I got laughed at the first time I brought a Thesaurus into a TV newsroom. Not just chuckles, but loud guffawing that came deep from the bellies of my new colleagues. See, I’d spent most of my early journalism career writing for newspapers and magazines, and I was eager to bring some fresh language to local TV. Stories I’d seen on the news were full of clichéd, worn out buzz words and phrases that I found all but unwatchable. Maybe I was naïve, maybe I little brash, but darn it I was going to try to spruce up the local news world.
I was used to working with editors so I had seen my fair share of prose hacked to bits to fit the sensibilities of the average reader. But nothing in the print world could have prepared me for the massacre my writing would fall victim to once I entered the broadcast field.
The first few days on the job I wrote in complex sentences, full of adjectives, clauses and other literary flourishes I felt the home viewer might find refreshing. But in the world of TV news you don’t answer to an editor. It’s more like a slaughterhouse, when a long line of people wait with sharpened tools, ready to slice, hack, cut, saw, and otherwise disassemble a sentence. I’ve had stories mangled, destroyed, wrecked, crushed, and dismantled in ways that don’t even begin to resemble traditional editing.
The first to take their pound of flesh is the producer. Their main concern is time. They’re under intense pressure to ramp up “story count,” essentially cramming as much watered down news into an hour as humanly possible. Just one extra sentence can derail an entire block of a show, forcing them to play catch-up for the rest of the hour.
Next to wield the ax is the Executive Producer. Their job is to read through each story checking for accuracy, consistency and overall cohesiveness, but usually they just end up chopping up a story just for the heck of it. To put their fingerprints on it so to speak. They’re also convinced that every local news viewer has the comprehension of a fourth grader and the attention span of a gnat.
Then comes the talent. In their minds they’re the last line of defense. Sometimes it’s a reporter, but more often it’s the anchors at the news desk. They ultimately have to read the story, which means they have to be comfortable with the way it’s written. That generally means cutting out even more big words. I’ve written for lots of talented anchors, but I’ve also run across a few that have a hard enough time reading the menu at the drive thru.
Here’s what I’ve found to be the general rule of thumb when writing for local news. Each story needs to fit into a 25 second window. That means about five to six sentences apiece, provided each sentence contains between six and eight words. That’s why so many local news stories don’t include relevant information, like who died in the explosion, how much money the bank robbers made off with, where the car crash happened, or whether it’s affecting traffic.
Word count isn’t the only thing handcuffing local news writers. Producers and anchors don’t just suggest you include news speak, it’s essentially mandatory. It’s all an effort to add a false sense of urgency into rather mundane stories.
I lost count of how many times phrases like "fighting back," "being called a hero," “shots rang out” and “fighting for life” were inserted into my stories by producers and anchors.
My personal pet peeve is “speaking out.” Witnesses, celebrities, football coaches and politicians are just some of the few who are always “speaking out.” That phrase really rubs me the wrong way, because it’s used so incorrectly and so often. At least for me, “speaking out” implies some sense of secrecy. I picture a brave whistle blower standing up against corporate corruption, fighting for what’s right. Or a victim of violence, summoning the strength to turn in their long time abuser.
“Speaking out” shouldn’t be used anytime anyone’s talking about anything.
You’ll hear things like, “Peyton Manning speaks out about facing a 3-4 defense.” Or “A witness speaks out about what they saw when the car crashed into a pole.”
That’s not speaking out. That’s just speaking. And it’s one of the many reasons I’m not writing for TV news anymore.
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