Have you seen Tom Hodson’s commentary on WOUB-TV opposing proposed federal budget cuts for public broadcasting?
In it, the interim director and general manager of the WOUB Center for Public Media partners his cutback opposition with self-serving praise for the “fairness” and “understanding” that, according to Hodson, characterize the work done in almost every one of this country’s media markets by center graduates.
It is impossible to believe that the widely traveled Dr. Hodson has not had the opportunity to observe news programming in many, if not all, of those media markets; he should know what he is talking about.
Watching TV, listening to radio, at home and in my travels, I have seen and heard what passes for journalism emanating from the newsrooms of mainstream media, NBC, CBS, ABC, CNN, FOX and their local affiliates.
I’ve not infrequently sat in stunned silence listening to those broadcast news reporters, public and commercial, here and afar, who, nearly without exception, seem to have no awareness of any value system other than that of their high-school peers.
Based upon my observations, Dr. Hodson’s pride in the center’s graduates seems more cloying than forthright.
Eliot Kalman is a 1976 Ohio University graduate and resides in Athens.
