News 14 Carolina or Soviet TV News Circa 1977 - You Decide

Rarely do you encounter a news clip that is so overwhelmingly biased, one-sided, and utterly stunning in its conflict of interest as the one that follows from News 14 Carolina, which resembles a report straight out of Soviet TV’s Vremya newscast, circa 1977.

This “report” consists of a Time Warner-owned newscast anchor reciting Time Warner talking points, and then follows up by interviewing the director of media relations for Time Warner.  No challenges, no follow-ups, just that pasted on smile and bobblehead nod.  Don’t break a sweat with all of that hard reporting there, and I wouldn’t hang around waiting for the Edward R. Murrow Award anytime soon.  At the very end, as a casual aside, viewers are informed the entire report was one giant corporate family affair.

The Greensboro market -is- savvy.  More savvy than Time Warner thought, anyway.  They said no to caps and gas gauges.

But one last question to viewers down there. If you’re getting news from this operation, why?

Are you kidding me?  Time Warner should have paid standard commercial rates for this.  If a reporter or anchor is really not serious about presenting a balanced report or newscast, don’t do one.  This is why people get cynical about broadcast journalism.  An obviously clueless anchor, the very definition of “conflict of interest” reporting, and a blasé disclaimer coming at the end, results in a journalistic train wreck.  The only reason I didn’t put a whole row of thumbs-down here is the possibility that perhaps someone had a gun trained on her under the desk.  Good night and good luck!