W.Va. station shuns candidate, ex-news chief who called local TV news waste of time

Ed Rabel

An ABC affiliate in Charleston, W.Va., owned by Sinclair Broadcasting, is refusing to report about a congressional candidate — who was once the news director for the station — in response to an article the candidate penned for the Charleston Gazette in which he said local television was a waste of time, Kevin Eck reports for Media Bistro. Ed Rabel, a former CBS correspondent, is running as in independent for the seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, who is running for a Senate seat.

WCHS-TV News Director Matt Snyder "issued a directive that no story would be aired on the station about Rabel’s independent campaign for Congress," reports Morgan County USA, an online news source in the West Virginia county. Twice a WCHS reporter tried to interview Rabel for stories, but was told Rabel "would not be appearing on any of the station’s news programs and prohibited the reporter from interviewing Rabel," and was also told not to mention that Rabel was launching a campaign.

To read the article by Rabel, click here. Here is an excerpt:

Instead of focusing on original reporting, the local stations are focused on cosmetics. Not a country for old men and women, the local television ‘news’ landscape is populated by bubble-heads and glib, young, sometimes pretty know-nothings. The truth is, they wouldn’t know a news story if it slapped them in the face. When was the last time you saw an investigative piece about, let’s see, the Massey mine disaster? Or, how about, God forbid, an exclusive story that penetrated the precincts where politicians hide their secrets from the public?

There are reasons you don’t get the news on local TV. Station owners and managers forbid their news departments from stepping on toes and ruffling feathers, out of fear that such stories might insult local advertisers or offend politicians on whose toes reporters might stomp. And investigative or original reporting is costly, meaning real reporters must be hired to do real reporting, a job that requires lots of time and money that the stations have no time for. Instead, I remember one Huntington TV station leading its newscast last December with the astonishing news that Christmas tree sales were on the rise. Hold the presses!

Someone once said that owning a local TV station is like having a license to steal. But the real license to broadcast calls for the people to be informed. People, isn’t it time to revoke the license?