Hug A Newsperson

Screen grab from 1987 legislative coverage.

 So, it's hug a news person day.  If this day was around during my days as a reporter, I don't remember anyone asking to hug me.

 Only one story springs to mind where it might have happened, when there was a very happy ending to a story where happiness didn't seem likely when news first broke.

 My time as a news reporter started in 1983 as a college intern for KWWL-TV.  I did some additional work for them and a Waterloo, Iowa radio station my junior year, then after graduation became news director at KJJC-FM in Osceola, Iowa.  From there I took a job in South Dakota.

Just one encounter with a viewer felt like a hug.  I've shared this story before, when in 1988 after shooting a stand-up in Winner, South Dakota, a middle aged woman came up to say hello and ask about my family.  The only news she could have had of my family would have been a brief mention on a newscast the day our son was born.  Looking from 34 years later, that was a very nice experience.

It was, at the time, my first experience with a low-level of fame and how important the station and its news coverage was to the people who watched us.

Life in 2023 is different.  I don't recommend hugging a news person without asking permission.  A better idea is a virtual hug with an email or social media post appreciating coverage.  Reporters and news operations in general have a difficult time as fewer people subscribe to the paper or watch the local news.  Readers and viewers can't tell what's real and what isn't.  

You may have noticed public figures who like to whine that anything at odds with their worldview is fake.  Opinions can and should vary, facts do not.  

Reporters, producers, editors, and news directors should not serve one side or the other but share the truth so the public, who should use discernment with their news diet, can decide.

That's a big responsibility, deserving a hug or pat on the back.