General Managers set the professional standard for journalism in local television. More frequently, General Managers are chosen from the Sales Manager ranks due to their ability to garner bottom line success through advertising revenue. However, General Managers from news backgrounds hold staff members to higher and more professional standards. Advertisers, information sources, and affiliations exert added pressure on local television news. Stories critical of sponsors are rarely seen, or downplayed and sanitized.
Sponsors are acutely aware of ratings and want advertising dollars to achieve maximum impact.
Local television content is shaped to keep audiences tuned in so sponsors will continue their support. Until the public demands higher standards from newscasts, all informative, accurate, and quality television journalism will be neglected for the sake of currying favor with revenue and information sources. In the early stages of mass communication, the newspaper was the main source of information. The 1920's saw the invention of the radio, with the television following 30 years later as the main source of information. With this constant flow of information, it is easy for one to lose track of the mass media's credibility and develop the assumption that the media are always honest, their goal being to deliver news and the truth to the people.