What are we to make of Brian Williams and his "misremembering" an incident no one could possibly forget? The NBC News anchor has apologized for saying last week that he was aboard a helicopter that was hit by enemy fire when he was covering the Iraq …
A television station runs a photo of the mayor and wrongly states she's flashing a gang sign. TV reporters share photos of themselves on social media appearing to make light of serious stories. Two Chicago stations can't get the facts right on a jail sentence. What a year for …
It's always edifying to me to look back at the year gone by and see what posts have been most popular at NewsLab. It reminds me of what NewsLab readers are most interested in, which helps me plan for the year to come. This year-in-review post …
The video is black-and-white and grainy, but it makes the case. A manager at a company selling what it claims is health insurance instructs employees on what to tell prospects on the phone: "Tell them any f---ing thing," he says. Reporter Jeremy Finley's story for WSMV-TV in Nashville about United …
In the movie Broadcast News, a network producer accuses a reporter of crossing the line between journalism and entertainment. His reply: "It's hard not to cross it; they keep moving the little sucker, don't they?" They sure do. The line between news and advertising has been blurring …
One of the most common criticisms of local TV news is that stations spend far too much time covering crime. It's a well-founded complaint. Daily crime can be easy and cheap to cover--one stop shopping, so to speak--making it a popular rundown-stuffer. In many markets, …
What exactly is MSNBC thinking? The way the cable news network has treated two of its hosts lately makes you wonder if the suits are thinking at all. Both Martin Bashir and Alec Baldwin got themselves in hot water for making offensive remarks. But the …
Another breaking news story, another list of news media mistakes. Same old, same old, right? Except this time, a new question came up: Are breaking news mistakes even worth covering anymore? That question raised by Politico media columnist Dylan Byers came on a day when multiple …
When you get something wrong in a news story, how do you make it right? Newsroom policies--if they even exist--usually cover the timing and placement of corrections in legacy media and online, but social media are rarely mentioned. That's a big oversight, considering that errors …
The video went viral, of course. Reporter Abbey Niezgoda of WLNE in Providence, R.I., was reporting reaction to a shooting when she was attacked by the victim's mother. The video shows the woman throwing a rock at the TV crew, threatening them with a baseball …
Picture this. You're on day two of a TV news shoot out-of-town, working with a freelance crew. Location: a high school auditorium. Day one was a morning session and the house lights were on. The photographer got plenty of shots of the action on stage …
Local television news can be so easy to mock. Happy-talk anchors, meaningless live shots and enough on-screen grammar goofs to send an English teacher into orbit. The good news is that it's not all terrible. But a lot of it is and, sadly, there's not …
