If you didn’t see any of the reports last month on Thuggin’ It and Lovin’ It, you missed some of the most disturbing images on local news in a while. The stories, which aired for several nights on WAFB-TV and WBRZ-TV, centered on the controversial, reality DVD that purports to show the baddest of the city’s bad cursing, threatening, showing off drugs and firing illegal firearms with abandon—all for the benefits of the camera. And it’s locally produced and distributed, to boot.
When the video came to light in late June, local newsrooms were faced with a dilemma. To report on the DVD would be to give it unwarranted publicity and exposure and, inevitably, increase its sales exponentially. To not report on it would be to ignore a compelling and chilling story that gets up close and personal with one of the city’s deadliest neighborhoods.
“We had copies in here for three weeks before we did anything with it,” WBRZ News Director Chuck Bark says. “We had several discussions in here and felt it needed to be publicized because most people were probably not aware of it.”
The ultimate decision-maker for WBRZ, however, was that law enforcement agencies were already investigating the video. Bark says that made it a legitimate story—not just good television. WAFB also debated how best to handle the story, according to Vice President/General Manager Sandy Breland.
The stations should be applauded for handling the subject professionally and without sensationalism, though the video itself is inherently sensational. They blurred the faces of the people seen in the video so they cannot be identified, and tracked down the producer of the video, Millionaire Entertainment, whose owners claim it’s staged using actors.
From that perspective, it’s unfortunate these guys received free publicity and had the opportunity to make a lot more money than they otherwise would have. They don’t deserve it. Still, the media had an obligation to report the story and did it well.
For his part, District Attorney Hillar Moore says he was initially worried about the effect the reports would have on his investigation but he, too, commends the local media for its handling of the subject.
‘Wrong’ is right
Kudos to WBRZ for anchor Michael Marsh’s investigative series entitled That’s Just Wrong. The reports are a refreshing example of old-fashioned journalism, rooting out waste, ineptitude and injustices in local government—which is what the media is supposed to do.
In one of the best reports, Marsh uncovered that there’s no penalty for failing to pay parking tickets in East Baton Rouge Parish. He obtained a list of the top offenders, staked out the top two and approached them as they were getting into their vehicles. It’s the kind of report that makes your blood boil, which is the purpose of the series.
“We were originally going to call the series Hot Button Issues or something like that because the whole idea was to find things that affect people and that are wrong,” Bark says. “Mike actually came up with the title, and it embodied what we were trying to do.”
Marsh also reported on a Livingston Parish woman who was awarded a judgment against the school board, but she can’t get paid because state law doesn’t force public entities to pay such judgments. It only requires them to use their “good faith,” which in this particular case was in short supply.
Granted, you might not have as much sympathy for the plaintiff in a personal injury case as you do for all the law-abiding citizens who mistakenly thought they had to pay their parking tickets—until you consider that you could be the defendant who is forced to pay out a judgment. Why should a school board get off when you don’t have to?
It’s just wrong, and it’s right that WBRZ has taken on such a worthwhile cause.
Wilson opens PR firm
Former WVLA-TV anchor Val Wilson, who was let go from the station last spring when it canceled its locally produced evening newscasts, has opened a PR business, Quote…Unquote Media.
Wilson says she decided to go out on her own, rather than look for an on-air job in another market, because she always wanted to run her own business and felt with all the uncertainty in the world of journalism, this was a good time to do it. But she concedes she will miss the adrenaline rush that comes with TV news.
“Once you’ve done it for that long,” Wilson says, “you never really get it out of your blood.”
