Media Musings: Tennessean could use some competition
Here are a few jottings from the old observer’s notebook for this boiling August as we prepare for the long political battles ahead.
Firstly, a sad goodbye to the media commentary column by Henry Walker in the Nashville Scene. The Tennessean complained about his “problems” with accuracy and Walker was gracious in saying the weekly alternative newspaper had every right to end his column. Granting both statements are true, there’s always the suspicion there was another reason than given, such as the paper wanting to do longer media stories seeming too facile.
Never before has Nashville needed informed criticism of the media more than today because it’s become a one major daily chain-owned newspaper town. In The Tennessean’s relentless drive to serve everyone with some kind of coverage, it’s become shallow, often trite, and absent of the very kind of reporting from which its 15 minutes of fame came. No informed observer ever believed the paper was great, but it was a place great reporters, writers and photographers learned how to do the craft with brilliance and then leave for major media posts.
There is very little counterpointing of the paper’s coverage or in-depth examination of what it’s not covering. The agenda of Nashville may be filled with the issues of the day, but there is, again, that nagging doubt that major concerns are being overlooked. Media critics can call attention to those agenda items without the predictable sawing of the same GOP-agenda of Tim Chavez.
There is no way TV news puts anything on the city, area or state agenda except for the so-called investigative pieces done for ratings weeks and they increasingly over-reach the facts of the story for dubious conclusions.
Still, there are flashes of fine work, such as the open editorial by the Scene to the new head of the city’s Chamber of Commerce, which spelled out Nashville’s greatest problem: It has lost all of its economic momentum and is in desperate – that’s not an emotional word choice – need of finding the corporations and entertainment venues to rebuild lost tourism and economic power. Then there was The Tennessean’s two-parter on guns and lives that was an excellent piece of reportage.
So, we need writers to counterpoint the major daily, ask for real performance by the TV news teams, and to open the city’s problems and challenges to debate. Of course, Henry Walker could not do all of that, but at least he was a voice that opened up such debate, even if it bordered on the quick shot, often.
Secondly, I must confess the TV stations certainly didn’t distinguish themselves in the latest election. The commentaries by Pat Nolan on Channel 5 and Jim Travis on Channel 4 were the best part of the night but the coverage seemed ragged and it wasn’t necessary.
Hopefully, when we see November, we’ll have restored the coverage.
Thirdly, after watching local TV news and reading area newspapers for 30 years, I think I am able to understand at least some of the reasons for the decline. The Scene and The Tennessean are on corporate leashes that demand profit but the excellence is seeping out of the former as it becomes Scene lite, unable to bite as in days of old when it was locally owned.
The TV stations, on the other hand, all adopted the same definition of audience-building news: crime and live reports “from the scene” as we “bring you the news first” because we always have “breaking news.” Think about that for a moment: three news crews all covering the same story while three enterprise stories aren’t developed. Any station that breaks that mold might lose viewers in the process of building a better newscast.
Change, in that environment, is not possible, at least in my view. I want to be found incorrect, I assure you.
(Ed Kimbrell is a professor in MTSU’s School of Journalism.)