An invitation

[ISOaPBR 15]

As a newspaperman, I know first-hand that losing subscribers for any reason makes publishers take note. I also know first-hand that enough lost subscribers can bring about a paradigm shift. I believe the same can be said about TV viewership. Especially TV viewership. Any one location may have 3-4 newspapers to choose from. TV has hundreds of options. The competition there is greater, therefore, so is the need to retain viewers.

This morning I sent the following email to my three local TV affiliates. I don't think sending anything to the national networks themselves is worth the time, due to the enormous (and probably largely-ignored) volume of correspondence they must receive. But I think the local stations would take note.

I've had enough, and I invite anyone with similar feelings to follow suit.

 

 

To WDBJ,

As of today, Nov. 13, 2012, I am tuning out network television for good.

Due to the behavior of the news agencies of the parent networks, I no longer have any use for ABC, NBC CBS, their affiliates, nor any of their programming, whether it is news or entertainment, local or national. I can no longer trust nor believe what I might hear on the national news broadcasts. The opinions stated by contributors are at times appalling. I really have no idea what is being omitted, selectively edited or completely ignored.

The past few years have shown an undisputable pattern of events that proves that the network news agencies no longer have the credibility, integrity or objectivity that I demand.

60 Minutes' releasing previously un-aired but key portions of interviews, the selective editing of 911 calls, the importance (or lack thereof) placed upon topics based on who occupies the White House, racist comments by contributors such as those of CBS' Nancy Giles on Planned Parenthood (http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2012/11/12/cbss-nancy-giles-whites-oppose-abortion-build-race#ixzz2C2QSCGcq), the absurd views put forth as fact by race baiters affiliated with and compensated by NBC News and the general shield the networks have become over the last several years to the current administration all combine to make this an easy choice.

I am a voracious consumer of news. But I can easily find fact-based, objective reporting 24 hours a day with the click of a mouse, and if it is slanted toward one ideology or another, at least I know that going in.

Good-bye.

 

cc: WSLS, WSET