The persistence of vision

It happened again the other day.

I had stopped for gas and was paying inside the mini-mart. "Thank you, Mr. Catalano," the attendant said, handing me my change.

That startled me. Not because he'd used the formal tone (I like to believe that my father is "Mr. Catalano"). I was startled because I'd paid cash, not with a check or credit card that had my name on it.

Turns out he'd been a viewer of my segments on KCPQ-TV 13 Fox Seattle, regular analysis and commentary on tech (defined broadly: technology news, Web sites, gadgets, toys, Microsoft, music file sharing, whatever). He wanted to know why he didn't see me on the air much anymore.

Well, no one sees me much anymore. I left Q13, after four years on the air and under my own power, a year ago at the end of June for the several good reasons cited in an earlier essay.

It's provided time to reflect as I've professionally been a print, TV, radio and Internet journalist off and on for nearly 30 years, either on a full-time or freelance basis. And, since I've been primarily an industry consultant for the past decade, I also do a lot of interviews for broadcast and print as an expert on trends in toys and tech.

So, as someone who's worked in or been the subject of various media, I can't help but ponder two imponderables: How come there are many more great newspapers than great TV news operations? And why are there so many "everyday people" in TV news stories who don't add anything to the story?

- Blame motivation. Why do people hire on as newspaper writers? To be journalists. Why do people hire on as on-camera TV news talent? To be journalists ... or just to be on TV, and being on a news program is seen as a reasonable alternative (or interim step) to being an actor, game show emcee or talk show host.

That's not to say there aren't newspaper writers who later become novelists or (God forbid) essayists. But the element of celebrity is so much greater in TV that it seems to attract a fair number of people who don't care if TV news is "journalism" as long as they're on the air. And despite the efforts of largely unheralded producers and the many real on-air journalists, these celebrity wanna-bes dilute the on-air news to an extent that doesn't happen at newspapers, even at those owned by the same media companies.

-Blame "storytelling." The most mind-numbing, intelligence-dumbing trend in TV news stories isn't computer graphics or Kobe Bryant. It's the insistence by some news consultants and news departments that no story is significant unless you interview some person who might some day in some manner be affected by some aspect of the story.

The idea behind it is that TV news is storytelling. And that every story needs to have a person at its heart. Doing a story on a gasoline tax increase? Ask a person at a gas pump what it means to them. Doing a story about the return of troops? Ask a person with a loved one serving in Iraq how it feels.

So far, so good. Where this falls apart, though, is in stories where the affect on everyday people isn't clear or immediate. And in real life, few outcomes are certain. Good examples: the Microsoft anti-trust trial, political haggling and much local government news.

As an essayist and occasional fiction writer, I agree that storytelling is a fine thing. But it is one of only many valid techniques for getting a point across. Storytelling with everyday people has become a crutch in many news departments. Warm and fuzzy sound bites suck time needed to tell a complete story. And it becomes an excuse for not doing otherwise important stories.

Making a story interesting, not wrapping it in people, is what's key. Using everyday people simply is one way to make a story interesting. It's not the only way.

A week doesn't go by these days when I'm not asked about why I'm not on TV, or what I'm doing now that I've "left" TV (never mind I did it only 2-3 days each week at KCPQ and was simultaneously a busy consultant; when you're on TV, people seem to think it's the only thing you do).

I still think about it a lot. And hope that there's room on-air, among all of the celebrity storytellers, for the interesting journalist.