If you sit and watch German public TV (ARD or ZDF), after a while with the news business, you tend to notice that commentary segments are often inserted into the nightly news. The curious thing is that the only commentators allowed into these public statements....are ARD, ZDF, or sub-network 'hired-hands' (journalists under contract by the public TV system).
The way this works (as explain around two years ago by the public TV management folks) is that there is a meeting in the midst of the day, and the leadership of various sub-networks gets a chance to comment on some story, and the need say something besides a neutral view. A case is given where all of the managers (NDR, BR, SWR, etc) can state their passion on some subject. At some point, ARD or ZDF management will then give the call to that group to produce a two to three minute commentary.
It'll be inserted into the news piece (either at 8 PM on ARD), or at 9:45 PM (via the two news pieces done).
No politicians allowed? No. Neither are religious figures, bankers, judges, prosecutors, teachers, professors, or for that matter any private German citizen.
Why? This is never really spoken in any public statement, and one might be led to believe that the journalists believe they are the only ones 'attuned' to some story, or episode developing.
Whether right or wrong, it's the system that has developed, and there is public way to change this.
Up until the BREXIT business came up three years ago, I rarely paid that much attention to the commentary positions. Presently, after having seen enough of these, I've come to some conclusion that some intellectual argument is always presented on the EU being a super-positive thing, and populism is generated noted in a quarter of all of these BREXIT commentaries (in a bad way).
Don't get me wrong, I like the 15-minute blunt all-you-need-know news from ARD at 8 PM. It's just enough to spell things out and avoid too much information. But inserting these three-minute pieces into that 15-minute piece.....is a waste.
No comments:
Post a Comment