NAB Show Premiere's Opening Panel Tackles Broadcasting's Response To The Pandemic, Racial Issues, Anti-Journalist Violence And Big Tech

Opening Panel

The NAB SHOW PREMIERE, a month-long online series of panels and presentations, kicked off TODAY (4/12) with a panel reviewing broadcasters' response to the pandemic, racial unrest, violence against journalists, and other events of the past year. It featured the Chairs of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF BROADCASTERS' boards.

NAB COO and future Pres./CEO CURTIS LEGEYT presided over the discussion, which covered the initial impact of the pandemic, with HEARST TELEVISION Pres. and Joint Board Chair JORDAN WERTLIEB calling it, "The news story of the century." Also discussed was the financial hit taken by the industry, which SALEM MEDIA GROUP President/Radio and Radio Board Chair DAVE SANTRELLA called "mind-boggling," before adding that the year saw his company innovate by forcing it to develop new areas of business. WERTLIEB praised local businesses for reinventing themselves and using broadcast advertising to do so.

Other topics included connecting to communities, with GRAHAM MEDIA GROUP Pres. and TV Board Chair EMILY BARR recounting the development of new programming like the "Something Good" series of positive news stories, and discussion of employees launching an internal newsletter to keep fellow employees informed. WERTLIEB said he his regular trips to HEARST stations with more frequent online forums.

LEGEYT also brought up racial issues that became a touchpoint in the past year. WERTLIEB said that his stations offered local context to inform the public and "most importantly, stay apolitical." WERTLIEB also said that he told his employees that the company "feels your pain," but that the coverage needs to be balanced ("saving their own personal pain and hurt for the newsroom, the news management"). On diversity, BARR said that "this past year has been a very big awakening" and prompted GRAHAM to hire a diversity director and get input from staffers to help recruit a more diverse workplace.

LEGEYT raised the issue of risks to journalists in light of the JANUARY 6th insurrection and attacks on reporters. SANTRELLA, while noting that his company had reporters in the CAPITOL during the violence, nevertheless said, "It kind of goes with the territory ... if you're afraid of fire, don't be a fireman ... If you're a batter, you're going to have to face the fact that you're going to be hit by a pitch once in a while." LEGEYT countered that covering a speech would not normally raise the assumption that a reporter would be putting themself in harm's way. BARR added that her reporters and camerapersons have been attacked by people at random, and said that while her company wants its reporters to cover a story, it is the reporters and videographers' call whether to stay or leave if they come under attack. WERTLIEB remembered how reporters used to be protected by their credentials, with both sides of a situation recognizing that the press was off-limits for violence, and how that has changed in recent years with reporters being made the target.

WERTLIEB called the debate on CAPITOL HILL over the power of "big tech" over news the most important issue facing the industry. SANTRELLA warned of problems if social media decides who gets to communicate on their platforms. And BARR pointed to the TEXAS power and water crisis as an example of when broadcasters' reporting is the way the world finds out what is really going on. "If we don't exist," she asserted, "we don't have a functioning democracy."

NAB Pres./CEO GORDON SMITH opened the session with an introduction that acknowledged his pending departure at the end of the year, saying that he looks forward to spending time with his grandchildren, returning to his "pea-picking roots" in OREGON, and serving as lay minister at his church.

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