No questions asked. Eyewitness News at 11. TV news promos are so critical to a local news organization that most stations have separate promotions departments to create them. Overselling can happen, though, especially during sweeps. And inaccuracies can occur as the videotape and the gist of the story, goes from the reporter in the field to the producers and tape editors at the station to the creators of the promo.
Television is difficult.
There are a lot of hands that go into every story. But in 1996, the Minnesota News Council ruled that WCCO-TV in Minneapolis got it wrong. That spring, with the May sweeps at hand, the station ran a series of investigative reports questioning the safety standards of Northwest Airlines. Northwest thought the reports were distorted and untrue, and the News Council, which provides a forum for those with complaints about the media, agreed. Gary Gilson, executive director of the News Council, says the promos were particularly egregious.