Channel 12 Slip in New Times Report Deepens TV Journalist Stereotypes

By on October 24th, 2007 In Media

This morning, County Attorney Andrew Thomas went from a tail-between-his-legs Sheriff Joe monkey-weasel to a concerned, upstanding family man.  Why? Because the Arizona Republic, which is doing an excellent job prosecuting the recent New Times arrest debacle in the court of public opinion, encountered a smack-your-forehead blunder from its bedfellow KPNX/12 News yesterday.  

A story from 12 News, which appeared briefly on the Republic-dominated AZCentral.com site, offered a subtext of how easy it is to find public officials’ addresses and linked to public documents that would contain such addresses.

Is it easy to find anyone’s address online? Yes.  But showing people how to find the info – even for “context” on a larger story – defies common sense — especially when it comes to a public official mired in a bad situation.  Why not announce the pitchforks are on Aisle 7 while you’re at it?

While Gannett’s Republic-12 News alliance might be good for offering interactive web content and joining teams of organizations trying to get the records of the New Times case unsealed, maybe it’s not so good for hard-hitting FOIA journalism. 

Yes, this is one incident, and one even forgotten tomorrow. However, it lends unecessary roll-your-eyes, “Jesus F’ing Christ!” credence to the sterotype that TV journalists lack the smarts and credibility of newspaper journalists. In PR, we know better, but don’t like wondering. 

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