudo-scientific “indices” and quotable comparisons of TV to toxins are the way to make television news better. I hope that future research and future newscasts will be more accurate and fair. Life is not the cavalcade of crime that sometimes passes for TV news; nor is TV news quite so simple or so evil as you might think if you believe what sometimes passes for research.

Scott Libin is a former television reporter, anchor, and news director who now teaches at The Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg.

[9/96]

By J. Elliott Lewis

The first fan letter of my career came from a seven year old boy I had interviewed for a story on the first day of school. "Dear Mr. Lewis," wrote Evan Washington, who was just beginning the second grade. "Someday, I might want to be a reporter like you. I want to go out and talk to people like you do. Mr. Lewis, why do you always put White people on TV? I really want to be on TV someday, but I am not White, I am Brown. My mom said I could be anything I want to be. Is that true?"

Evan's letter upset me. Here was a young African-American male from a two-parent, middle class home in a "good" neighborhood. Yet by age seven, this youngster was starting to question his potential in life because of the color of his skin. He saw few people like himself presenting the evening news, and that added to his doubts. At the time Evan wrote to me, I was working as a reporter in a minority training program at KGTV in San Diego. Now, seven years later, I'm even more convinced about the importance of bringing more people of color into our industry.

"It makes a difference on a regular basis," says Kent Harrell, assignment manager for KXAS-TV in Dallas/Ft. Worth. Harrell, a former TV news photographer, says he moved into management because he saw few minorities involved in the daily story conferences. "It's good to have people with different backgrounds, be it black, white, green, whatever, in the editorial process." Harrell, who is black, says he's been able to influence how his station covers racial issues, an on-going story in Dallas. "I'll say 'You might want to talk to this person, or you might want to include this.' That's where it comes in."

But at times, such discussions can put black journalists in an awkward position with their white colleagues. Says one black anchorman, "I don't have a lot of tolerance of their ignorance." Courtis Fuller of WLWT-TV in Cincinnati cites the death of former U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall as an example of the frustration he faces. The newscast's producer wanted to bury the story on the high court's first black justice when Fuller says he told the producer, "If I have to explain to you who Thurgood Marshall is then I've already lost the argument." By the time their discussion was over, Fuller says Marshall's death became the lead story.

"In order to be fair, we must reflect our communities," says Ken Jobe, news director at WMC-TV in Memphis. Before becoming a news director, Jobe worked as executive producer at WCPO-TV in Cincinnati and produced newscasts at WCBS-TV in New York and WSMV-TV in Nashville. While in Nashville, Jobe noticed reporters rarely called on the city's black med school, Meharry Medical College, when they needed a medical expert for a story. Instead, they went to Vanderbilt. "With all the doctors that go through Meharry, we don't reflect our community if we don't put some on the air," he says. "There was no plan to exclude Meharry. It just didn't occur to them. And they didn't have a lot of people to make it occur to them."

Jobe, who is black, says he's faced some criticism for trying to diversify the news staff he now oversees in Memphis. But he points out the minorities he's hired have just as much experience as some of the white staff members who are doing the complaining had when they joined the station.

For many minority journalists, though, the issue is not affirmative action, but fair coverage. Many of us simply believe a news organization which is racially diverse is more likely to practice better journalism than one that is not. A newsroom's racial makeup can affect what we cover, how we cover it, and where the story ends up in the newscast. And all that makes an impression on our audience, including young viewers like Evan Washington.

J. Elliott Lewis is a reporter at WCPX-TV, Orlando, Fl.

MINORITIES IN THE NEWSROOM: FIRST-PERSON ACCOUNTS
By Doug Stewart (DPhotog@aol.com)

I am a news photographer who happens to be gay. On the whole my experience has been a positive one at both stations I've worked at.

At my last station, we had a whole gay group. At least seven gays or lesbians during my employment there. The station across town had at least one gay reporter move through during the same period.

