Pressing Issues, July 2005

Are Pennsylvania readers trusting less these days?

by Randy Hines
Susquehanna University

Newsweek’s blunder on its May prisoner abuse scandal has helped flush media credibility down the toilet. In case you’ve been out of the country, the storied news weekly falsely reported that U.S. troops at Guantanamo Bay flushed a copy of the Muslim holy book down a toilet.

The alleged incident was never substantiated, but the damage was already done. Protests around the globe left many dead and injured. Newsweek editor Mark Whitaker printed a full retraction two weeks later. Even White House spokesman Scott McClellan urged the magazine to somehow “repair the damage” about the Quran desecration.

Of course, the print media can’t be left holding the empty toilet paper roll themselves. Dan Rather did little to improve trust in objective network news when he used unreliable and unchecked sources for his latest (and last?) anti-Bush tirades.

Another source of irritation among Pennsylvania residents is the increased blending of advertisement with entertainment. What started as a semi-innocent plug for Reece’s Pieces in the movie “E.T. The Extra Terrestrial,” has escalated into living rooms with a constant bombardment of product pitches within the script of television programs.

(By the way, M&M Candies passed on the chance to be featured in that movie classic. It thought that having its product associated with some alien monster didn’t seem quite right for its young target audience. Reece’s Pieces sales soared, of course, after its 1 minute and 20 second exposure in the movie’s 1982 debut.)

Jumping into the brand barrage a few weeks ago was the Federal Communications Commission when Jonathan Adelstein cautioned about the “increasing commercialization of American media.” He suggested that the FCC would more closely regulate the product placement industry.

“People are frustrated by what they see as fake news and relentless marketing,” commissioner Adelstein said. “The use of covert commercial pitches is penetrating deeper and deeper into our media.”

He suggested that the credits at the end of TV shows—that scroll about 10 inches per second—should carry a promotional consideration tag, similar to the “Price Is Right” prize donors. His agency would encourage the size and pace of product placement disclosures to be readable. Some critics would like to see the notice flashed on the bottom of the screen when it’s appropriate. Don’t count on that happening anytime soon.

If you haven’t heard, the syndication market is getting on the product placement bandwagon as well. It now intends to increase its revenue by inserting brands into reruns of older shows.

So Radar O’Reilly of “M.A.S.H.” fame could have (name your product) sitting next to his teddy bear on his bunk. Of course, the item will have to fit into the time and culture of the original series. Perhaps a pair of hightop Converse All-Star shoes would work if the Massachusetts company wants to foot the bill. I don’t think a Miami Heat cap will show up. Nor will Timmy call Lassie for help on his Verizon cell phone.

But the FCC’s ire over product placement is just the latest in a long list of complaints against the media. How can Pennsylvania newspapers fight back? How can we regain that eroding trust with readers?

Decreasing the use of anonymous sources and cutting down on mistakes are sure-fire methods to defuse customer dissatisfaction. Doing away with paper in newsrooms has led to many stories getting into print without enough eyes giving them the once over.

Staffs on the copy desk have lost their specialization of being pure wordsmiths today. Now they must also be experts in electronic pagination, graphics, photography and psychology. So let’s give them some help.

Hire fact checkers whose sole function is to verify information on stories slated to run in the next day’s paper. If your Pennsylvania paper wants to consider the concept of fact checking, you may pick up an economical source to get you started: The Fact Checker’s Bible.

Written by Sarah Harrison Smith, who directs checking for The New York Times Magazine, the 2004 Anchor Books paperback costs only $13. (I’m getting no commission for this plug, by the way.) Helpful chapters include source material, quotations, plagiarism and libel.

I’ve even suggested in earlier columns that fact checkers could be used to look over advertisements for inevitable errors. Not having to run all those corrected ads again for free the following day could free up some funds to help cover the checker’s salary. And it could help boost reader confidence in your published product.

Pennsylvania’s own Dr. Randy Hines teaches in the Department of Communications at Susquehanna University. His address is 514 University Ave., Selinsgrove PA 17870. He can be reached at randyhinesapr@yahoo.com.