Monthly Archives: November 2020

Poynter is hosting a free webinar on Dec. 15 at 2 p.m. CT about navigating legal challenges in journalism.

Join The Center for Investigative Reporting CEO Christa Scharfenberg and general counsel Victoria Baranetsky in this interactive dialogue to discuss how reporters and news organizations can handle libel and slander suits, including an overview of the libel suit CIR has been fighting for the past four years.

The one-hour webinar will cover evolving legal developments in defamation, emerging challenges, anti-SLAPP laws and resources that journalists and organizations can use to protect themselves and their reporters in the pursuit of truth. Attendees to this free webinar will not only have the opportunity to glean insights from CIR, producers of the award-winning Reveal public radio show and podcast, but will also have ample time to pose their own questions.

Enroll here

I’ve worked a WSAW-TV for nearly 13 years.  In that time I’ve done just about every job in the newsroom—on air and behind the scenes. I’ve never been a fulltime anchor or reporter, but have anchored and reported on holidays. It’s really exciting!

If you’re looking to get a little more air time, the holidays are your chance.

And if you won’t be getting together with your family this year, you might as well make the most of it.

Best reasons to volunteer to work holidays:

1. Opens the door for other anchoring opportunities
2. Holiday pay incentive
3. Great for the reel!
4. Free food? – My company always provides dinner to working holiday staff
5. Viewers are a little more forgiving if you stumble

Heather Poltrock
WSAW-TV, Wausau

Seven Wisconsin broadcasters won 14 awards from the Chicago/Midwest Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

The following awards were announced Sunday:

Outstanding Achievement for News Programming – Evening Newscast: Smaller Markets (51+)
WKOW, Madison: Molson-Coors Shooting
Ed Reams, Executive Producer; Evan Bolin, Roderick Curry, Robert Newell, Producers; Rob Fick, Director; Amber Noggle, George Smith, Anchors; A.J. Bayatpour, Andrew Merica, Reporters; John Zeigler, Meteorologist; Allan Karis, Editor; Matt Cash, Executive Producer.

Outstanding Achievement for News Programming – Newscast: Smaller Markets (51+)
WMTV, Madison: NBC15 Morning Show
Jeremy Nichols, Producer; Tim Elliott, Brittney Ermon, Lindsay Frommer, Curt Lenz, James Parish, Taylor Pomasl, Allie Purser, Jason Rice, Elise Romas, Katie Rousonelos, Gabriella Rusk, Producers; Seth Rabin, Andre Wherle, Directors.

Outstanding Achievement for News Specialty Report/Series – Business/Consumer
WITI, Milwaukee: Optical Delusion
Bryan Polcyn, Reporter; Stephen Davis, Jeffrey Frings, Jerry Imig, Tim Primeau, Producers.

Outstanding Achievement for News Specialty Report/Series – Education/Schools
WTMJ, Milwaukee: College at 14
Carole Meekins, Reporter; Jeff Morris, Mark Was, Mark Wirtz, Co-Producers.

Outstanding Achievement for News Specialty Report/Series – Environment
WITI, Milwaukee: Troubled Waters: Amy DuPont, Reporter; David McAlister, Producer.

Outstanding Achievement for News Specialty Report/Series – Health/Science
WITI, Milwaukee: Am I Really That Sick?
Andrew Konkle, Producer; Carl Deffenbaugh, Reporter; Sara Smith, Producer.

Outstanding Achievement for News Specialty Report/Series – Human Interest
WITI, Milwaukee: Finding Family
Ted Perry, Reporter; Jerry Imig, Sara Smith, Producers.

Outstanding Achievement for News Specialty Report/Series – Politics/Government
WITI, Milwaukee: The Governor’s Emails
Amanda St. Hilaire, Reporter; Jerry Imig, Andrew Konkle, Tim Primeau, LeeAnn Watson, Producers.

Outstanding Achievement for News Specialty Report/Series – Sports
WISN, Milwaukee: Fittest Seated Man on Earth
Stephen Watson, Reporter.

Outstanding Achievement for Informational/Instructional Programming – Program/Special/ Series/Feature/Segment
PBS Wisconsin: Kindness in the Classroom
Ryan Hendricks, Producer; Megan Monday, Executive Producer.