Why was it cool for me? I guess I made it better for myself. I just did what I had to do. Most people were very supportive, the few that didn't like it kept their mouths shut. It really only came down to one sports guy that out and out gave me a problem. He said to me one day in front of five or so people, "We have a boys team and a girls team here." This was after I jokingly accused him of making nice with the producer in order to snag another 30 sec. I drew myself up to my full 6'3", invaded his personal space, just a touch, and said, cool, calm and collected, "What exactly did you mean by that?" He started to say something, then the anchor turned to him and said, "Yeah, what did you mean?" He backed down really quickly. He never bothered me after that. I've pleasantly but firmly told people that I find certain words offensive ("faggy", "that's so queer" as derisive comment) and asked them not to use them around me.

The story would have been different had I been on air. It would have meant far different issues. I'm the first one to acknowledge that.

I was concerned going to Hartford. I didn't know what to expect. There were some people there who worked in Springfield, so a full closet retreat wasn't possible. I just gradually told people. I let them know that I had a sense of humor, but before that I showed them that I'm a damn good photographer/journalist. Nothing but supportive people, all the way from the top. I run a group for gay men considering parenting. It meets once a month, they have allowed me to adjust my schedule for that one night a month. When the local gay paper wanted to run a story on it, I told my ND that they wanted to interview me, and I was going to mention on the fact that I worked for WTIC. They gave me the thumbs up. The article has been posted in the newsroom, with wonderful response. We broke the story about the Governor refusing to sign the Gay Pride Proclamation, before the paper. And got a bite from him while the paper relied on the press secretary. On Pride, we had the most newsworthy coverage, on the angle of gay marriage, rather than pix of drag queens, like the other stations. We've covered the gay mens chorus, gay youth and gay legal issues, in addition to the usual stuff.

My only concern is that I'm the only out staff member there. I wish there were more. It just takes time. That's why I think it's important for minority journalists to join organizations such as, in my case, The National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association. These groups can provide support, contacts and resources on a regional and nationwide basis.

By (Name Withheld):

I am working in my first paying job in journalism. Even though I am an intern, I consider myself a reporter and writer because that is what I do. The only difference is that I am paid minimum wage and I only work 25 hours per week. My comment is that, though a newsroom may be comfortable and non-threatening on the issue of race, minorities have a difficult time fitting into surrounding communities. I live in _____ which is 2 percent black. I have a very difficult time here. All I have is work and school. It becomes an huge factor when you have to work every weekend and your nearest relative is a thousand miles away. I realize that it is part of the job to live in a small market town and live to tell the tale, but I think minorities especially ones that are proud of their heritage and are concerned by a lack of community (because though I do speak of "minorities", I hate to be general and monolithic) have an extraordinarily difficult time and even give up on their dreams because of it. Right now I am ready to change markets. I need to feel a sense of community to keep my sanity. There are less than five black reporters in the city of _______ and I can say that most of us feel the same way.

This is just my two cents. I would like you to use some of it if you can but I would like no attribution. You can even delete the name of the city (to protect the other reporters.) I just feel that these are important issues that news directors, newsroom staff and young journalists need to know. There is no need for news directors to babysit staff, but he/she must realize that the flight of a good journalist from a station may not be just about economics or market size!

[9/96]

By Larry Silbermann (LSilberman@aol.com)

Dedicated to all who wanted the opportunity to cover the Olympics in Atlanta, but didn't get the chance.

It all started on Friday, July 12 at 6 AM. That's when our Sports Director Steve Bartelstein, photographer Brian Warner and I boarded the Delta 757 headed for Atlanta. We all sensed it was going to be a long three and a half weeks as we left, and our fears were confirmed ab out four hours later. That's when we landed at Hartsfield International Airport in Atlanta.

We had an hour layover and a connecting flight to Charlotte. At the request of NBC Newschannel, we flew to North Carolina Friday afternoon, only to get up Saturday morning to take a four-and-a-half hour bus ride back to Atlanta. If you're asking yourself why, don't. There is no answer to that question.

