wfn.org | WNBC-TV news director calls monitoring scanners 'lazy

["Barb Powell"<powellb@ucc.org>]

news'
Sept. 16, 1998
Office of Communication
United Church of Christ
In Cleveland:
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WNBC-TV news director calls monitoring police scanners 'lazy
news'

By Carol Fouke, National Council of Churches 
     NEW YORK CITY   As Vice President and News
Director of WNBC-TV, Channel 4, New York, Paula Madison's
mission is clear and succinct: "To try to leave this city better than
we found it."  That means bucking the "if it bleeds, it leads"
philosophy all too prevalent in local television news.
     "To focus most coverage on death, destruction and murder
is a disservice to the community," she said.  It's "lazy news" to sit
by the police scanner waiting for the next murder or car crash to fill
up a newscast.
     Madison delivered the 16th Annual Everett C. Parker
Ethics in Telecommunications Lecture Sept. 15 in New York.  One
of the few African-American women TV news directors in the
nation and the first in the New York market, she described her
determination to focus on the issues   education, zoning, business
development, religion and so on   and to represent communities
accurately.
     "In an environment that continues to be more diverse by the
moment as more and more immigrants come to our area   the
overwhelming number of them Latino   then my newsroom has to
become more Latino," she said.
     Gross misrepresentation of African Americans in television
news was among factors leading Madison to a career in journalism. 
"On TV, the people who looked like me were pictured with their
heads down and hands cuffed behind their backs," she said.
     Madison's childhood in Harlem, while poor, embodied
neighborliness and concern for the well-being and education of
every child.  "Not everyone who looked like me was a criminal,
thug, murderer or rapist," she said.  "[I decided] Given my
background, who better to change the content of television news
than me?"
     At WNBC-TV, "Do we cover stories on death, destruction
and murder? Yes.  But we work hard not to lead with those
stories," Madison said.  "I think we should help people by giving
them information that is a tool for them to figure out how to better
their quality of life.  We must develop relations in a variety of
communities."  Then when there's news, "they'll phone you. 
Investment is needed to get news.  If you've not seeded the clouds
in the days and weeks before, you have to wait for the scanner or
beeper."
     "People who watch TV news are buying into our agenda  
our viewership has increased," Madison said of WNBC-TV.  "We
have a very aggressive news operation   I hope aggressive and
humane."  Channel 4 is now number one in the New York City
ratings. Madison hopes her successful news philosophy will propel
her some day to the news director's position at NBC. 
     Also honored at the lecture were Earle K. (Dick) Moore,
long time legal counsel to the Office of Communication of the
United Church of Christ, and Paul DeMain, Native American
journalist and publisher of the country's first national Indian journal,
News from Indian Country.
     The Parker Lecture is co-sponsored by the Office of
Communication of the United Church of Christ and the
Communication Commission of the National Council of the
Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

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