[originaltext]INTERVIEWER: Newspapers seem sort of impersonal.., but radio and

INTERVIEWER: Newspapers seem sort of impersonal.., but radio and TV—there are personalities involved. Isn’t there a lot more possibility that since there are personalities involved it will have a greater impact on people’s reactions?
DANIEL: Well, I think you have to first start with the understanding that no person is unobjective. We’re all striving to be objective, but we have our own prejudice. It’s build in. And so, even the person who writes the story in the newspaper lets that bias come through in his pen. Of course, when we arc personally on camera, we’re trying to stick pretty closely to a script that we have already written.
INTERVIEWER: Uhm....
DANIEL: But sometimes, perhaps in an ad, although we try to avoid as much of that as possible—some of our prejudice or bias will show, even though we’re striving not to let it show.
INTERVIEWER: Uh... but when people read a newspaper article, it’s kind of cold.
DANIEL: Right, that’s true.
INTERVIEWER: It could be... it could be a real exciting story, and all you can do is put exclamation marks. But when you see a person that...
DANIEL: I see what you’re saying.
INTERVIEWER: I started to say that the particular biases of a person can come through more readily.
DANIEL: I think it’s something you have to guard against. It would be wrong for that to happen. But, yes, I think what you’re saying is true—that in trying to interpret the words that are on the script, I might.., in my voice or in my expression show some type of reaction to it. Uh... probably, would be more of a reaction than it would of an interpretation—although the voice implies an interpretation when you read any group of words.
INTERVIEWER: Right.
DANIEL: I guess the idea is to make that sentence not so bland, but so—leave out adjectives, leave out adverbs so that you deal just with nouns and verbs, and in that way, you keep it as straight as you possibly can.
INTERVIEWER: How do you see yourself, primarily—other than reporting the news?
Uh... are you an entertainer?
DANIEL: No. No, I don’t think I’m an entertainer. I think, perhaps, the sports man might be an entertainer of sort—although he has a journalistic function too. I see myself as a public servant. Uh... the same as... a policeman or a mayor might be providing information to people that they need in their lives to... to live their life, to make decisions and so forth.
INTERVIEWER: But you are conscious, of course,... when you go before the cameras, that... that you’re in a situation....
DANIEL: Right.
INTERVIEWER: ... uh... where there must be people that are viewing you as someone—
DANIEL: Because of your visibility, you become a somewhat of a celebrity in that sense, and I don’t know—I try to play that down, so that doesn’t become a thing with me.
INTERVIEWER: Uh-uhm...
DANIEL: Because I think that’s probably the biggest problem in our profession—the biggest temptation is to get a big head. And while you need confidence in order to do your job— it’s a... it’s a high-pressure job, so you need confidence—you get too much of that confidence, and that begins to come across the tube.
INTERVIEWER: Right....
DANIEL: ... as you’re kind of a know-it-all, or you think yourself more important than you really should be. And I think that would be dealt with by the viewer. After a while, they’ll just turn you off. They’ll say, "I don’t want to watch that cocky so-and-so any more!"
INTERVIEWER: Some newspapers, I suppose, some TV stations, have had the reputation for reporting, for sensationalizing.
DANIEL: That’s true. There are several markets in the country where.., there are stations that deal primarily with crime news and news of a violent nature. I think they’re shoved into that suit, perhaps, by the programming that wraps around them. If they are on, let’s say, at eleven o’clock, and the show from ten to eleven—as is usually the case, not usually, but often the case—is a crime or detective-type program.
INTERVIEWER: Right...
DANIEL: The viewer has been given an appetite for violence. He’s been conditioned as the news begins to expect violence.
INTERVIEWER: He expects a lot of action on a... on a—
DANIEL: Right. And some of the services that make recommendations to local stations say that you should begin with a visual, and it would even be that much better, they say, if you would begin with a visual that involves some kind of criminal activity—
INTERVIEWER: Hmm....
DANIEL: ... some.., something that will grab the people’s attention and hold them. And don’t start, they would say, with something that’s political because their minds are not ready to grasp that now.
INTERVIEWER: What constitutes newsworthiness?
DANIEL: I think when you get down to it, basically, news involves the actions, the words and the products of people. I think it’s.., those three would be all inclusive, and of course, in television news, we’re essentially concerned with the actions, words and products of people that would affect the largest number of viewers or listeners—in other words, would have a mass appeal. Number two, that are truly news—in the sense that they have happened within, oh, say, the last twenty-four hours. You know, not something that happened a month ago, but something that happened today. So, that would be, I guess, my definition of news.
INTERVIEWER: Well, what is it that’s mainly attractive to you about your work?
DANIEL: Well, there is a psychic reward in the sense of being able to see your product. Sure, at the end of a show, to look back and say, "We got through it."
INTERVIEWER: You have something to produce, and you produce it.
DANIEL: You have an audience, in a sense—you were alluding to that entertainment function.
INTERVIEWER: Uh-huh.
DANIEL: Although ours is an information function, it still... if we—at the end, we judge—did we inform our audience? Or did we leave out some things they should have known—and do we feel badly about that? So, there’s the psychic reward. There’s the sense of being close to newsmakers—to the people where the action...
INTERVIEWER: Where the action is.
DANIEL: That is exciting, and I enjoy that part of the business. I like working under... under deadlines—under pressure—because I think you probably produce more, and you produce a higher quality of work when you’re under pressure.
INTERVIEWER: Which means for you, a daily.., a daily deadline or two...
DANIEL: Right. And so I enjoy that part of my job. Uh... there’s a certain—on television journalism, there—again—guess this would be a psychic reward—there’s certain amount of feeling of accomplishment when people will come up to you and say, "gee ,we think you’re doing a good job", and that kind of feedback that you get, that other people would not get in their work. I enjoy that. Of course, we also get some negative feedback sometime and you become a little sensitive about that. But also, perhaps, it is of benefit because we learn from our mistakes.