Rick Dancer Criticized by National Media Watchdogs
Republican Secretary of State candidate and former news anchor Rick Dancer's on-air announcement of his candidacy is attracting scrutiny from around the country.
From the Associated Press:
Longtime KEZI anchor Rick Dancer led off the 11 o'clock news with word that a Republican had announced his candidacy for Oregon secretary of state. The candidate: Rick Dancer.After ABC's Academy Awards coverage ended Sunday, its Eugene, Oregon, affiliate spent the first three minutes of its newscast on Dancer's candidacy, including a question-and-answer session with an on-air colleague.
Quite a bit of high-profile coverage for a second-tier state race. Which brings up a question: What about Dancer's four Democratic rivals?
"I was stunned that this man who was in my living room every night announced his candidacy on the evening news," said one of those candidates, state Sen. Vicki Walker. "It just didn't seem like something you could do."
The station's CEO, Carolyn Chambers, is a staunch Republican who has given nearly $90,000 to Republican causes and candidates over the last 13 years.
The announcement has been the target of criticism from national media watchdogs:
It's not uncommon for media figures to enter politics, but the way KEZI handled the transition is unusual, said Kelly McBride, ethics group leader at the nonprofit Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Florida."The standard practice is that the person resigns or takes a leave of absence at least a couple of days before they make their announcement independently from the station," she said.
"The problem is that the news staff, the people who are supposed to be providing fair, distanced, clear-eyed coverage of political campaigns, apparently have been co-opted into one of their own staff members' campaigns," McBride said.
He told The Register-Guard newspaper of Eugene for a story in Thursday's edition that his decision and subsequent departure from KEZI was, "a big story, because, number one, it's the first Republican out [in the race]. Number two, it's a pretty well-known guy in this community."
Under Federal Communications Commission rules, broadcast stations must provide equal air time opportunities to political opponents, particularly for commercial ad space. But the rules do grant exceptions, including one that applies to news interviews and scheduled newscasts. And potential violations are investigated only if someone files a complaint.
Walker, the state senator, said she had not ruled out filing a complaint with the FCC.
Read the rest. Discuss.
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Mar 1, '08
Talk about making mountains out of molehills. A short announcement that few people saw, and national media watchdogs are ready to drag this thing out into the open and give it more publicity than the O. J. trial.
The longer this goes on, the better for Dancer. Without all the hullabaloo over the announcement, people would quickly forget that he's even in the race (since he has no primary challenger) and go back to spending most of their time trying to figure out just what the heck it is the SOS does.
C'mon Vickie, file that complaint. All the rest of you, too. Scream at the tops of your lungs about the injustice, the inhumanity of it all. Get this fight on every newscast from now until November. You might just do the all but impossible -- elect a Republican as Oregon Secretary of State.
Mar 1, '08
I'm a democrat living in Eugene, and I honestly fail to see what was so bad about Dancer's announcement. I saw it live, and have to say, none of it seemed to far out of the norm. The segment devoted to Dancer running for office was no more than three minutes. The rest of the broadcast that was devoted to him was to his career at KEZI, something any other station would (and has done) for longtime reporters and anchors.
7:18 p.m.
Mar 1, '08
Illegal or not, the guy is a complete egotistical dick. They asked him why and he literally said because people loved him and he couldn't walk down the street without people saying they were going to vote for him (which they weren't doing before he announced...?), and because he wasn't going to be scooped on the big story of a Republican filing for SoS. It was a staged production, and everyone working that show was suddenly filming his campaign moment.
It was a vanity show with GOP bigwigs standing in the shadows of the studio, an embarassment to any producer who wants to make a reputable news show. Read the way EVERY OTHER journalist who ran in this state handled things, and you'll see how outrageous and self-serving it all was to let him do it. Were they really going to run a live interview with Vicki Walker to LEAD OFF the Sunday 11pm news for three minutes? Ever in anyone's wildest Murrow fantasy would they ever have done that? Hell no.
Has OR Media insiders weighed in yet?
7:26 p.m.
Mar 1, '08
Also, I think that the lead-in to the 11 p.m. news was the Oscars broadcast, thus ensuring a larger than normal audience.
FCC rules require "equal time" in this circumstance. Equal time would consist of giving every other candidate for Secretary of State an interview, at the top of the 11 p.m. news, conducted by someone hand-picked by the candidate who would not ask any difficult questions. The interview would then be followed by a laudatory filmed piece about the great achievements of the candidate--a piece produced by the candidate or friends of the candidate.
Mar 1, '08
If your basing this complaint on politics--Republican v. Democrat, OK. But, if you are disguising that motive under worry about the quality of local news in Oregon, I don't think your case stands of firm ground.
KPTV Fox 12 being the standard of crass to which no other TV news team in the state can match.
Case in point.
Mar 1, '08
"Illegal or not, the guy is a complete egotistical dick."
torridjoe accusing someone of being an egotistical dick? Pot, meet kettle.
Mar 2, '08
Rick Dancer, Great White Hope of the Oregon Republican Party? Maybe after he loses he'll go back to his day job or even better; maybe he's angling to be the next Lars Larsen with his own radio show?
Slightly off topic but, did anybody see looney Lars on CNN the other night arguing with Michael Reagan about wether or not Ronald Reagan would of supported John McCain? Michael says yes of course his father would of supported the nominee of the party. Lars, who 'knows better' kept insisting that he wouldn't. It was fun, fun, fun to watch the wingnut circular firing squad in action.