We had a day to get over the bitterness of the Charlotte-to-Atlanta bus, and to acclimate ourselves to our new home for the next few weeks. I shared a room at the Fairfield Inn in Downtown Atlanta with Brian. A floor below us, Steve had his own room for most of the stay. Fortunately we weren't able to spend too much time in the room. Most of my time was spent at the Roxy Warehouse. It's an unimpressive cinder block building, transformed into an impressive broadcast center that would be the hub of Olympic Coverage for nearly every NBC affiliate in the country. Each station was given half of a six foot folding tab le to work from, though some stations sent more people and spent more money, so they had their own table. For each station, there was a Basys computer so we could keep connected with the Newschannel and the AP Wires. There was also a phone so we could keep in touch with the folks back home back at the station and a monitor for each station to keep track of the events for which we had no access.

All in all, it wasn't a bad set-up. If you like playing the numbers games, here a few to crunch: the Roxy held about five hundred people, 16 edit bays, 13 satellite trucks, 13 stand-up locations, and one bathroom. While NBC didn't provide abundant bathrooms, there was a bounty of food. Of course that food was just around the corner at the Salvation Army. This is the point where I must stop and tell everyone that I am serious. NBC rented the Salvation Army, at least the dining room and kitchen. Not only was I grateful for the convenience of a hot meal on a regular basis, I was also able to make good use of my time, learning the proper way to make a bed, just in case I ever need to seek shelter at the Salvation Army.

On Sunday, two days in, a meeting was held at the Roxy. It was at this point that we were given our credentials. Systematically they were passed out. The NBC Credential. The Olympic Village Credential. The two Centennial Park Credentials. We proudly wore them around our necks , initially. As time went on, we found out that these laminated cards got us nowhere. They just hung around our necks like an albatross, reminding us that NBC Sports called the shots in Atlanta, and the affiliates were nowhere in their sights.

Fortunately for us, we were able to overcome the slight obstacle of not having any access to the event we needed to turn three packages on every day for the next 21 days. The best way to describe the day-to-day regimen we endured is to compare the experience to the movie "Ground Hog Day." We woke up every morning in a hotel room and relived the previous day, getting a little smarter each day. I had a very set routine, complicated by the fact that I was living in an Eastern time zone, but working on Pacific time. I would wake around 9 a.m. and be on the shuttle to the Roxy by 10 a.m. I'd get there and scan the wires, figure out what station was covering what, finding out if any of our local athletes were making any appearances and checking the satellite times. By 11 a.m. I would call Bartelstein to let him know if anything had changed and to re-confirm the plan we discussed the night before. At noon, I would call the morning meeting in Portland and let the producers know what they could expect from us and most importantly, when their live windows hit. NBC had a rotation schedule for live shots. We would get a five-minute window and it would normally be five minutes later than the previous day. So as we planned what story to cover on any given day, we had to take into account just when we would hit in the show. I hated being the lead window since it takes away all of your flexibility. But worse than that would be the :20-:25 window. That's just not a good time to hit in the show, it's not in the news block and it's not in the sports block, it's just in the middle of nowhere. The few times we did end up with that window, we didn't go live. But I digress. After the morning meeting conference call, it was off to lunch. By that time Bartelstein and Brian were off. If the story was in the Olympic Ring (the mile and a half radius where most Olympics events occurred) then getting there was very easy. NBC provided shuttle vans that left on a regular basis that would drop us off at central locations. If the story was outside the ring, than getting around was a bit more problematic. You could schedule a van to take you out of the ring, and that was good for the long trips we needed. We had a wrestler who was working out in Chattanooga, a rower who was competing in Gainsville, GA, and two on the women's soccer team in Athens, GA. Shuttles worked well for that. But for getting around the city, cabs were the way to go. On one of the first days there, we found a cab driver who would take us where we needed to go, wait for us to shoot the story and bring us back without taking advantage of our travel expense advance. We also found a few drivers that would bend the rules a bit for a few extra bucks and that helped a great deal. Once the afternoon hit, the days were fairly normal. Sometimes I would go out with the crew, but mostly I needed to stay close to the Roxy to put out fires, dub over video from the pool shooters and answer my cell phone about every fifteen minutes or so. With my laptop, I was responsible for writing all the tosses, intros, cold opens, teases and entering the supers. If there was a VO or VOSOT to be had, I would write that as well. In between that, I would become the time keeper for Bart and Brian. I would let them know when we had to feed and be live. I would then have to make sure we were at the right stand-up location.

