STAR-BULLETIN
So many stations, so little content that matters.
Most people who write critically about what goes on in their profession wait until they've retired -- or have been fired -- to go public with their opinions. Joe Moore calls that "cowardly" and says the time to speak out is when you're still in a position to do something. Hanging up TV’s
Study: Ownership matters
‘Dirty Laundry’By John Berger
jberger@starbulletin.com
"One of the things that always irked me is all these books and articles people in the business write after they're out of the business. If you're going to make some criticism, the time to do it is while you're still in the business -- maybe you can affect some positive change," the popular KHON-TV FOX 2 television news anchorman said Thursday.
Presented by Manoa Valley Theatre Joe Moore's
'Dirty Laundry'When: 8 p.m. April 18 and 19, and 4 p.m. April 19 and 20
Where: Hawaii Theatre
Tickets: $17.50 to $37, available at Hawaii Theatre box office today. Discounts are available for MVT season subscribers, Hawaii Theatre Center members and those 62 and older.
Call: 528-0506
Moore, who has been increasingly outspoken in recent years on the quality and content of television news, hopes to do that -- or at least get people thinking about it -- with his latest play.
The subject is television news. The title is "Dirty Laundry."
Moore describes it as "a no-holds-barred, uncensored look at what I think goes on behind the cameras and behind the scenes of the TV news business."
"Dirty Laundry" opens on April 18 with four shows taking place at the Hawaii Theatre. Tickets go on sale today. Given Moore's longtime on-air popularity, his successes as an actor-playwright and the rumors that some of his colleagues and competitors will be caricatured, tickets are expected to sell briskly.
And yes, Jason Scott Lee has signed on to play one of the central characters.
"The icing on the cake was getting Jason," Moore said, explaining that although Lee is best known as a film actor, he also enjoys theater acting.
"People forget he had a six-month run at London's West End Palladium Theatre starring in "The King & I," and you don't get any bigger than London's West End. He was just over Sunday for the final read-through of the script ... and he's terrific."
Among those joining Moore and Lee in "Dirty Laundry" are Ray Bumatai, Greg Howell, Matthew Pederson, Stephanie Sanchez and Sherry Chock Wong. Manoa Valley Theatre associate producer Karen Bumatai will direct.
MOORE SAYS THAT "Dirty Laundry" isn't intended to embarrass anyone, although there's always a chance that some local TV personalities will think otherwise.
"I didn't set out when I was writing the piece to embarrass any particular people, but what I found myself doing when I was listing some of my pet peeves in the business was using examples of some of our local newscasters, reporters, news directors (and) station managers.
"I don't use any real names in order to protect the guilty ... which is not to say someone in the audience might (not) look at a character and say, 'I think that's so-and-so,'" he said.
"The whole idea was born out of my frustration with what I see as the decline of the TV news profession and this ascent of this lowest common denominator style of news," Moore said, describing the problem as being as "an emphasis not on tapping viewers' brains with serious news, but tapping their emotions with sensationalism or touchy-freely entertainment.
"There's a section in the play where my character -- this aging news anchorman -- is unloading on his friend, the executive producer of the newsroom, about the things he sees that have gone wrong with the profession.
"Basically, it all started happening when the decision was made back in the '70s; the consultants convinced the station owners that TV news should be a cash cow presented as entertainment. Since that time, many stations have made their news more and more entertaining at the expense of journalism, and what they're doing is lowering the quality."
Moore adds that some members of the TV news business feel they get more than enough criticism and don't need to have one of their own taking them to task for empty programming.
"There were -- and there are -- several people at my station that are not happy I'm doing this play, but at this point in my career, I felt it was important, and if I can't say what I think is really going on, then something is really wrong," he said.
On the other hand, Moore cautions, people shouldn't read too much into the story or assume that he's commenting specifically about events at KHON.
The play basically was written last year, he said, and opens with a station having just been sold. "A new general manager has fired the former news director and is bringing in a new news director -- which happens all the time. Interestingly enough, that series of events really happened at our station, but I'd written (the play) before those things happened."
WITH THE exception of his fictional alter ego, aging news anchorman Bryce Edwards, Moore says none of the characters are based on anyone at Channel 2.
"But beyond that, I'm very happy to let the chips fall where they may in terms of the audience receiving this piece."
And how might that be?
Moore says that he isn't sure. He considered it a "dramady" with the emphasis on drama until director Bumatai responded to it as a "comedy-drama."
"When I started looking at it again, I saw that as I was doing this laundry list of things I think have gone wrong with the TV news, the comedy in the situations was coming through naturally, and I hadn't intended it to be that way, so I don't mind it being labeled comedy-drama, but in my heart it's much more a drama with some comic moments in it."
The other big question is whether "Dirty Laundry" can get TV viewers to rethink their expectations when it comes to news programming. Moore says that he doesn't know whether the problems he sees in television news can be solved.
"I'd like to say that this play will be a big step (in that direction) and that people will walk out of the theater saying, 'We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take that kind of news anymore,' they're going to start complaining to the station.
"But I'm not sure about that. It's been this steady decline, and people have become so accustomed to it. It's like people don't expect quality in their newscasts. They don't even want it.
"Even if people don't get that deeply involved," he said, the play is "entertaining and stands on it own."
BACK TO TOP |
Just as Joe Moore is set to stage "Dirty Laundry," a study of television news released yesterday by the Project for Excellence in Journalism determined that regulatory changes that encourage a heavy concentration of ownership in local television by a few large corporations will erode the quality of news Americans receive. Megamedia linked
to poorer newscastsStar-Bulletin staff
The findings -- an analysis of 172 stations and 23,000 stories over five years -- suggest ownership makes a difference in coverage. Among the findings:
>> Very large companies do not fare well.The study also found that, overall, the highest-quality TV news stations were more likely to enjoy positive ratings.>> Network-owned and operated stations do not fare well.
>> Stations with cross-ownership, in which the parent company also owns a newspaper in the same market, tended to produce higher-quality newscasts.
>> Local ownership is no guarantee of quality, but offers some protection against low quality.
The findings suggest that the concentration of vast numbers of TV stations in the hands of a few large corporations, while profitable, is likely to further erosion in the content and public-interest value of the local TV news Americans receive.
The project was started in light of the FCC-proposed rule making to change limits on media ownership. The study, executed in collaboration with Princeton Survey Research Associates, was funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Project for Excellence in Journalism
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