Recently in Washington DC, veteran reporter Andrea McCarren, of station WUSA, began to air her special reports on teen drinking in the area.
On February. 1 her initial report about Town Square Market, a liquor store in Northwest Washington that allegedly sold alcohol to teens as young as 14. She and her team shot and aired footage of teens carrying out 12-packs of beer. To add to the story, McCarren and her crew used hidden microphones, to interview the kids about how easy it was to buy booze at the store.
The reaction to McCarrens store was severe and immediate, thanks to social media. The newly sober teens hit Facebook attacking McCarren with profanity and threats, calling her the most hated person in the D.C. area.
One student posted, "You are now probably the MOST hated woman in the D.C. area. Yay you! What was the point really of doing that story? No one finds it interesting (well that’s obvious anyways because its channel 9 news), but you also just ruined weekends for all kids underage."
Being a seasoned journalist, McCarren and her station aired the second installment of her reports on underage drinking, this time focusing on a police raid of a party in Bethesda, where three dozen teenagers, mostly students at Walt Whitman High School, were cited for underage drinking.
This time parents got involved, angry because some of their children were sent to detention, and again the reaction on Facebook blew up. " You can’t try and take away something that teens love without retaliation. Haven’t you ever heard of teenage rebellion? Teens love to drink and I’m sure they’ll be laughing it up about your report while they party tonight.”
Things went even further and the police had to be called in when angry teenagers brewed up the idea of having a party on McCarren's front lawn and then began to threaten her own children. This was the straw that forced McCarren to pull her kids out of school, take herself off the air and let a colleague finish the series.
Things were out of control. However, is it McCarren's fault? Let's take a look at two different factors.
Ratings. Four times a year, the folks at Nielsen measure ratings in local television. This is a month-long period in which in-depth audience measurement is taken, it is one of the most critical times of the year for a station.
Stations with higher ratings are able to charge higher rates to advertise on their newscasts during the day, bringing in more money to the station, which means higher commissions as well as more toys for the news team.
February 2 - February 29, 2012, was the first ratings period for Nielsen this year. Stations don't take these periods lightly, they plan in advance to make sure they are ready with "special reports, team investigations and undercover cameras" that will lure viewers to their station every night, boost ratings and thus feed the machine.
"Hard hitting news" topics like: What's in a Name, What Some Car Dealers Don't Want You to Know. Menopause Drug, Felons in Day Care, Baltimore's Beggars and Underage Drinking all become a part of the daily news.
Some are good, many are horrible and sometimes they can blow up in your face as is the case of what is happening to McCarren and her station.
Her report is an obvious ratings or sweeps special in an effort to boost viewership. If you look at it from a "is that really news" perspective? It's not. Kids have been underage drinking for decades, it's not right, it's not safe, I am not excusing it, but it does happen, every single day. Picking an easy target like underage drinking and the stores that serve kids is, from a journalistic perspective is "mailing it in" and not putting fourth a big effort. February 1, 2012, NBC 5 in Chicago aired stories about a drug bust at Stevenson High School, with a little leg work, it's safe to assume that the police could make a bust like that at over 50% of the high schools in the Chicago area. The fact that kids at Stevenson, one of the best high schools in a predominately white suburb, made it news.
Did McCarren bring this upon herself? In a twisted way, yes. If reporters had the time to flush out "real" news and not count hickeys and search for the next best diet, this wouldn't be a problem. It's a beast that feeds upon itself. If a station has great ratings, they have more money, which can buy them them the luxury of time, which means the ability to research "real" news. To get these ratings, they need viewers and have to scramble to get the most eyes on the screen, with little time and less money.
Where Are The Parents? The bigger story that was missed isn't about the tipsy tweens stumbling around the DC area, it's about their absentee parents. What is happening in our nations capitol that kids are running amok, buying booze, throwing parties at school and then publicly harassing adults on the internet and in person? When their supply is cut off, these kids are behaving like Nucky Thompson in Atlantic City during prohibition threatening people, going wild on the internet and their parents are, where?
A 14 year old doesn't have a right to drink. They are barely old enough to use Facebook, they can't drive, they can't vote, they were just given the right to see PG-13 movies. A 14 year old is a big child that still needs to be watched and monitored, many of the underage drinkers claimed that what MCCarren did was interfere in their "right of passage." Maybe, or maybe she slowed down, even a little bit the passage of teen STD's, pregnancy, rape, ER visits, stomach pumps, hazing and being arrested, which are all fun "add ons" that can be connected to this "right of passage."
I did it, the man who runs Chicagonow.com did it (I know because he was next to me), coming full circle, it's not news, but the difference is when a underage drinker gets busted, the usual reaction is a few expletives and then it's back to Nintendo or making out, not attacking adults and their families.
The May Ratings Period is from April 26 - May 23, 2012, hopefully WUSA will leave the hickey patrol and take a look at the parental habits of their viewers.
Blaming the journalist just because it's rating week is wrong. I'm a parent and I would want to know about the booze situation for teens. With prom season approaching, the topic is timely and certainly relevant.
These kids are to blame, not McCarren.