Broadcasters are a different breed of people. You could say that about any profession, I suppose, like lion tamers or accountants. But living in a local fishbowl has some challenges that we don’t tend to talk about in mixed company.
People expect us to be perfect and they think nothing of telling the world when we’re not. Imagine if you made a spelling mistake in a report and a witness went on social media to tell everybody? That’s the size of errors that get pointed out with our company names, our names and every other detail people know. And sometimes they can snowball. There’s a segment of society that gets off on this negative stuff and they can’t wait to join in. Some of them are elder statesmen of London media. In other words, grumpy old men. (Yes, men. There isn’t one woman I know or have heard of who behaves this way!)
Fortunately, I’ve chosen to find it amusing, but it wasn’t always that way. Take my young, former colleague Cara Campbell, who spoke openly about how difficult it was to endure repeated attacks while she was a reporter at CTV London. (Read her story in Our London HERE.) It’s one of the reasons she got out of the business and I can’t say that I blame her. Some people can’t let it roll of their backs, and why should they? Instead, some people should behave better.
We get nearly-constant texts to our morning show. Most are informational. Some ask questions. But others are just mean and awful. Ken and I laugh at them and I will write back and give the person a chance to be reasonable. Sometimes they just want acknowledgement and then all is well. Other times, they want blood. Last Friday, Ken accidentally called late astronaut John Glenn the first “man” to orbit earth instead of the first American. He immediately corrected himself. It was a slip of the lip, no big deal, right? Well, it was an offence worthy of a firing squad to one man who launched a three-hour attack on us, demanding an apology. “You are keepers of the public airwaves! You have a responsiblity to be correct!” He blew his one chance to be reasonable so I just let him rant. We got some good laughs out of his over-the-top response, even musing off air about creating a new show sign-off that includes apologies for our minor offences of the morning. Something we will never actually do, of course.
One of the best things about the evolution of broadcasting is the immediate response from listeners and viewers. It’s also one of the worst things. And you know what it’s like; fifty people can say you’re doing a great job but it’s the one who says you should quit that sticks with you. I understand where Cara Campbell is coming from. We all do. And we fantasize about following these critics around for a day and pointing out every tiny error they make. But a person who’s so hyper-critical of others, might already be doing that to themselves, anyway.