The news is the news, whether good or bad
Heath E. Combs, Staff writer -- Furniture Today, July 13, 2009
Ever feel like you've been bombarded with bad news? Just think about how we reporters feel. Lately, it seems like so many of the stories I write have a negative tinge.
Another bad one just rolled across my desk today, just like it did last Friday, and the week before.
In June, of the Top 10 most-read stories online on Furniture/Today's Web site, four were bankruptcies or major retail closings. About seven of the total could be classified in the negative vein. So it's not like people don't want to know the bad news.
Reporters are often scrutinized for sensationalizing — making a big deal out of small potatoes. After the Michael Jackson death spectacle dies down, or the Jon and Kate story goes away, somebody's probably going to criticize the media for acting like a bunch of adolescents spreading gossip.
They say in the news business that if it bleeds it leads. For the past year, it seems like newsrooms around the country have been hemorrhaging with bad news. Earlier, the flush times may have created a good news bubble.
Reporters don't like writing bad news or good news either. There is just news.
Sometimes we have to check in with companies who don't have bad news, but who have gotten sucked into the rumor mill with speculation about their future. And we have to check it out. Sometimes you just have to ask somebody if their company is OK. Other times you have to be like Columbo and nose around.
And you have to be skeptical. There's an old journalism saying is: “If your mother says she loves you, check it out.”
What makes an item newsworthy? This is where I think traditional newsrooms like ours differentiate ourselves from other media like blogs and the er, uh, “new media,” whatever that is.
A good newsroom is a group of people who make a conscious effort together to decide whether something deserves publication with the aim of fair reporting. Sometimes, however, the Internet makes it difficult to contact all parties in a given story in a timely manner, since getting the news out first is so important.
There are editors in this newsroom with more than two decades of experience in this industry alone. They are not media elites forcing news on an unwilling public.
They are seasoned like a good cast iron skillet to write meaningful news. There is good news out there. But it's all news. It's just the bad stuff gets looked at a little more than the goods stuff sometimes.
-
Natuzzi kiosk brings online experience to stores
Apr 24, 2012 -
HPU panel: Online content has value
Apr 4, 2012
VIEW ALL GALLERIES