While NBC provided producers for the live shots, I found it was best if I handled that chore. We would go live in our 5 PM and a special 9 PM show and feed back a look live package for the 11 PM Most nights we didn't get to feed that last package until 1:30 AM, so we didn't get back to the hotel until 2 AM. Then it was a fast beer, a game of pinball and off to bed.

The routine I just described was very common for most stations except for the time difference. Our big advantage over most was the number of local athletes we had to cover. More than 20 of the 11,000 athletes called Oregon home, and that was a great advantage. While most stations were figuring out how to turn another story down at Centennial Park (before the bombing) we had another medal winner who was more than willing to talk to us. In fact, our first medal winner came on the first Saturday of the games and our last came on the last Sunday of the games.

To this point, I have yet to mention the bombing at Centennial Park. While that is an entire story in itself there are a couple of points I need to mention. We were two weeks into our coverage when the bomb went off in Centennial Park. We were planning to take that Saturday off, in fact. We had just fed the extra stories that we did on Friday when someone in the Roxy said there's something going on at the Park and people were down. Newschannel immediately dispatched people down to the park. Looking at the initial live shot we saw from the park, it didn't look that bad. About 5 minutes later we changed our minds and boarded a van. We ended up working through the night, turning live packages for our Saturday morning news. Our sports director did a better job of covering this major news story than most of the news people there. The fact that we did have our sports anchor there eventually worked to our advantage, in my opinion. As things settled down in the following days, we were able to get back to covering the Olympics, leaving the news of the bombing to those back in the station. Our coverage always had the overtones of the bombing, but we didn't spend the last week staking out Richard Jewell's apartment.

Generally, covering the Olympics in Atlanta was a once-in-a-lifetime experience. And in this case once may be enough. Veterans of these kinds of events say it was one of the worst experiences of their lives, and that group includes people who covered the OJ Simpson trial. I was glad to get the chance to go and overjoyed once it ended. If you're wondering why I haven't mentioned any of the in-fighting or conflicts between myself and Bartelstein or the photographer, there is good reason. The three of us were all in this together. We all realized and appreciated each other's functions and desires and respected them. I can honestly say there was never any bickering, arguing or finger pointing. We were all professionals who had a common goal: To do the best job of covering the Olympics possible. The bottom line is we accomplished that feat, and then some.

Larry Silbermann is the Executive Producer at KGW-TV in Portland, OR. He has worked at WKRC in Cincinnati, WHAS in Louisville and WDSU in New Orleans.

[12/97]

By Ted Wilson, Sr. Producer, WKRC-TV, Cincinnati

"This is not Sunday school."
Jamie Tucker, Religion Reporter, WREG-TV, Memphis

An old Wall Street adage also applies when considering television news coverage of religion. "The trend is your friend" means buying a stock that is already on the way up is almost a sure way to guarantee a profit. In short, not only are religion, faith and spiritual matters interesting and worthy topics in themselves, they can also help stations compete in the marketplace.

There is little dispute these days that religion’s stock is rising. For decades, Gallup polls have shown that about 40 percent of all Americans say they attended church or synagogue in the past seven days. Other surveys indicate the vast majority of Americans believe in God or some Higher Power.

There is a lot of anecdotal evidence to suggest that interest is increasing. WREG-TV religion reporter Jamie Tucker in Memphis says that as the millennium approaches, he has found more viewers curious about spiritual and religious subjects.

There are reasons for covering religion that are not driven by ratings. Religion can provide a unique angle on a story everyone else in town is covering. It can be a way to increase diversity in a newscast. It can be an avenue to put faces on complicated issues. Religion coverage can answer the public’s demand that we cover less bad news that has little impact on their lives, and more stories that are inspirational and uplifting. Stories on religion and faith might be one way news departments can serve two masters: the competitive demands of business and the lofty goals of journalism.

