My News Diet - Newsroom Confidential

Media Strategies Workshops and Dean Rotbart's Newsroom Confidential Column or CLASSROOM Edition.

My News Diet Has Gotten a Little Too Fond of Junk Food

By Dean Rotbart

I am a news junkie and have been since I was a teenager. While other kids my age idolized rock bands and movie stars, I was chapter president of the North High School Walter Leland Cronkite, Jr. Fan Club. Oddly, the club dissolved the very year I graduated.

In pursuit of a journalism career, I worked high school and college internships at newspapers, radio and TV stations. I earned degrees from two great journalism schools, Northwestern University (BSJ 79) and Columbia University (MSJ 80). And I have been a collector of old newspapers, magazines and other journalism ephemera since July 1969, when I disemboweled my piggy bank so that I could raid every neighborhood newspaper vending machine for copies of the Apollo 11 lunar landing coverage.

These days, I collect journalism bios and photos and video interviews. I own more of them than anyone else, anywhere in the world. You can view part of my expansive collection at www.newsbios.com.

So I believe my qualifications are ample to boast senior statesman status in the worldwide community of news junkies.

Until very recently, however, I've always focused more on the news and less on the junkie part of the expression.

For my newfound perspective, I'm indebted to Frank, owner of the greatest newsstand in the history of the world. Frank's News is a journalist's dream vendor. I don't know how he does it (or what his last name is), but Frank has the best collection of current, historic, rare and unique periodicals of any newsstand I've ever visited. And believe me, I visit them all.

Want the early edition of tomorrow's New York Times or USA Today? Frank's got them first. How about historic newspapers, such as the September 12, 2001 edition of The Wall Street Journal? While eBay is auctioning the historic 6-column front-page headline issue for upwards of $45.00 each, savvy buyers can still pick them up at Frank's News for $1.00 apiece. Frank was smart enough (and loyal enough to his customers) to hoard them on the day they were printed.

On my frequent visits to Frank's I have purchased a wide variety of newsroom collectibles. Thanks to Frank, I now own silverware that once satiated editorial palates in the New York Herald Tribune cafeteria and I own a 14k gold ring given to staffers at the Chicago Daily News for 50 or more years of service. I have autographs from my journalism heroes, including Walter Cronkite, Edward R. Murrow, Fred W. Friendly, Mike Royko, Bill Kurtis, Bob Woodward and Ida Tarbell.

Some of these journalism legends Frank knew personally. How he came by the other autographs I don't really know. I'm just grateful that he did.

On my most recent visit to Frank's, he was in an atypical sullen mood.

"Morn'in Dean" Frank said flatly, rather than deliver his trademark, "Howdy scoop!"

"What's wrong, Frank? You seem down this morning."

"Doc says I've gotta change my diet"

"Doc says my diet isn't really all that nutritious after all. Maybe you'd better have yourself checked out as well."

"Maybe" I mumbled puzzled, as I tucked my daily under my arm and headed off to the office.

The news of the day wasn't much special.

The headline had to do with John Walker Lindh, the American Taliban and his imminent return to the United States.

I glanced at the TV monitors in my office. The Dow was off slightly on CNBC and Paula Zahn was recounting the latest about Enron on CNN, so I folded my paper in half lengthwise and immersed myself in the news, as is my daily ritual.

The American Taliban story continued on Page 18A and I read it from top to bottom. At the bottom, however, I encountered a journalism first. It was a truth in labeling box. And it provided the true News Nutritional Value (NNV) of the article I just read.

Nutrition Facts: Serving Size: 1 story, 26 column inches. NEWS CALORIES 430, News Fat Calories 380. TOTAL FAT 22.88 column inches (88% DV).

I scanned further down the NNV label. NEWS PROTEIN was a scant 3 column inches, only 5% of the DV, which is the Percent Daily Values of News Nutrition recommended by the Graduate School of Journalism at Columbia University and the U.S. Surgeon General.

Indeed, when I carefully examined the ingredients of the American Taliban article that I had just gobbled down, I realized it was full of sugar, artificial sweeteners and other tasty fillers. Yet, there was very little wholesome news in there.

Instead of information on which well-educated readers can become better informed on the people and events important to our lives, I realized that much of my daily diet of news is actually made up of unwholesome voyeurism (The American Taliban, The Hockey Dad, Prince Harry Pothead, etc.), entertainment and outright gossip.

They taste so good, but they lack so sorely in true NNV.

News editors and news producers have a vested interest in making their news bars seem as healthy and as relevant as possible. It allows them to peddle their bars as something redeeming, even though there is less and less true news nutrition in each bar.

I'm sure many journalists will argue that the Hockey Dad story merited all the news space and airtime it received because it tells us in America something about our own society.

But what the NNV label clearly proves is that the Hockey Dad and John Walker Lindh stories actually carry the nutritional weight of a crumb of a Twinkie.

Frank was right. When it comes to my news diet, I do need to get myself checked out. As far as that goes, we could all stand a little more truth in labeling when deciding whether a story is news or junk food for the mind.

January 28, 2002