I have long been critical of broadcast news personalities for portraying themselves in movies and television dramas.
Yes, there’s a great sense of real-life drama when the camera tilts up and zooms in on a tv screen to show an actual real-life tv news anchor delivering a fake story on what appears to be their usual studio set, reporting on events that advance the story in the movie. But it’s not real. In my view, it’s not ethical. It has never been acceptable in my view.
How many movies of the past 20 years or so have made prominent use of scenes involving anchors or reporters or news panel hosts from a particular 24-hour U-S news channel? Oddly, the personalities involved tend to identify themselves as “journalists”. But acting doesn’t fit with being a journalist. These are not individuals who “read” the news; they are actively involved in gathering, writing, determining the news line-up, presenting, reporting, and questioning the information presented as news, and interviewing the news makers.
As a long-time news anchor and reporter, I have always felt it is not right for tv newscasters, anchors, reporters, or news show hosts to appear in movies or other fictional works portraying themselves. There are plenty of actors who can act a dramatic role. It’s not difficult to create a fictional news outlet or a tv news set for a big-budget movie.
Using real anchors, giving fake news, on real-looking news sets, seems designed to add credibility to the story unfolding in the movie; gravitas…authenticity.
How odd then, that some of these very news characters should – in their real news jobs – find themselves criticizing political and public relations characters for manipulating, misconstruing, misstating, and misleading the public with alternative facts, outright lies, and fake news.
In a social media thread today, I was watching some public relations professionals criticize practices of their own profession. They were calling for a more ethical standard of practice; urging practitioners to be honest, to refuse to be used to mislead reporters, and to take a stand when information is misrepresented. They’re reacting to the new reality of the fake news era, and looking to protect – or repair – their industry’s reputation. They’re concerned that “PR” is now read as “political spin” and “alternative facts”. We’ll need to follow ethics and a moral compass, one writer was suggesting.
More than a decade after “real” news people on tv had their shorts in a knot over the “fake news” shows that were taking over the actual news analysis function abandoned by talking head reporter Q&As and super-short actualities of newsmakers, actual news workers might take a stand against false news portrayals by their peers. (The “fake news” shows were not fake news – they were satire, comedy, commentary – and presented themselves as just that.)
I think if news personalities are going to protect their own credibility, they’ll need to collectively and individually refuse to give false news on camera for entertainment purposes.
Fake news is just not right.
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