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WRC Fumbles Ball Letting Anchor Be Actor

mvcg66b3r

mvcg66b3r

The appearance of WRC Washington anchor Jim Handly delivering a breaking news report as part of the cold open of NBC’s The Blacklist post-Super Bowl broadcast did a disservice to him, his station, owner NBC and the viewers. Journalists should avoid putting themselves in any situation that would undermine their credibility. Pretending to be a TV reporter spouting words from a script is one such obvious situation. Local TV news still has a great reservoir of credibility, but it is not bottomless. Producers of that news should be careful not to dribble it away.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/...ell:+WRC+Fumbles+Ball+Letting+Anchor+Be+Actor
 
mvcg66b3r said:
The appearance of WRC Washington anchor Jim Handly delivering a breaking news report as part of the cold open of NBC’s The Blacklist post-Super Bowl broadcast did a disservice to him, his station, owner NBC and the viewers. Journalists should avoid putting themselves in any situation that would undermine their credibility. Pretending to be a TV reporter spouting words from a script is one such obvious situation. Local TV news still has a great reservoir of credibility, but it is not bottomless. Producers of that news should be careful not to dribble it away.

http://www.tvnewscheck.com/article/...ell:+WRC+Fumbles+Ball+Letting+Anchor+Be+Actor
Click to expand...

Over the decades, hundreds of local anchors have played themselves in movies and TV shows delivering fictional news. In the 50s and 60s, many of them did commercials. So like it or not, Mr. Handly is part of an old and continuing tradition.

Here's Mike Wallace peddling cancer-sticks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLZkwDkxYrY
 
Things like this should be handled the way ABC does with their shows; the shows How to Get Away With Murder and Body of Proof are set in Philadelphia, where their O&O WPVI dominates. Instead they just use the news graphics, mic flags and van dress of WPVI and have actors playing fictional reporters do the in-series reports instead without having to get Jim Gardner or the rest of the real 6 Action News staff involved, or do the usual 'WFKE 67' false news organizations that always give me a laugh since we know no respectable station above 60 (outside of WFMZ, of course, but that's geography, politics and location in that case) has a serious news department.

Movies are kind of different; I can put away my sense of reality there, but it would throw me off to see a local anchor in a TV series, even if they aren't in my market.
 
The text posted above the address to the article about WRC-TV was from the article itself (I would have simply posted the address to the article along with its title under the name "Commentary About WRC-TV's News Presenter's Appearance on 'The Blacklist' " if I were mvcg66b3r).
 
Last edited:
LKellerIII said:
Over the decades, hundreds of local anchors have played themselves in movies and TV shows delivering fictional news. In the 50s and 60s, many of them did commercials. So like it or not, Mr. Handly is part of an old and continuing tradition.

Here's Mike Wallace peddling cancer-sticks:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLZkwDkxYrY
Click to expand...

Back in the radio days, there was a daily soap opera on CBS called "Wendy Warren and the News." It opened with a brief, but legit, CBS news summary by no less than Douglas Edwards. Then Doug would say something like "and now, with news of special interest to you ladies, here's Wendy Warren." Wendy (a character played by an actress) would read a fashion-type story, then wrap up the newscast and head out the imaginary studio door into her daily soap turmoil.
 
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