"It’s a good subject for our demo target," said Steve Minium, News Director at WKRC-TV in Cincinnati. The station focuses on women 25 to 54 years old. Many people in that group went to church as they were growing up. Now they are parents themselves. "They are going back to church. They want their children to have the same experience they did," Minium said.

Reporters who cover religion have also found there is a huge demand for their stories. Tucker does as many as eight religion stories every week. "People just want more and more of this," he says.

Anna Martinez at WFAA in Dallas says she gets an excellent response to her stories on faith. "People are just hungry for it," she says.

But there are no fast and hard rules on how much religion should be covered. "Every market is different," Minium points out. He adds that religion coverage is "no different from anything else." Stories dealing with religion must compete with all the other stories of the day for coverage. " They must be compelling television that gives people a reason to watch. There needs to be connective tissue with the audience," Minium said.

WFAA assignments manager Vince Patton also says there needs to be a reason to do the story. "More often than not, an event causes a story," he said. But Patton adds the event can give you a peg to take a closer look at a particular issue.

Like any other story, coverage of religion needs to help a station win. Reporters that have covered stories on religion, faith and spirituality have found their stories have a big impact and make their station’s coverage unique. Some of their successes might work in other markets.

Tucker says some of the most successful stories he has done are those tied to an event that day. One example: President Clinton asked 130 ministers from dozens of denominations and faiths to help him with his campaign on racism. Tucker then found a predominately white church that is shrinking and in danger of failing. To save itself, the parish is now actively looking for minority members.

Religion can also be used to provide a new angle on a story. Recently, there have been a series of exceptionally violent crimes in Memphis. "A lot of evil," Tucker said. "It has really shaken people up. They are wondering what is going on." Tucker brought up the subject with an author of novels on spiritual warfare. That story looked at the crimes through the lens of good versus evil, Heaven versus Hell, rather than a typical criminal report.

Nearly two years after she did a story on missionaries going to Russia, Martinez is still getting calls about it. "Why don’t you do more of that" and "it’s good to see people doing good in the world" are typical comments Martinez hears.

A story about a small church merging with a larger congregation was also well received. Even though relatively few people were involved in the actual story, it touched a nerve in the community. Martinez says viewers told her "My church is my family and I can relate to these people."

At WKRC-TV in Cincinnati, religious stories are run 2-3 times as promotable pieces during sweeps. "Overnights have shown a huge response to stories tied to Catholicism," Minium said. The ADI has a large Catholic population. Among the topics WKRC has covered are the effectiveness of prayer, a large collection of religious relics in Ohio, and the visions of three girls of Fatima.

"Stories can often be successful if they challenge beliefs a bit," Tucker says. One such story dealt with the idea of grace, forgiveness and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Tucker found the person who baptized Dahmer shortly before he was killed in prison. Dahmer believed that through the grace of God, that act would allow him to go to heaven. Of course, many viewers found the notion that Dahmer could go anywhere but Hell disturbing.

Religious stories get plenty of feedback from viewers, not all of it good. "You are going to be reporting something someone disagrees with every night," Tucker commented. He found that to be especially true after he did stories on Wicca (a type of witchcraft) and Scientology. "Christians got hacked . . . they called and complained," Tucker said. So then he did lots of stories on Christians. Then he "got a fax from a witch and a letter from a Buddhist" wondering why he was doing so many stories on Christians.

Tucker said stations covering religion really need to make an effort to make the rounds with the various denominations and faiths. Patton adds that you "have to be careful not to look like you are out to bash any religion."

Martinez has had similar experiences. Viewers are very skeptical of "The Media" covering religion. "People basically think we do not hold anything sacred," she said. But she adds that people are shocked when they find a reporter has done a good job of covering a religious event or issue.

"Religious stories are not easily boiled down to black and white issues," Patton says, "They often have a lot of gray in them. You have to be careful not to paint with too broad a brush," he warns. Patton notes that a story on religion or faith might take more time than a typical story.

