Union Studying Station Policies

Brian Lowry’s article, “And Now a Word From Our Anchor” (Oct. 14) raised significant issues and concerns of journalistic integrity that newscasters in Los Angeles grapple with on a daily basis.

The Los Angeles local of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists, AFL-CIO, represents the on-air professional news, weather, sports and talk-show staff broadcasters at most of the stations mentioned in Mr. Lowry’s article.

A distinction needs to be made between explicit product endorsements and the reading of commercials on these stations. Our members did not seek out the additional duty of reading commercials. They perform it because station management requires them to do it. Most of the announcers we represent receive little or no additional compensation for reading commercials.

While many announcers do not have a problem recording commercials as part of their required duties, most of our member newspeople do feel that recording commercials, and, more specifically, acting in commercials or providing personal endorsements jeopardize their journalistic integrity.

The broadcast department of AFTRA-Los Angeles has an interest in maintaining the journalistic integrity of the newscasters that we represent. Anything that compromises this integrity is subject to scrutiny by staff and members.

To address this issue, AFTRA-Los Angeles, along with our members, began to examine the policies at the stations we represent.

We are seeking to devise standards that we can negotiate with management that will assist in maintaining a clear delineation between news and advertising and uphold the journalistic integrity of our member broadcasters, while allowing for legitimate product endorsements compensated directly by the advertisers for those announcers who choose to do so.

Hopefully, such measures will serve to protect the highest standards in local television and radio broadcasting and reporting, as well as retain the trust of the public.

PAUL B. WORTHMAN

Director AFTRA-L.A. broadcast department