More News About Good News
So we thought it would be worth taking a look at a past Public Eye post, which examined a bit of the history of such programming on network news.
Back in 2005, we noticed a trend in reporting "good news" stories. The NBC "Nightly News" had begun it's "Making A Difference" series, which highlighted positive stories such as an optometrist who delivers glasses to Third World countries. CBS News' "Sunday Morning" had recently included a segment that highlighted similarly positive stories from around the country, like a school lunch program that had been revamped to include only all natural food.
At the time, we spoke to a few network news veterans about the tendency of news outlets to try out these types of stories every now and then. Their comments give us some insight into why series' like "The American Spirit" keep recurring … and why they sometimes don't last.
Correspondent Wyatt Andrews discussed a series that ran on the "Evening News" in the mid-nineties called "The Best Of Us," which highlighted positive stories around the country.
"There have been many attempts at things like 'The Best of Us' on the 'Evening News , " Andrews said at the time. But, as he explained, it can be difficult to get people to watch those stories.
"Generally – I don't mean everyone, but generally – executive producers come away from it saying that all these efforts didn't get enough of an audience bounce … . They believe that the audience tells researchers and focus groups that they want positive news, but when the positive news goes on, they won't watch it. That's the reputation," said Andrews.
Correspondent Steve Hartman told us pretty much the same thing: "The problem with reporting good news is that [viewers] say that we need more of it, but when it comes time to vote with their remote controls, they don't watch it. … People have been complaining about this for as long as I can remember. No newsroom I've worked in ever got a phone call suggesting that we report more bad news. It's a common complaint, but news directors realize that it doesn't reflect in the ratings."