Reporters Expressing Emotion On Air
We’ve seen reporters emotionally distraught when covering Hurricane Katrina, September 11th and other national tragedies. I still vividly remember when ABC’s Peter Jennings cried on air on September 11th and when CNN’s Anderson Cooper choked up on air when reporting the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Election night was maybe the first time I saw a journalist get choked up with excitement following Obama’s victory.
As journalism students/reporters, we’re taught that objectivity and detachment should be placed over emotion or bias. But, how does one balance being a journalist and a human being?
On election night, textbook journalism was thrown out the window — well, at least for one reporter I happened to catch on ABC News. ABC News reporter Steve Osunsami choked up on air while he was at the historically African-American Morehouse College in Atlanta when he remembered what his father told him. He told Charles Gibson:
“Charlie, I’ve watched a number of students here call their parents, call their fathers, their brothers and sisters. I received a text from a friend of mine who said black Americans everywhere should thank the country.
From a personal note, as a kid, I grew up in a neighborhood that was mostly black and my father used to tell us that there’s no way this country would elect a black President. Well, this evening, the country has proved my old man wrong — and we’re the better for it.”
He wasn’t the only one crying that day. People all over the world were and for many reasons. My question is, is it okay for a journalist to express emotion on air? Whether it is covering the World Series, an election or a tragedy, what is the best way to cover a national event or an event perceived to draw many viewers? Is it easier said than done?
Personally, I agree that a journalist should not impose him/herself into the story, but then again, in this specific example, I’m sure ABC News understood why Osunsami did so and let him express his feelings.
What are your thoughts?
November 21st, 2008 at 12:38 pm
[...] watchdogs, like fellow classmate Rima Abdelkader, sniffed out Osunsami’s election night throat-spasm and Osunsami, likely [...]
November 23rd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I think it’s totally OK. Look, journalists are not robots and I, for one, would have been suspicious or at least, not nearly as interested, if he had simply delivered the news with the detached coolness of a professional network reporter. It was an exciting night and I think it was acceptable for Osunsami to show his emotions. But I was also glad when the camera went back to the studio, because I started feeling that he needed to have some time to himself to experience the intensity of the moment not as a reporter, but as a human being. In other words, reporters can and should be human, but they also need to remember their roles as conduits of information. But it’s fine for the lines to blur every now and then.