So there s an economic penalty for covering a ballot initiative or race among candidates for public office that s important in San Francisco, but irrelevant in San Jose, Santa Rosa and Walnut Creek. Television clearly pays a greater price in profits than newspapers for coverage that doesn t turn the heads of as many as possible. But the role of news isn t to rubber neck for as big an audience as possible. It s to help as many as possible understand the world around them. Just before an election the public need is greatest for intense, independent reporting on how billions of dollars of our money shall be spent and who shall lead our nation, our state, county, city, even police departments and schools.
Political coverage is a litmus test of the civic responsibility of our news media.
Given the extraordinary profits local stations earn the industry average for large market affiliate stations is about four times that of the average U.S. firm and the bonanza that political advertising represents, one might expect at least a tie between journalism ethics and the demands of Wall Street. We don t know. Grade the News received no response from any station each of which was provided a pre-posting copy of our analysis. It s possible that we caught each of the stations on the only two down nights for political reporting in the week before the vote. But absent that, we re left with the obvious answer that banking the extra cash counted more than informing citizens.