Stories on faith and religion can help break stereotypes and provide a way to get more diversity into a newscast. Tucker has found they are a good way to get different voices and faces on the air. And despite the differences between denominations and faiths, "They also show that people have more in common than they often realize," Tucker adds.

Other topics Martinez and Tucker have had success with are the power of prayer, Christian approaches to gang and crime problems, coping with grieving, faith and healing, and angels.

These stories can also affect the newsroom, as well as the community. Tucker says the nature of the stories gets people talking. "Co-workers discuss things they might not normally share with each other," he said. They have the potential to bring people closer together.

By Alice Johnson Main (webdesign@mainhat.com), with Contributors

In the October, 1999 issue of the newsletter, a reader asked about logging on to the computer network from home. It seems her bosses thought it was a bad idea. So I asked the readers to write in about their log-on-from-home privileges, and here are some of the responses:

From Lisa Casalegno, KXTV, Sacramento:

While security is a concern for any company, I can't imagine NOT being allowed to log in from home. It seems that the benefits of remote access far outweigh the risks. We have the Avid news system, and management as well as many producers, reporters and other staffers have connections from home. We also have laptops that connect through our live trucks or modem in from out of town.

As Special Projects Manager, I have approved scripts from home, especially during sweeps when we are pushing deadlines. I also use my home connetion to update the assignment file if I forget to add something before leaving work, or if I confirm a Monday morning interview over the weekend. I have logged in late at night when I had a brainstorm I really wanted to write down. I have done archive searches, checked the wires and gotten co-workers' phone numbers when in a pinch. I even check e-mail, which saves a lot of company time after a vacation. For those of us who are married to the job, it just doesn't make sense to be away even overnight!

From Mark Howell, News Director, KUZZ AM/FM, KCWR in Bakersfield, CA:

I run a radio news shop in which everyone can log on from home (or anywhere else, with a modem-equipped laptop). It's extremely useful, especially for the reporter with small children who needs to get them out of day care before she's finished writing her stories for the day . . . or the on-call person who has to cover a hot breaking story during hours when the newsroom isn't staffed. During one weather emergency, I even logged on so I could send a fax from my newsroom computer to another radio station that needed a hard copy of an EBS alert.

I've also found it useful to be able to get on the newsroom computer to give part-timers some tech support.

I can even assemble, edit, and anchor a complete newscast from the scene of a breaking story if I have to, thanks to a laptop & cellular modem (if the jock runs my carts). It's only been done once . . . but boy, was it important—and gave us a huge beat on the competition.

As for passwords . . . if somebody leaves, just change 'em! What's the big deal?

From Dana Lynn McIntyre:

I used to run the assignment desk at WJBF TV in Augusta, GA. Now, I'm a general assignment reporter.

Our system can be accessed from home computers. When I was running the desk, that was invaluable tool. I could log in, check my e-mails, review the scripts for the 11pm and 6am newscasts, check for late night additions to the e-assignment file and review all the wires. It gave me a headstart on my morning that, many times, meant I could deal with the mini-disasters that so often develop in our business. I was also able to send e-mails to the morning crew, alerting them to things on the wire they might have missed. The morning producer and anchor appreciated having the extra set of eyes backing them up.

Another advantage: The ND, AssistND, EP and desk rotate being on-call for the weekend crew. One of the responsibilities was to review the weekend scripts. The ability to log in from home meant we could (as the person who first broached this subject observed) do so from the comfort of our home. Not having to trek into the station on a weekend was a real morale booster. I never minded being the weekend on-call.

As for the question of security, as soon as someone leaves the station, the SysOp deletes their log-in and password. So far, we've not experienced a problem.

I could have run the desk without being able to log in from home, but having that ability made an already tough job much easier. I whole-heartedly endorse giving this tool to every newsroom!

