By Mark Scott
Buffalo, NY – Buffalo's four television news stations have aggressively covered the Erie County budget crisis. Each station has assigned several reporters to the story and is devoting as much as ten minutes a night to it.
"If it bleeds, it leads" has long been an apt description of local television newscasts, both here and across the nation. TV newscasts have always focused more on coverage of crime, fires and accidents. That's not to say there wasn't any serious reporting on more weighty issues. But TV viewers in the Buffalo area have never seen the kind of aggressive reporting on a budget issue like they have the past four months in the ongoing county crisis.
Lee Coppola is dean of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at St. Bonaventure University. He's a former TV and newspaper reporter. Click the "listen" icon above to hear his interview with WBFO's Mark Scott.