No Need for a Reporter On-Scene?
by Jerry Gibbs

Live shots have been part of local television news for decades. The anchors use live shots to lead into the story, breathlessly reporting the latest tragedy and quickly getting to the reporter at the scene for more information.

Back in the day the anchor would typically say, “Zelda Jones is live downtown at the hotel fire. Zelda, what’s the latest you can tell us?”

It was all very innocent and the viewer knew that if anyone could tell us about this fire it would be Zelda, because—well—she is there!

But a disturbing trend to this time-honored tradition of anchor lead-in has taken hold in local, and even network-level, newscasts in recent years.

Today, the same hotel fire scenario might sound more like this: “Action News reporter Zelda Jones is live at the hotel fire and Zelda, three people have been injured and the hotel has been evacuated.”

I can only imagine Zelda thinking, “Duh, yeah, that’s right so why don’t you just tell us the whole story from the confines of your windowless studio?”

Sadly, this “let’s let the anchor actually know something lead-in” has all the fingerprints of a news consultant’s memo.

The memo goes something like this: The ratings are plummeting and a re-run of “Facts of Life” is getting better numbers than your 6:00 show. The solution here is quite simple…the viewers really want the story right away so make sure your anchor knows as much about the story as possible before they click their remote! And make this move immediately because I hear a “Facts of Life” marathon is starting next week!

But if everyone would step back for a minute, perhaps you would see how silly this looks to the viewer. Inevitably two things occur with this awkward lead-in.

1) Zelda says “You’re right Ricky.” She is so amazed at the anchor’s knowledge about this breaking news story....”what an amazing news gathering machine they have back at the station,” she is thinking, knowing she provided all of it anyway. OR

2) Zelda says “The fire began three hours ago.” In this scenario she IGNORES what he said and continues on, oblivious to his lead-in. Or worse, she’ll say “And those injuries are life threatening,” which means she instinctively KNOWS what the anchor is going to say to her. No spontaneity at all.

So here’s my message to folks in newsrooms everywhere: It is fine for the anchor NOT TO KNOW those types of specifics. Toss it to the reporter….we trust that that reporter will not only tell US what is going on but at least give the APPEARANCE of letting the anchor know what is going on.

Sometimes those in the news business think that all viewers are savvy enough to know that everything is scripted down to the second. Here’s a news flash: They don’t. So don’t give them any reason to think otherwise, which is exactly what these know-it-all statements sound like.

And notice how I didn’t mention any local or national stations in this piece.

You know who you are.

Jerry Gibbs, a Boston/New England member of the Board of Governors, is an Associate Professor and Co-Chair of the Communication Department at Curry College in Milton, MA. His professional experience includes 20+ years of reporting, anchoring and managing news operations at television stations around southern New England. More recently he served as home page editor/news producer for washingtonpost.com. Email him at savebostonchannels@gmail.com with comments.