Don't underestimate the Consumer Man

Obviously, I thought Bob Costas was amazing. After all, he's one of the greatest broadcasters of all time. But we shouldn't look past the other people that came in to speak today. I thought Herb Weisman was awesome. I think we underestimated him before he came in to class, probably because we were so blinded by the fact Bob Costas was visiting. Regardless, Herb is really knowledgeable. What intrigues me about him is that he seems to genuinely love journalism. He's not in it for the money or the fame. He's legitimately concerned about where the industry is going, as far as cutting down the length of each story and the rise of the Internet. He repeatedly said how badly he feels for people entering the field now because they'll be forced to work harder and know multimedia like never before. He also kept talking about how terrible it is that news today is more focused on making money and getting ratings than on actually communicating the news to an audience.
Not only is he concerned about the future of journalism, but he cares about helping people. I've wanted to be a broadcaster for a long time now, but I never really understood how explaining what goes on around the world actually HELPS people. Weisbaum made that clear to me today when he talked about his consumer reporting. Some may say that consumer reports are not nearly as important as the other hard-hitting news that's out there, but they are. It's the news that directly affects everyone. It's the stuff we want to hear about most (whether we admit it or not) because we can actually apply it to our everyday lives.