Outstanding Achievement for Arts/Entertainment Programming –Program/Special/Series
PBS Wisconsin: The Light
Zhalarina Sanders, Producer; Jake Penner, Producer; James Donovan, Rodney Lambright, Beauxregard Neylon, Cailin Short, Ryan Ward, Co-Producers; Trevor Keller, Managing Producer; Laurie Gorman, Executive Producer.

Outstanding Crafts Achievement for On-Camera Talent – Program Host/Moderator
WMVS, Milwaukee: John McGivern – Composite.

Outstanding Crafts Achievement for On-Camera Talent – Investigative Reporter
WITI, Milwaukee: Amanda St. Hilaire – Composite.

Outstanding Crafts Achievement Off-Air – Photography – News
WITI-Milwaukee, Jerry Imig – Composite.

The full list of winners can be found here.

The following is from WBA Young Professional Committee member Heather Poltrock who works at WSAW-TV in Wausau.

There is no feeling worse than being unprepared. In broadcasting, preparation is everything.

I remember the first time I filled in at the assignment desk. I’d been at the station about two years, but had really never the been the ‘main phone answerer’. Welp, I had about an hour into the shift when the phone rang and the person on the other end just laid into me. He was screaming upset because we ‘promised coverage’ and didn’t show up to his school the day before. I did not know what he was talking about and now I was in a position to defend a decision I was not apart of. All I could do was stutter and apologize. He eventually hung up.

I never wanted to feel that way again—unprepared and caught off guard. I replayed our conversation in my head and rehearsed what I would say if that ever happened again.

Hence, the verbal fire drill. It’s OK to rehearse for difficult conversations.

After, I spoke with a coworker who was always pretty smooth on the phones. His best piece of advice was “pretend they are recording your call”.

Silly, right?

But it makes sense. Would you want your response to be played for anyone else? He said, “So what if you need to pause for a few seconds to craft a response? It’s better than saying something stupid.”

It’s also OK to not have the answer. “I am going to need to take some time to look into this story/situation/decision. May I have your phone number so that I can get back to you?”

Now, you’re probably wondering about the call I mentioned above. What would I say if I took that call today?

“I’m very sorry. Clearly there was a miscommunication. Do you have any photos or video from the event? Please send them to me so I can write a web article and give the students some recognition”.

Anyway… The important thing to keep in the back of your mind is broadcasting is show business. And the business aspect is extremely important. Viewers are customers. And while I won’t go as far as saying the customer is always right (because if they are not, we need to correct them) every customer is important, and we need to do our very best to make it right.

Heather Poltrock
WSAW-TV, Wausau

A Dane County judge has agreed with a Milwaukee TV station seeking the release of emails from Gov. Tony Evers.

In September 2019, FOX6 (WITI-TV) requested more than four weeks of emails to and from Gov. Evers and his chief of staff, Maggie Gau. The request was part of an open records spot check on public employees’ emails.

The governor’s office said the requesters had to submit search terms to narrow the request for information.

“What are my elected officials talking about? Who are my elected officials talking with?” Tom Kamenick, FOX6’s attorney in this matter and founder of Wisconsin Transparency Project said. “You don’t have to know ahead of time the answers to those questions to make a request.”

The ruling released this week says the governor’s office had an “incorrect interpretation” of the law and needs to give FOX6 the rest of the emails requested, along with attorney fees.

Read more about the case here.

WISN-TV morning anchor Sheldon Dutes is leaving the Milwaukee station to return to his hometown, Orlando.

Dutes will be morning anchor at WESH-TV.

While at WISN-TV, Dutes won two Emmy awards for Outstanding Achievement for News Programming. Before coming to Milwaukee, he was a reporter at WNBC-TV in New York and WBAL-TV in Baltimore.

The Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison for the Anthony Shadid Award for Journalism Ethics. Now in its 12th year, the Shadid Award recognizes ethical decisions in reporting stories in any medium, including print, broadcast and digital, by journalists working for established news organizations or publishing individually.

The award focuses on current journalism and does not include books, documentaries and other long-term projects. Entries should involve reporting done for stories that were published or broadcast in 2020. Individuals or news organizations may nominate themselves or others.

The nomination window opened November 16, 2020.

The Shadid Award includes a $1,000 prize and travel expenses to accept the award and discuss the reporting at an awards ceremony typically held in New York City.

