Tune Out or Turn Away, But I’m Not Just Here for a Laugh

Every time a horrible tragedy happens in this country, we take to the airwaves to discuss the incident and keep our listeners informed.

…and every time we do, we have people emailing to “remind” us that our “job is to entertain, not have opinions.” Seems to me people don’t know the difference between Broadcast Journalism and Personality Talk.  This is an open letter to those individuals.

The difference between Broadcast Journalism and Personality Talk is just that; personality. In broadcast journalism, the goal is to provide facts; facts that are not filtered through opinion or agenda.  Personality talk, on the other hand, is taking those facts and applying personality… opinions and all.  That takes curiosity, being informed, intellect, and a whole lot of guts.

The difference between broadcast journalism and personality talk is you can’t disagree with broadcast journalism; facts are facts. 50 dead. 53 injured. LGBT club. Orlando. Gunman killed. Personality Talk? – disagree until your heart’s content.  You don’t like that I said we need stricter gun control in a country where obtaining a driver’s license takes more steps than purchasing a semi-automatic assault rifle?  Fine.  You don’t like that I mentioned the 2^nd Amendment was enacted when it look 20 seconds to load a single bullet in a gun that was historically inaccurate? Again, fine.  You don’t like that I get worked up every time something tragic happens in our city, our state, or our country? It won’t insult me one iota if you change the station.  In fact, please change the station, because, according to the trend, there is going to be another attack next week that I’m going to get upset about, and you emailing me to “remind” me that my job is to “entertain, not have opinions” will be happily ignored because, as it turns out, having opinions is my job.

Yes, I am in the business of show, and for the most part, we keep it light, but when our country can't figure out a way to get this madness under control, and continues to falsely accuse one group of people for the violence, I will have something to say about it.