The Laci Peterson story demonstrates broadcast news at its worst

By Jeffrey M. McCall

Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences

DePauw University

Greencastle, Indiana

 

            Here’s a revelation for all network and cable news producers: the Laci Peterson story is not “news” by any sensible standard. If you are a local television news director anywhere other than northern California, the Laci Peterson tragedy isn’t news for you, either.

            The television news industry’s coverage of the Peterson story demonstrates broadcast news at its worst. A story with no national significance and minimal regional relevance has taken on a larger-than-life perspective simply because the TV news agenda setters have stumbled into a story that fascinates the audience. Just because TV news viewers seem enamored with all the seedy behaviors of Scott Peterson and the theatrics of camera-ready attorneys is no reason to keep this story front and center. Grade school kids would rather eat M&Ms for lunch, but the school cafeterias still serve broccoli.

            Every college journalism class teaches students to define news based on the essential criterion called “high impact” – how much and how broadly the public is affected by an event. The Peterson story, although tragic, affects only a handful of close relatives and associates in the Modesto area. But the story is prominently featured in every cable news program on Fox News Channel, CNN and MSNBC. The coverage is promoted around the clock with slick promos and teases. Laci updates are found on virtually every network newscast and most locally produced newscasts. Some reports have even focused ironically on how the various attorneys are grandstanding for media attention.

            This story has no national implication or broad application. Sure, some players in the abortion discussion have tried to raise the legal implications of the death of Laci’s unborn child. But if the death of that unborn child ever does change anything legislatively or legally, it will be years in the making, and the decision won’t be based on the bold proclamations of a showoff defense attorney or the new hairstyle of Scott Peterson’s mistress. A pregnant woman in Indiana was killed this spring by her boyfriend. The child was delivered by emergency personnel, but later died as well. The national news media paid no attention at all to this tragedy or what it might mean for the legal rights of the unborn.

            Television news is frequently criticized for being overly personalized and dramatized. The coverage of the Laci tragedy provides plenty to criticize on these counts. The “story” has been crafted so that the sufferings and weaknesses of common, private people have been put on display as a national soap opera. No doubt, this “story” has a sense of the dramatic bizarre with a disappearance, a pregnant and helpless woman, the supposedly clueless husband, the love triangle, and so forth. Personal tragedies, however, should not qualify as news just because they make for such good theatre.

One must question the TV news execs about whether Laci’s story would be as important to them had she not been pregnant, attractive, young and in California. Likely, a missing person later found deceased who was middle aged, living in Nebraska and not attractive would never have made the national news radar screen.

Every minute spent covering the upcoming trial of Scott Peterson is one minute less for our media surrogates to tell us about the economy, international fallout of the Iraq war, the state budget crisis where you live, unfulfilled expectations in public education, homeland security issues, or any number of newsworthy matters. Maybe these news items aren’t hot button matters for all TV viewers, but their coverage will do the audience much more good than presenting “live” Peterson updates when nothing new is happening, or watching cable news hosts make wild assertions about defense attorney Mark Geragos’ legal strategy.