The Shadid Award is different from other journalism prizes in that it seeks to recognize the difficult, behind-the-scenes decisions reporters make in pursuing high-impact stories and in fulfilling their ethical obligations to sources, to people caught up in news events, and to the public at large.

“At its best, journalism brings important stories to light in a way that shows a real duty of care for people whose lives will be affected by the reporting,” says Lucas Graves, chair of the judging committee. “The Shadid Award gives us a chance recognize the tough ethical choices reporters face and the steps they take to minimize harms from their work.”

:

• 2020: Lakeidra Chavis and Jodi S. Cohen, ProPublica & Jennifer Smith Richards, Chicago Tribune
• 2019: Julie K. Brown and Emily Michot, Miami Herald
• 2018: Brian Grow and John Shiffman, Reuters
• 2017: Shane Bauer, Mother Jones
• 2016: Martha Mendoza, Margie Mason, Robin McDowell and Esther Htusan, Associated Press
• 2015: David Jackson, Gary Marx, Duaa Eldeib and Anthony Souffle, Chicago Tribune
• 2014: Adam Goldman, Matt Apuzzo and Ted Bridis, Associated Press

A graduate of UW-Madison, Anthony Shadid died in 2012 on a reporting assignment in Syria for the New York Times. He won two Pulitzer Prizes for his courageous and insightful foreign correspondence. Shadid sat on the the Center for Journalism Ethics advisory board and strongly supported its efforts to promote public interest journalism and stimulate discussion about journalism ethics.

Letters of nomination must include:

1. Name and contact information of the nominators and their relationship to the story
2. Names and emails of the reporter or reporting team that produced the report
3. Brief description of the story and a link to it online
4. Description of conflicting values encountered in reporting the story
5. Options considered to resolve the conflicts
6. Final decisions and rationales behind them

Nomination letters of three pages or less should be saved in pdf format and attached to an email sent to ethicsaward@journalism.wisc.edu

Deadline for submissions is January 15, 2021.

By entering this competition, you grant the Center for Journalism Ethics permission to use your entry as a positive example of ethical decision-making if your entry is judged a finalist for the award.

If you are chosen as a finalist for the award, your nomination letter will be posted on our website. If there is anything within the nomination letter that needs to be kept confidential, please let us know.

After the year of news you’ve had to cover, no one would blame you for feeling stressed out.

Poynter this morning is sharing tips to help journalists ward off burnout.

The article suggests starting by understanding trauma and practicing digital wellness.

Read more here.

In TV news, a fair amount of stories we cover include people with disabilities. Their stories shed light on medical advancements, their spirits are uplifting, and most often, sharing their story with a local audience can help generate much-needed financial support.

But sometimes it’s tough when you know you need to address a medical condition in your story, but you just aren’t sure how to word it.

My approach to journalism…. Well, and life… has always been if you don’t know, just ask. I reached out to my friend Melanie Kretschmer to ask how a reporter can avoid saying something that could be ‘unintentionally hurtful’ during an interview. Melanie is a mom to two, including her 4-year-old daughter Naomi. Naomi has cerebral palsy and Melanie frequently and eloquently writes about their journey on Facebook.

Here’s Melanie’s own explanation with a little backstory:

After a relatively normal pregnancy, completely unknown to us, our daughter suffered a stroke sometime within the days before her birth. Naomi was born via emergency C-section, resuscitated and suffered a lengthy seizure, all before I even awoke from anesthesia.   She suffered an ischemic stroke and acquired a diagnosis of Cerebral Palsy (amongst a laundry list of others). Cerebral palsy affects her daily life as well as ours, but more than anything, it empowers us to educate ourselves as well as others about Naomi and the millions of others who are living with disabilities in the world.

When learning about inclusion, the information we receive can be so variable that it is difficult to know where to start to be both respectful and inclusive, yet acknowledge someone’s differences.  Even with knowing that, anyone can inflict a great deal of pain on someone just by the words they choose to use.

After Naomi was born with significant needs, well-intentioned friends, family members, even doctors would use the word “normal.”  I would cringe each time.

Someone might say, “Your daughter is adorable. What a fighter – she is going to be normal, right?” The people who loved and cared for us were simply wondering: Would she have long-lasting effects from her stroke?

What would life look like for her?

Regardless of how loving and well-intentioned the statements were, they often hurt. Because the answer was, “No.” My daughter would not meet their version of “normal.”

