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Mark Garay returned to the anchor desk (a very modern looking one in this case) at KIAH 39 news this past weekend. This was his first anchor gig in nearly three years after leaving KTRK 13.

I was lucky enough to be a reporter on his Saturday show. After working with him for years as a producer, and having him as a guest blogger on mikemcguff.com, it was cool to be standing in the studio with him delivering a report.

“It feels great being back in the saddle, if only for a brief time,” Garay told me. “This was a good time to take a break from the other endeavours in my life and return to reporting and anchoring. Once news gets in your blood, it’s hard to resist an invitation to come back.”

The feedback on his appearances have been very good. Some big names in Houston sent him congrats notices on Facebook.

In the above photo, it’s a KTRK reunion with 39 photographer David DeFranchi, Mark and myself.

Mark Garay was filling in for Katishia Cosley, also a KTRK alum, who normally anchors weekends on KIAH 39 news.

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Former KTRK 13 anchor Mark Garay guest blogs this post on the mikemcguff.com blog:

AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE

Let’s not pretend that the modern electronic media are all that different philosophically from the earliest days of print. During the perilous years of secession, twisted accounts of Abraham Lincoln’s character were brazenly assailed by personal interests, both north and south, bent on derailing his drive to keep a divided country undivided, and his faith in humanity to correct crimes against humanity.

When the nation’s financial system collapsed during the 1930’s, newspaper editorials questioned every aspect of FDR’s ideas, often dismissing the New Deal as flawed by its very nature, and calling the man himself a closet socialist.

And let’s not forget the family which built Los Angeles, the Chandlers. From it’s inception in the late 19th century, clear through to the 1960’s, the Los Angeles Times was little more than an agent fashioned to draw midwesterners to the left coast through idealized imagery and manipulative accounts of this “angelic paradise”. All the while of course, the Chandler family hand picked who they wanted in office by disguising its agenda as news, and amassing a brave western fortune by purchasing land it knew the state of California needed to ensure steady growth.

When people today say the media has never been more biased, they are wrong. The difference is that yesterday’s press made no apologies. Nor did it try to hide exactly what it was trying to achieve. Today, we see promo after promo of what news outlets would like you to believe as complete transparency. They tout “honest reporting” and “accuracy” and “balance”.

Well, let’s get real. Today’s interviews are often one sided. The slants are obvious. And sadly, the people calling their operations legitimate news are often catering to an understated self interest, both out of philosophies they’d rather not discuss, and agendas they’d rather you not understand.

Recently, bloggers have been quite literally making the news. On this very blog, Michael McGuff has presented articles suggesting a large number of bloggers who consider themselves news professionals or journalists. I guess that claim is hard to dispute, since no one has authoritatively defined what a news professional is. But clearly, we know what a news professional is not: He or She doesn’t include opinion in reporting, isn’t above using standardized procedures and conduct to make sure every aspect of every news story is represented, and doesn’t ignore a designed faith in checking and rechecking facts so that viewers understand the full breadth of a news story, not just arbitrary chunks of manipulated truth that can easily leave the public confused and misled.

HEREIN MAY LIE THE SALVATION OF TELEVISION NEWS.

Networks executives on down must reestablish their medium as trustworthy and unbiased. They need to separate their product from the myriad of like minded posers, who would just as well call themselves journalists as they would nuclear physicists. There is an OPPORTUNITY here for news operations to regain their base, by remembering their purpose. Begin not only circulating a message of credibility, but also show the public why the posers can’t compete. News managers MUST rely on their resources, NOW, while they still have them to show the public that there IS a difference between what you see on network affiliates, and what you read on rogue websites.

The exchange of information is going through a revolution. And every revolution risks splinter groups whom distance themselves from the original task at hand. In this case, television stations need to take up arms by taking down stereotypes. They need to clearly define themselves as conveyers of truth, not innuendo. They need to prove up balanced reporting at every turn. They need to show everyone that there IS a place to go if you’re interested in facts.

Some places are still trying to practice legitimate journalism. PBS and its Frontline series comes to mind. A handful of news networks have used a reporter to fact check live on the air as politicians made stunning claims about recent health care legislation, and bank CEOs responded to Congressional inquiries during high profile political hearings.

Television news MUST let the truth set it free. Otherwise, it’s nothing more than the conspiracy theorists, agenda driven homebound bloggers and low budget news operations which refuse to practice the tenants of honest news gathering and would do better selling their “unbiased” reporting on “Let’s Make a Deal”.

