For the first time in several years, a workshop on news coverage was a part of the annual convention of the National Religious Broadcasters, held in 1998 for the last time at the Sheraton Convention Center in Washington DC.
The Sheraton was the location of the first NRB convention I attended about ten years ago, so it was doubly an honor to be back at that familiar location and a participant in the session on "Station Responsibility and Public Policy," arranged by NRB board member Sue Bahner.
At this workshop, Stuart Epperson, chairman of the board of Salem Communications, discussed efforts to better coordinate news efforts among Christian broadcasters. He challenged broadcasters to get involved in their community through news coverage and editorializing.
He mentioned Salem's efforts to improve radio news coverage through its own SRN news network (originally StandardNews) and also a new editorial service. Salem editorials on important issues are available for distribution to all interested radio stations through fax or Email.
Gordon Piel, NE Regional manager of UPI Radio, said news is part of a broadcaster's responsibility to serve the whole person. Broadcasting news saves the listener a trip to another radio station. UPI offers Christian broadcasters a number of options, including a unique daily feed of religion news stories.
Racine Winborne, a news reporter/anchor at WRBS in Baltimore, and a former newspaper editor, observed that the reporter is an important source of information not just to the listening community but also to other staff in- house. She noted that Christians are interested in the same things other people are, so most news that's heard on other stations could be used on Christian stations. But it might be handled a bit differently though.
My own presentation incorporated many of the points made in the lead article in the last issue of SCRIBE: "What's so good about bad news?" Like physical pain in the body, bad news draws attention to the hurting parts of our community. So news has a ministry function!
It's time for Christians to stop whining about bad news coverage and get out and cover the news, even embarrass other media for missing the truth at time. I also declared that it's time to organize a group for news directors within NRB.