A website called DeadBeatLink has published the home address, phone numbers (some are redacted) and full dates of birth of local news reporters and anchors from Palm Beach County. So far the information posted seems to be on WPEC, Palm Beach Post, and Palm Beach Daily News staffers but the site’s owner says they will be “listing a new news organization every week”.
On a page titled “Why the Reporter List“, the site’s owner says journalists are targeted because they “ignore select political figures in Palm Beach and Broward County, turning their heads while their agencies run rampant with corruption” and because they “cover up things in their own industry; if a member of the media commits rape, they are dismissed quietly and it is ignored by the rest of the media, deemed not worthy of news”
If you have been a part of an unflattering story, look for the reporter here, knock at their door and tell them that you don’t appreciate it. Call them on the phone. Don’t worry – it’s a free country and just like they can come knock on your doors with cameras and lights, you can do the same.
The site’s owner(s) also released a video featuring the infamous Guy Fawkes face (though whether there’s any association with the group Anonymous is unknown) and a statement read in a digitally altered voice. The person says WPTV isn’t on the list for now because of investigative reporter Katie LaGrone who features government spending and consumer issues in her reports.
True, there needs to be a conversation on why local news is such utter bullshit, but revealing people’s home addresses (freely available on the internet by the way) isn’t the way to go about it. Safety issues aside, those in front of the camera aren’t even in charge of what stories get covered. Anchors certainly are in no position to decide, and even reporters for the most part are told where to go and what to do.
In the military, if the squad leader screws up, all of his people have to do pushups. They get pissed at him for screwing up and that’s great incentive for not doing it again. Seems like the same thing taking place. The news managers may not let them report on the juicy stuff, but if the reporters start putting the pressure on to avoid this types of stuff, maybe the tides will change and maybe the media will actually start doing their jobs.
I don’t think this will accomplish anything. It’s casting a conversation that should be had in a bad light.
The truth is reporters or anchors or anyone behind the scenes in production can’t be too vocal and insist on changes because they’ll just have their job given to someone else. They are already being replaced by cheaper workers. Even local management is not a decision maker any longer, most of them just carry the water for corporate and do as they’re told.
And then there’s corporate sucking up to police because they’re afraid of ruffling feathers, and getting locked out of crime stories. WFOR a few years ago had problems after airing a story about cops intimidating people who go into police stations to file complaints. Their reporter was harassed and arrested in broad daylight.
Advertisers too are known to meddle indirectly by complaining about content.
Of course viewers are also watching, less of them are with each passing sweeps month as ratings aren’t increasing, but they are watching what passes for news.
Either way the Internet is just starting with local TV news which is in the same place newspapers were 10 years ago, thinking their gravy train isn’t going anywhere when signs point to otherwise. There isn’t much left for local news to hang on to – weather and traffic are the only two things local news has left that keep viewers tuning in, along with the viewers who need to have their hand held by a meteorologist to tell them if it’s going to be 80 or 90 degrees tomorrow.