There is one obvious downside. Can legitimate news operations REALLY legitimize themselves? Are they willing to clean up their shoddy reporting? Are they capable of giving journalists more time to ensure accuracy and fairness? Is it even in their nature to stop the “if it bleeds, it leads” practices by making professional news gathering a necessity and not a notion? Because if broadcast news professionals can’t clean up their act, they’re nothing but bloggers with bull horns, quick to proclaim an honesty and depth they not only lack but feel obligated to completely ignore.

Make no mistake, television news is in big trouble. I envision a day when daily editorial decisions may come from some centralized office in another state. Radio is already operating in similar fashion to save money. The Jocks you hear in Houston could be cradling microphones in Hoboken, for all we know. Could you imagine? Editorial decisions on how to cover Houston’s city council decided by some guy eating a ham sandwich in Denver?

At this point, PR is one of the few tactics television news has left to help it survive. It has a distribution system already in place. It may seem ironic that employing the illusion of credibility which the medium has honed for years, may actually be the key to its very survival.

If television news wants to live, it must tell the world that it is honest. The hard part will be backing up that claim. And just like presenting an honest, unbiased and balanced news story, no one said it would be easy.

- Mark Garay

NOW FOR THE COUNTER ARGUMENT
If it works for Fox News…

READ MORE OF MARK GARAY’S THOUGHTS

Find out more about Garay’s latest work at CodeMark Poductions LLC.

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Former KTRK abc13 anchor Mark Garay guest blogs this post on the mikemcguff.com blog:

I recently returned from a trip to Austin. I caught the late news on KEYE 42. What at first glance seemed like nothing more than a common local news promotional technique, turned quickly into a classic case of “enough already.” The news anchor introduces the story by telling her audience that an upcoming episode of the news magazine program 48 Hours will be focusing on a local murder case.

Apparently, some 20 year old or so douche bag had killed some poor girl in a bathtub and dismembered her head and fingers. Then allegations arose that another girl had helped cut up the corpse too. Now, a new development. After the guy got 55 years, the woman alleged to have helped him is soon to be sentenced.

The anchor tosses to the “story” of the upcoming “story.” AND the story is not produced by KEYE, but rather by 48 Hours. Apparently, not only does this CBS network show get to saturate the KEYE audience, but feels also compelled to do the job itself, lest some KEYE reporter get in the way.

I wouldn’t have noticed anything had it ended with the 48 Hours “correspondent” signing off after this thinly veiled promotional effort disguised as a news story designed to get people to watch.

But then the anchor says that one of her reporters has an INTERVIEW with the 48 Hours correspondent. Now, another two minutes of a taped interview between a KEYE on-air hottie and whoever this 48 Hours correspondent is.

What did they talk about? What kind of sentence butcher girl might get. That’s wonderful speculation, but how in the world could ANYONE know what the sentence will be? They also discuss how “people have found this to be such a disturbing case.”

Really? No shit.

Finally, the only redeeming element to the entire four minute segments: The range of punishment the girl could receive, which was up to five years, I believe. That information could have been conveyed in a 10 second anchor read.

I’ve always felt that television self promotion was a bit like actor Alec Baldwin: Effective as a performer and communicator, but capable of being annoyingly shallow and self absorbed off the set. Yes, every television news operation has the right to call itself the best. But the weird thing about promotions is that no one knows if what they’re hearing is true. Odd, isn’t it? That such a thing could be said about the people charged with promoting local NEWS operations?

I submit the following:

Let’s say that two competing television stations want to call themselves the “first to broadcast in HD.” Station A dumps a lot of money into going a cheaper route. They equip their news chopper camera to broadcast in HD, but ONLY the helicopter camera can broadcast high def. Station A keeps all other forms of production and news broadcast at current production standard.

Across the Street, Station B hears that Station A is bragging about being the first to broadcast in HD. Station B, only weeks away from launching all of its local news programming in HD, and sensing that Station A purposely undercut the timing and stole Station B’s thunder, feels justified to similarly claim that in fact, THEY- STATION B, were the FIRST to broadcast in HD.

“All Station A did was HD their chopper cam,” Station B would argue. “That’s not going HD, at least not like WE did!”

And at the end of the day, honestly. Who gives a shit?

Humor aside, cross promotion can be a dangerous thing. Promoting station sponsored events, products or services during newscasts can be perceived as very self serving unless they are done correctly. When weather folks say to you “and we’ll have a closer look at tomorrow’s chances for rain, later in this newscast”, it just might piss you off. “Tell me now”, you might say. “I can take it”.

Here’s the point. What I saw in Austin was a ugly boil on top of an less ugly boil. Not only do they burn newscast minutes by PROMOTING an entirely different program, but they promoted it again, by talking to the promoters.

An through it all, you might ask yourself, “I thought I was watching the news.”

- Mark Garay

Find out more about Garay’s latest work at CodeMark Poductions LLC.

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