TV Stations Can’t Miss One other Santos Story In The Offing
Harry Jessell
For me, the query just isn’t who is George Santos; it’s why is George Santos.
Why is Santos a member within the U.S. Home of Representatives from New York’s 3rd District after making marketing campaign misrepresentations of background, expertise and training so fabulous and flimsy that they need to have been simply uncovered as such by one of many native information shops within the nation’s largest media market?
The reply is, none did.
Effectively, one small weekly did.
The North Shore Chief caught on to Santos. It wrote about Santos’ unexplained and strange marketing campaign funding and skewered Santos in an editorial endorsing his Democratic opponent.
The partisan paper stated it most popular a Republican like Santos for the seat, however stated he’s “so sketchy, unprincipled and weird that we can’t…. He boasts like an insecure youngster — however he’s principally only a fabulist — a faker.”
Sadly, the Chief was too small. No one paid any consideration to it.
In an interview with PBS NewsHour, Chief Writer Grant Lally stated he was “upset” that no one had picked up on its reporting. “We did ship the paper out to a number of the native organs, a number of the media.”
The place was Newsday? The threerd District overlaying a lot of Nassau County is squarely on its turf. It’s presupposed to be the paper of document for the western half of Lengthy Island.
The New York Publish, The New York Each day Information and The Wall Avenue Journal have been additionally lacking in motion.
The august New York Instances dropped the ball, too, though it partially redeemed itself by exposing Santos as a fraud in a well-reported story that additionally alleged felony exercise and thrust Santos right into a media storm. Revealed a number of weeks after the election, it got here far too late for the voters of the threerd District.
These voters are the victims right here. They’d each purpose to imagine that, if something was fallacious with Santos’ bio, one among their trusted media shops would have allow them to know. Now, as a result of Santos is so politically wounded, they’re barely represented in Congress.
Total, the newspapers did a poor job. However they don’t seem to be my beat. TV stations are.
The so-called flagships of the Huge 4 broadcast networks — WABC, WCBS, WNBC and WNYW — failed their viewers as badly because the papers and as certainly as if that they had ignored a violent nor’easter churning up the coast.
These should not financially strapped small-market stations. These are broadcasting’s richest and most interesting — or at the very least should be. Their homeowners are within the entrance rank of media: Disney, Paramount, Comcast and Fox.
I perceive that TV stations have historically not performed the identical form of native journalism as newspapers do (or did). They’ve by no means immersed themselves within the nitty-gritty of political and public affairs reporting. They’re on the road, reporting the fires, crimes and crashes and standing by to maintain the citizenry knowledgeable when disasters strike.
I additionally perceive stations can’t do all of it. Stations in small and medium-size markets have restricted sources. Massive-market stations must cowl numerous authorities entities and a whole lot of races on the federal, state and native ranges.
So, I suggest a modest rule that ought to apply to all markets, not simply New York: If a station settle for adverts for a political race, it should critically cowl it. This appears honest. In keeping with Kantar, all TV stations raked in $4.3 billion in political within the 2021-22 election cycle. Doesn’t it make sense {that a} portion of that be plowed again into protection of the most important and most vital races — that’s, those that purchase TV?
By scanning the political advert recordsdata of the New York stations, I can see all of them benefitted handsomely from many races in any respect ranges, together with a dozen or so Home races. The Santos marketing campaign didn’t spend on TV, however his Democratic rival Robert Zimmerman did, greater than $400,000 on WABC alone. But, it couldn’t discover the sources to correctly try both candidate.
By “critically overlaying” a race, I imply greater than some sound bites extracted from a half-hour softball interview with the candidate.
I imply following the candidate round for per week and fact-checking his claims and sizing up his crowds and private enchantment.
I imply wanting deeply into the incumbent candidates’ data to see in case you can spot any suspicious correlations between his backers and pork he has helped rolled.
I imply not sitting round counting on candidate opposition analysis — or some tiny weekly newspaper — to give you “the grime.”
I imply trying out the candidates’ sources of marketing campaign funds and figuring out the folks behind any SuperPAC’s which can be supporting her or him in TV adverts.
I imply doing a profile of the candidate that features interview with associates, enemies and enterprise associates. (There might not be room on the air for such reporting, however there may be on-line.)
I imply going past the problems that are inclined to dominate campaigns (local weather, abortion, policing and the tradition battle) to determine who she or he is de facto representing when in Washington.
I do know from my days in Washington that lawmakers align themselves with sure industries and curiosity teams that their constitutes not often hear about. Are they carrying water for Huge Tech, Huge Pharma or, dare I say, Huge Media?
And, after all, on the very least, I imply vetting the candidates’ marketing campaign bio from their web sites to be sure that they labored within the locations they are saying they did and went to the faculties they are saying they did. If that’s an excessive amount of for the information employees, I counsel sending the bios to the HR division. They may test them out in a number of hours. Had this been performed within the Santos case, he may need been stopped nicely earlier than the election.
By following this rule — cowl races by which candidates purchase time — stations would possibly get an incredible story. In any occasion, they’ll have the satisfaction of understanding that they fulfilled their obligation to their viewers, they usually could keep away from the embarrassment of being the subsequent to get Santosed.
Harry A. Jessell is editor at massive of TVNewsCheck. He will be contacted right here. You may learn earlier columns right here.
