[NU Sports] A Medill Question

[Roy S. Lamberton]

For years, Radio and TV "personalities" have done endorsements. In major market radio,
spots read live by the host command a 50% surcharge in some markets!

Paul Harvey did commercials on his News and Comment show almost from the beginning. There
are even spots running now that claim that the person playing a consumer heard Paul Harvey
endorse whatever and therefore it is good.

Local TV guys are often blessed with the best on air voices and as such get calls to voice
radio and TV spots. If they don't use their name, it's usually not considered a breach of
some Journalistic rule, but weather guys have been doing car and furniture store
commercials for years.  I'm sure Cronkite and Rather did radio spots back before CBS when
they were on the local stations. It is part of the Job Description.

With the current fad of working sponsors into the background of "reports," and the
planting of video stories on TV local stations getting more and more prevalent, I suspect
that Medill will eventually offer a "Voicing Commercials for TV and Radio" class, but then
the kids can now take a RTV course that does that.

(No sponsor or product paid for this post)

<g>

rsl

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Roy S. Lamberton - Senior Associate & Unix Guru.
Computer Applications & Support Associates
-------------------- Also ----------------------
"Commissioner" Delaware American Legion Baseball
Director Media Relations - Little League 
  Senior League Softball World Series
CTRCS USN/USNR Retired
Northwestern University - Speech 1974 - 
Chi Phi: Pi 1974, KD 1968
Publisher Emeritus: Purple Reign (Fox Sports)
==========  Go Cats -  Beat 'em All  ===========
"...Then I get on my knees and pray,
WE DON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN!" -- Pete Townsend
================================================

-----Original Message-----
From: nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com [mailto:nwu-sports-bounces at tssi.com] On Behalf Of Alan
Abrahamson
Sent: Tuesday, January 11, 2011 1:31 PM
To: cherron604 at aol.com
Cc: nwu-sports at tssi.com
Subject: Re: [NU Sports] A Medill Question

Here's my take:

Chuck's question is actually super-complicated. As much as we would like the
world to fall into easy black and white categories it's not typically that
way. The world is typically filled with shades of gray, right?

I think we could all start with the proposition that Glazer and Strahan
would not fit the traditional category of "journalist" the way Holtzman or
Povich did.

But Eisen -- though a television-oriented journalist -- is certainly a
journalist.

So -- where does that leave you?

Glazer and Strahan might better be described as "personalities." So are the
rules for "personalities" different than "journalists"?

But what if a "journalist" goes on a show such as "Around the Horn" and gets
paid for his or her appearance? Is that different than a "personality"
pitching a sandwich? If so, how?

Or how about this: If you listen to Dan Patrick in the morning, and one
minute he's interviewing Cam Newton and the next minute he's telling you
about auto insurance (I'm making all this up), does the pitch for auto
insurance make you think less about any or all of the questions he asked Cam
Newton? Or are you willing to accept that the show includes the Dan-ettes,
that the Dan-ettes have salaries, that someone has to pay those salaries and
so telling you about auto insurance is just part of what Dan has to do?









On Tue, Jan 11, 2011 at 9:44 AM, <cherron604 at aol.com> wrote:

>
> I ask the Medill guys/Journalism guys here:
>
> When did it become acceptable for a journalist to endorse a product ?
>
> I am thinking of Jay Glazer (sp) and Michael Strahan endorsing Subway
> sandwiches
>
> Also, this weekend I saw Rich Eisen (NFL Network) appearing in a commercial
> for Pepsi Max
>
> I realize there may be some debate as to any of these individuals'
> journalistic credentials
>
> I am quite sure that we never had Jerome Holtzman for Gold Toe socks, or
> Shirley Povich for Florsheim shoes (but I may be wrong)
>
> Chuck Herron   Tech '85
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> nwu-sports site list
> nwu-sports at tssi.com
> http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports
>
_______________________________________________
nwu-sports site list
nwu-sports at tssi.com
http://romaine.tssi.com/mailman/listinfo/nwu-sports