March 2, 2010

The lowest common denominator


NBC 4 out of Columbus has a fabulous tagline for their daily newscasts:

NBC 4: Where Accuracy Matters!

Call me crazy, but shouldn't "accuracy" be, like, the baseline requirement for news?

What taglines didn't make the cut:

  • NBC 4: The stuff we say is less wrong than other news programs!

  • NBC 4: Our anchors may be ugly, but at least the facts are mostly correct!

  • NBC 4: Our newscasts are dry and boring as day-old toast, but we hardly ever make mistakes! Probably!

or:

  • NBC 4: We make just as many mistakes as everyone else, but we're the only ones who feel bad about it!

Am I crazy? It just seems like such a weird thing to be proud of. If accuracy doesn't matter to you, I don't think you should be doing the news.

I mean, my 18-month-old niece could do a newscast and claim that she cares about accuracy, even though she can't even say "accuracy." Or see over the newsdesk. But her reports about the traffic conditions in the living room (not to mention her Cheerios: Exposed! segment) would be much more relevant than anything the news generally has to offer.

3 backtalk:

Wrestling Kitties said...

HAHAHA! So very true!!

I think they are trying to slam the other news stations saying they don't care about accuracy. OH SNAP NBC 4!!

At least they didn't spell accuracy wrong!

Amber said...

Awesome!

As a former print journalist, this cracks me up. I know from experience that accuracy rarely matters in broadcast journalism*; it's all about the speed of the delivery. So, I'd like to suggest:

NBC 4: We may not be right, but we were first!

or

NBC 4: We love us some breakin' news; we'll check the facts later.

*I'm being silly. I don't want any teleprompters thrown a me!

Unknown said...

For some reason I'm irritated by taglines, mottos, mission statements, etc.

It's my own problem I should work on.

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