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RTDNA’s President and CEO Dan Shelley says there’s no question that this year’s presidential election will be the most important in a lifetime, and for local TV news, its credibility will be on trial.
Having surveyed 2,000 news consumers this past fall, RTDNA found trust eroding, particularly when it comes to political coverage. But Shelley says the survey also pointed the way to some pragmatic moves TV newsrooms can adopt to regain lost ground and build a hedge against persistent efforts to undermine their credibility.
In this Talking TV conversation, Shelley shares some of those tips and frames up the RTDNA’s legislative priorities for the coming year, along with weighing in on the FCC’s unpopular decision among broadcasters to reaffirm its ownership rules.
Episode transcript below, edited for clarity.
Michael Depp: By almost any account, the 2024 election will be a crucible for local U.S. TV news. How it handles coverage of local, state and national elections may, for once and all, cast its future in terms of viewers trust and newsrooms future viability in the market.
I’m Michael Depp, editor of TVNewsCheck, and this is Talking TV, our weekly video podcast. Today, I’m with Dan Shelley, the president and CEO of RTDNA, to talk about the stakes of the election and the moves that TV newsrooms will need to make in the coming weeks and months to ensure that they will have legitimacy and a secure future with viewers. We’ll be right back with that conversation.