Bad Writing Plagues Broadcast News   

Words matter, even in a visual medium.

Ask any broadcast news executive about the quality of writing in television and radio news and, invariably, they'll tell you it's not good.

"Absolutely it's a problem," says Marselis Parsons of WCAX-TV in Burlington, Vermont. "We have to constantly review the writing of our staff."

"There seems to be an attitude pervasive throughout many newsrooms that writing doesn't matter," says Warren Cereghino, executive producer of the Chris-Craft Television News Service, who has worked at several Los Angeles TV stations. "Many reporters and anchors are just sloppy and others don't seem to care."

Bob Yuna of WYOU-TV in Scranton, Pennsylvania, says too many people in broadcast news have forgotten the fundamentals. "We may be doing news in the MTV age," he says, "but words matter. There is still a beginning, middle and end to every story."

ABC Radio is so concerned about the writing on its newscasts that it conducts daily writing critiques.

To help improve the writing in their newsrooms many news directors hire consultants for writing seminars. Carole Kneeland of KVUE-TV in Austin sometimes spends as much as $500 per staffer, she says, for writing and other training. "One of the reasons our writing isn't as strong as I would like is that I and my managers have not had enough time to help bring people along," Kneeland says. "With all the pressures on us in covering news and all the hiring we've had to do in the last two years, we need outside help."

Kneeland and her contemporaries get help from people such as Mackie Morris and Merv Block. Morris, a former University of Missouri journalism professor, is the writing specialist for the Frank N. Magid consulting firm. He and Block are among many experienced broadcast journalists who believe the writing in TV and radio newsrooms is getting worse.

"There is not nearly enough time in newsrooms these days for writers to contemplate, and the best writing is done when you can concentrate and contemplate," says Morris, who has conducted more than 500 seminars at TV and radio stations in the last decade. He also believes many people entering broadcast news in recent years have been undertrained and have developed bad writing habits.

Block, a onetime CBS newswriter, says, "Too many on-air reporters and anchors are deficient not only in basic grammar but in common sense and knowledge, and it shows in how they write."

Emerson Stone agrees. Until his retirement from CBS News eight years ago, Stone was vice president of news practices, a position that included writing. "It's gotten worse," says Stone, who still writes about the subject for trade magazines. "Unfortunately, we are becoming more illiterate because we are not being steeped in our roots."

It's not only broadcast writing that has deteriorated, say Stone and the others. "This generation has not been taught how to write by either their parents or by the schools," says Cereghino. "Now, they are in positions of authority, and they don't know what good and proper writing is."

Television itself often is blamed by sociologists for the overall decline of writing skills. While accepting some share of the criticism, many in broadcast journalism believe a lot of the writing in TV and radio news is unfairly condemned.

"The spoken word is not necessarily what you would think of as fine and proper writing," says Bill Slatter, a onetime NBC news executive who is now a talent agent. "Broadcast writing might not pass for good writing in a newspaper. Broadcast writing is conversational English on good behavior. That doesn't excuse bad grammar or the wrong use of words."

Frank Graham of the McHugh & Hoffman consulting firm says too many newspeople misunderstand what conversational writing really is. "There is a difference between conversational writing and slang," he says. "What's conversational for me needs to be conversational for the broadest audience, too. Conversational writing isn't just quick, simplistic rules, but it's writing that must be put in context for the viewer and listener to understand."

The emphasis on video in TV news also has been misconstrued by many producers, anchors and reporters who write the newscasts.

"What many of our people forget is that the writing and the spoken words draw attention to the pictures," says S. Peter Neumann of WEAR-TV in Pensacola, Florida. "Without that, the communications process with the viewer will not take place."

Despite the stress by some news directors and consultants on the need for good writing, there is a feeling within part of the broadcast journalism community that commitment to improving the writing is not there.

"Too many news directors pay lip service to good writing," says Block. "They may say writing is important, but when it comes down to it writing is not foremost in their calculations." l