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Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader, Renita Fennick Column: Whose Reality Are They Airing on TV Anyway? RENITA FENNICK OPINION

Posted on: Wednesday, 26 April 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Renita Fennick, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader

Apr. 26--his might be the only entertainment story that I'll ever write, so here goes. News flash: Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes are not the first couple to have a child and they won't be the last.

End of story. End of my career as an entertainment reporter.

Now, if only everyone else will stop treating this fairly common event as a breaking news story, I'll be happy.

If you're like me, you want to scream every time you hear someone on television talking about this famous couple's newborn daughter. And, I don't even watch those entertainment news shows. The networks and cable news channels feel compelled to tell us how thrilled these two are about their baby, to give us the roots of this little girl's name and to speculate on when the couple will tie the knot. (Am I the only person who longs for the days when you got married first and pregnant second or at least married soon after you found out the baby was on the way?)

And, while I'm pining for journalism of the past, I'd like to see us cover real events. I'll even count the birth of little Suri Cruise in there. After all, there's nothing wrong with a brief mention of a celebrity birth in the entertainment section.

Filthy-rich bachelor on an island?

What disturbs me is how the growth of this phenomenon called Reality TV is affecting news selection. It's bad enough that networks are so desperate to fill a time slot that they put 12 people on an island and eliminate them one by one. There's nothing newsworthy about devoting a slot on morning news shows or space on news wires to each weekly update.

Most of those shows -- such as "Survivor,""Apprentice" or the others that feature gimmicks like bachelors and millionaires -- have crept into the news budgets of mainstream media. After every twist and turn, morning anchors are interviewing the non-survivor or rejected suitor as if the plot of a TV show is newsworthy.

All it does is create a blurry line between a network's public relations efforts and its news coverage.

I find it a little unsettling to have Diane Sawyer or Matt Lauer interview the last person to be ejected from a so-called reality show as if none of it was scripted, then talk to a senator or congressman in the next segment about honest-to-goodness reality like the war in Iraq or illegal immigration.

Most of these shows are not even live. Real journalists wouldn't provide coverage of a taped episode that's been edited to neatly fit into a one-hour time slot. They'd try to find a source on the island or inside the mansion and scoop everyone else by telling us who won weeks before the series is scheduled to end.

This troubling trend really hit me a few years ago when I heard a radio news report. The announcer started off with something like this: Sources say the popular president will announce tonight that he is seeking a second term.

I was a bit confused until I heard the rest of the report. The newsman was talking about the fictional President Bartlett, a character on "The West Wing." It's one thing to be a faithful fan of a TV program. It's quite another to treat the character's (not the actor's) moves as a news event.

The kicker came when the real presidential election rolled around. Some journalists were appalled that a bloc of voters said they prefer Bartlett as president to the other two candidates.

Imagine that. Voters actually treated a TV character's presidency as if it were real.

Renita Fennick can be reached at 829-7246 or rfennick@leader.net [mailto:rfennick@leader.net]

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Copyright (c) 2006, Wilkes-Barre, Pa., Times Leader

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Source: The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre, Pa.)

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