From Ted Wilson, WKRC, Cincinnati:

Dialing into the newsroom computer from home has been a great tool at WKRC in Cincinnati. We use PC Anywhere, which you can buy in most "big box" computer stores and a lot of smaller ones as well. The cost is reasonable and should not bust any newsroom's budget, even in small markets. At WKRC, news managers take turns keeping tabs on weekend newscasts. With PC Anywhere we can dial in from home and check rundowns, scripts, assignment desk logs, anything we would be able to do from our computer at work. I have also used it when I wanted someone else to eyeball a script for ethical/legal/policy reasons. The dial in system makes it very easy to do that. And if the manager at home has a second line, we can talk about the script as we are working on it. The system runs a little slower than usual. But it sure beats having to go into the office.

From Mark Gillespie (mark.gillespie@msnbc.com; mark@mgmedia.com)

In my last two positions (reporting at KTUU in Anchorage and now freelance writing and producing at MSNBC), I've had full access through dial-up connections to the newsroom systems.

I find it invaluable for checking the wires and newsroom e-mail, along with filing stories. However, it depends on who "name withheld" is trying to work with to set up that connection—if you can find a helpful MIS person, it's a lot easier than trying to convince the ND that it makes sense to have a home connection.

The other reason for checking with your MIS folks: many newsroom systems are already connected to a modem so the manufacturer's tech support folks can log in to help diagnose problems. If that's the case at "name withheld's" station, getting access may be as easy as finding the number.

From Bill Evans, WPSD-TV

As a News Director, I have the ability to log on to the newsroom computer system from home. It is a wonderful tool. Until recently, no one else was allowed the same benefit. (station policy). I have changed that for a few key newsroom personnel—Managing Editor, Assignment Manager and Producers.

Our system is protected. And once an employee leaves the station-their login and password are deleted—making it almost impossible to get back into the system. We also change our Sysadmin passwords, creating another firewall. Plus—if you can't trust your managers (and producers are managers) they shouldn't be working for you.

From Gina Diamante, Former Exec. Producer, Now with NewsMaker Systems, Inc., gina@newsmaker.net:

Since I'm now a computer support nerd , this topic caught my eye. Certainly, logging into the network from home is possible with most newsroom computer systems. But there are a lot of factors to be considered.

There's hardware. Dialing in would require that you have a computer and modem, and that the station has a dial-in computer and modem also, which is connected to the network.

There's connectivity. The dial-in PC must be connected to an analog phone line. (I haven't yet met the modem that can understand digital!)

There's software. Provided you have the PCs, modems and phone lines, both computers need to have the same type of dial-in software. For Windows 95/98, I like PC Anywhere 32. There are also compatibility issues. I have clients with DOS dial-in computers. I can't access those computers reliably with my Win95 machine; it really dislikes some of those DOS dial-in programs. And one of my colleagues has found that you can't even start certain programs such as Carbon Copy 6.1 on a Windows 98 machine.

On top of all of that, there's cost. Yes, PC's are cheap these days. So are general managers/news directors. Actually, if someone can provide good, multiple uses for a dial-in machine, then you probably could get the money for a dial-in machine. But there's another bugaboo you have to get past . . . .

SECURITY!

The biggest threat to your system is not your competitor. Really, they're too busy to check up on you in advance. They'll just watch your promos and newscasts. No, the biggest threat to your system is some 16-year-old kid with a computer and enough knowledge to be dangerous. One of my clients did get hacked by someone who blew the bindery away on their server. No data was lost, it was just inaccessible. The client was able to restore the bindery. A good security setup requires a couple of levels of passwords to get in.

Now, there's one more issue to deal with here. Technical support. This could really be the biggest barrier. If you're putting a dial-in program you got from work onto your personal computer, and then you put some other personal software onto your computer, and there are conflicts between the two softwares . . . who will be responsible for troubleshooting it? This really is an important issue. My husband is a support tech for a major entertainment company, and he's constantly having problems with execs who mess up their computer setups. These are personal computers, not company-issue, but he still has to sort out the cyber-chaos that results when people aren't careful. One danger you can run into with a bad software setup on a personal machine is corrupting files on your server. Seeing what my husband goes through, I would never want to support a PC that isn't company-issue. I'm sure a lot of techs feel the same way.

If you conquer all of that, then you just need to check with your newsroom computer system vendor for remote access options.

The views in this letter are my own and do not represent those of my employer.