Teasing the news is the wrong thing to thing to do.

• Author: Saltzman, Joe
• Position: Words & Images - Brief Article

USING THE NEWS OF THE DAY as fodder to entice an audience to stay tuned used to be annoying and in dubious taste, but, like TV commercials, something to be endured as a necessity of commercial broadcasting. In today's world, however, where Americans need accurate and clear information as quickly as they can get it, teasing the news is an atrocious breach of journalists' responsibility to the public. Local news, as usual, is the worst offender, but network news organizations as well as CNN aren't innocent, especially when it comes to promoting their news magazines and news talk shows.

News and information should never be used to tease an audience into waiting around through the commercial break or that evening's newscast. Teases designed to persuade viewers to stay tuned are fine for entertainment programs, but news is just too serious a business, especially today, to play games with the audience.

Scare headlines

The verbal headlines tend to scare people: "Should you worry?" "Is security tough enough?" "Will our food supply be the terrorists' next target?" "Is there a gap in airline security?" "Is a smallpox epidemic likely?" " The smallpox threat--how serious? How big a threat is it?" Serious journalism demands something more. Instead of scaring the audience with a tease asking if a smallpox epidemic is likely, the reasonable change would be to sum up the story in clear terms: "A smallpox epidemic is (likely, not likely, or a possibility) at this time." If there's a story on how safe the American food supply is, a proper tease would sum up whether experts think terrorists will attack the food supply in the near future. (Again, the immediate answer can be fairly simple: yes, no, maybe.)

News organizations have used provocative teases for years, but usually with stories involving trivia, weather, or sports. "Want to know who won the game last night? Stay tuned and we'll tell you"-type teases are commonplace. But teasing serious news developments is not something broadcast journalists should be doing, not only because it may be unprofessional or even unethical, but because it is maddening to force viewers to wait. No one seems to care much if the newsperson says, "Big car chase in Gardena. We'll tell you how it came out after this." This may be unfair, but it is not life-threatening. However, when the newsperson says, "Are you worried about anthrax in your mail? We'll tell you if you should be after this," it is irresponsible journalism.

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