When it comes to interacting with individuals who have disabilities or their families, I find it best to ask questions from the start.  One of the biggest things I learned in our journey is that those around us each have a story that is unique to them. The words they like to use, the way, and to what depth they like to discuss things may vary considerably from person to person and family to family. I have found that starting a conversation with, “I have something I would like to ask regarding, “child.” Is that OK? I am going to do my best to be sensitive and ask it respectfully. Please correct me, if I am not.”

Such a simple statement has the ability to let those you are speaking with know not only the positivity of your intentions but truly show care and concern for how they may feel about you asking it. It also allows them the opportunity to educate you and share their preferred language or even the opportunity to say that they would rather not discuss the topic.

I would like to highlight that the above is simply my personal experience and interactions. I certainly cannot speak for all those living with, loving, or raising others with unique differences.

Even some of the language I used is not what all find to be appropriate. Many say the term “special needs” bothers them and prefer using terms such as “unique differences”. I like to use both interchangeably.

In order to compile a list of “Things to Never Say,” I reached out for feedback from a large support network I have of parents, professionals, grandparents, guardians, individuals and caretakers to compile a short list and/or advice to keep in your pocket when interacting with those different from yourself.

1. He looks so normal. / He looks fine. / You would never know by looking at him.
2. Is this something she will outgrow?
3. Offers for treatment or things to “fix” the child.

(i.e., things you have seen on social media, google, exercises or things that worked for someone you know/heard of.)

4. Ask if they prefer using person-first or diagnosis-first language. People first would be, “Child with cerebral palsy.” Diagnosis first would be, “CP kiddo.”
5. Did you have a normal pregnancy? / Is it genetic?
6. Assumptions that wheelchairs or braces mean there is something wrong with their legs. It is important to understand that most children in a wheelchair are there because of a brain injury or damage, cerebral palsy or genetic and muscular conditions. (Statement: “It makes their life seem like is comparable to a sports injury and I don’t like that.”)
7. Did you know when you were pregnant?  / Did you know it was possible before you got pregnant

Heather Poltrock
WSAW-TV, Wausau

There are two things I know for sure: Salads always taste better when someone else makes them. And probably once a week you do something to annoy your assignment editor.

It really takes a special person to handle the role of the Assignment Editor. There is a ton of responsibility, very few ‘thanks’ and let’s be real—plenty of opportunities to talk to angry viewers.

Last month, I contacted several assignment editors from TV newsrooms in Wisconsin and polled them on their biggest pet peeves. I hope that by bringing their challenges to light we can collectively create a smoother workday for them.

Without further ado, here are their responses:

1. Story ideas that are lost in space. We may have discussed the idea, the reporter may have made calls on it and didn’t hear back, or we just decided to do another story that day. That idea is never brought up again–and gets lost. 
2. When after a lengthy discussion in an editorial meeting about a story idea, a reporter says “So…what is this story about?”
3. Setting up stories without consulting with the desk.
4. Making one phone call, and then just waiting. Rather than moving on or trying different ideas/contacts, they just sit and wait to hear back. Obviously, that does not work well.
5. When reporters NEVER have their own story ideas.
6. Having to be told repeatedly to send back still images & updates for website.
7. “I didn’t see the email.”
8. Not bringing original story ideas to the meetings. This includes either having no ideas at all, or pitching stories we have already done within the past couple of days, or just relying on copying ideas from competitors who have already done the story.
9. Tardiness.
10. Making only one phone call and then saying no one is available and the story won’t work.
11. Not following up! How did that meeting go? Is there a follow-up meeting? Did the person get the kidney they were asking for? Did the school get the funding they needed? You get my drift. Reporters should always be following up with contacts if more developments could be coming.
12. Pitching a story that came as a press release 5 minutes before the meeting (it’s fine to pitch something from a press release, but let’s expand on it and make it interesting, not just regurgitating the release word for word).
13. Not reporting broken/damaged equipment to engineering.
14. Not fueling up news vehicles when they are on empty.
15. Not giving the desk information for the “next” – next court date, next meeting date, etc.
16. Inability to read a map or follow directions.

Lastly, it is not just their job you’ll make easier by correcting some of these behaviors. It will help you in your workflow too.

Heather Poltrock, WSAW-TV, Wausau
WBA Young Professionals Committee