A Proper Mix of the Bad and the Good in the News

With more than 33 years in radio and television, you would think I've seen it all.

But something happened this week that I believe is a "first" in my career.

We had a discussion in the news department about the need to find and report more "good" news, not just the crime, economic woe and politics that dominate news reports these days.

During an editorial meeting this week for our late-night news, it seemed all the story ideas involved a crime or controversy of some kind or more people having the misfortune of losing their jobs.

Is there nothing more than "bad" news going on in our community?

One of my friends commented in Sunday school recently that if you judged the condition of our society from local news reports, you'd think nothing good ever goes on.

Of course, there are plenty of heart-warming things going on each day.

But my friend had a good point, and I shared it during the news meeting this week.

Recognizing it's easy to get discouraged in these difficult times, we're trying to make more room in our newscasts for the good news.

This week we told you about our phone bank to help the Middle Tyger Community Center in Spartanburg County find donors to provide Christmas gifts to disadvantaged children. The phone bank generated support from hundreds of generous people.

Our "25 Days of Wishes" project continues to make Christmas wishes come true for deserving families.

We gave extensive coverage to the Spartanburg Christmas Parade (Amy and I had fun riding in a 1963 Ford Falcon Futura convertible).

These kinds of stories won't lead the newscasts. The way I see it, we're fortunate that "good" is still the norm, so when someone does something "bad," it's out of the ordinary, so it's news. The pictures of crime scenes and flashing emergency lights will likely still be at the top of our shows.

But daily life is good and bad, happy and sad, up and down.

Hopefully our shows will give you a proper mix of those elements.

Life isn't all good...

But friends, it isn't all bad either.

Along with information about societal dangers, we all need encouragement to get us through another day.

We hope you'll find it here on News Channel 7.

Feel free to contact me with your "Voice of the Viewer" comments at tcrabtree@wspa.com.

Merry Christmas, and I wish you a happy, healthy and prosperous 2009!