Mar 2, '08
I think we should keep our media outlets accountable for their involvement in politics -- how the media promotes or ignores a candidate is VERY important, particularly in a statewide race, where personal contact won't be as possible. Advertising and free media are great tools, and Rick Dancer clearly exploited his position to do so.
There is a nationwide discussion about how the media continues to reframe political conversations to serve corporate interests. Sut Jhally presents the idea that all television is a a means of producing audiences (or "eyeballs" in the industry) for consumption by advertisers, who are buying the audience for the opportunity to market to them. So, how does that apply to KEZI? Surely they saw this as a windfall, just fell in our lap, oh golly who saw this one coming, extra special opportunity to build themselves a big audience to sell to their advertisers. Of course, KEZI better enjoy those ad sales while they can, because Rick Dancer made a far better news as an anchor than he will a politician.
Don't dismiss this race without a careful look. Rick Dancer's similarities to GW Bush are chilling: personable guy with a pretty face (more so in Rick's case, so I hear), simple Christianity (see his blog for endless saccharine comments from his Christian fan club), and supposedly moderate R politics with a heavy dose of charitable causes. Really, I can't imagine why he was recruited for SOS - the guy has absolutely NO skills or experience in that area. I could see him running for the House, maybe, or City Council, but not a full time professional job. For crying out loud, SOS pays REAL MONEY. No way should we waste our tax dollars paying someone so perfectly UN-qualified.
Sigh...
See more of my thoughts on the Lane Bus blog.
Mar 2, '08
The link to Rick Dancers blog failed -- try this.
Mar 2, '08
It probably doesn't matter, since he doesn't stand a chance. But it bothers me when people casually disregard election law (and the spirit of the law). It especially bothers me when a candidate for Secretary of State does it.
The job of the SoS is, among other things, to enforce election law. We need someone with integrity. Rick Dancer just demonstrated he doesn't have any.
8:37 a.m.
Mar 2, '08
The issue with Dancer it's not that he lacks integrity, it's that he apparently lacks even a basic understanding of Federal and State election law -- one of the main qualifications for the job.
8:54 a.m.
Mar 2, '08
In the dim and distant past, I taught journalism at UO, and remember a bit about what a reporter should or should not do. GOP or Dem, announcing your own candidacy is not remotely within journalistic ethics. GOP or Dem, helping your TV station plan that interview and not think about the fairness issue of not hvaing done that for the four previously announced candidates is not remotely within jounalistic ethics. Choosing this story as the lead, right after the Oscars, when NO other TV station in the state did may or may not be journalistically unethcial, but it's poor news judgment. Poor judgment reflects on ability to be Secretary of State. And Sal's 100% correct -- this guy simply lacks qualifications. Yes, Tom McCall passed though this office, but McCall never had to handle redistricting.
9:03 a.m.
Mar 2, '08
So the Blue Oregon headline says "Rick Dancer Criticized by National Media Watchdogs" but the text that follows quotes only one National Media Watchdog, The Poynter Institute, which simply says it was "unusual," not that there was anything wrong with it. Typical of the accuracy we have come to expect from Blue Oregon.
I am a little surprised, though, by Dan Meek's comment that a news broadcast must meet the FCC equal time requirements, since it is specifically exempt. Dan is usually more accurate than that.
And, of course, Torridjoe's comment was completely over the top as well as inaccurate, but that's what makes the blogosphere what it is.
Mar 2, '08
In the dim and distant past, I taught journalism at UO, and remember a bit about what a reporter should or should not do
This is a comment I appreciate, and one that helps underscore a major point about this announcement. Rick Dancer is not a reporter in any traditional sense of that word, so there is not a question of reportorial ethics here. He's an air-headed anchor at a TV station that solely exists to be an advertising whore in a provincial state. He is paid to channel the words and ideas of others, not think or lead. Usually he channels the work of reporters (too many of whom want to do feature stories rather than investigative reporting), but in this case he is channeling the self-serving agenda of a corrupt business owner. At the bottom line, his personal career choice is to be nothing but a puppet with the puppetmaster's hand up his backside. That says all we need to know about what kind of public official he would be.
Mar 2, '08
Hey now, PW, there's no need to call Oregon "provincial" to justify Mr. Dancer's success as an "air-headed anchor" at KEZI!
It was three decades ago that 'Howard Beale' expounded on his angst as his news department was subsumed by the entertainment industry in the movie "Network":
"Television is not the truth. Television is a G. D. amusement park! ... We're in the boredom-killing business."
You'd be hard-pressed to find actual journalists at work in television anywhere.
Mar 2, '08
I flubbed the link to the You Tube clip from "Network". Sorry!
8:18 p.m.
Mar 2, '08
Not that accuracy is a valued commodity on Blue Oregon, but the reality is that Rick Dancer did not make the decision to schedule the announcement on KEZI. It was KEZI that wanted to let viewers know why they were losing their star anchorman. And the largest part of the news coverage on that broadcast was a retrospective on his years as KEZI anchorman.
As to the newsworthiness of the story, it was also KEZI that arranged to give the Eugene Register-Guard an exclusive on the story for the next morning's newspaper. The R-G ran the story on the front page with more column inches than they gave to any of the other secretary of state candidates when they announced (including a local state senator, Vicki Walker). Three days later they published a piece questioning the TV coverage--but not their exclusive newspaper coverage.
I know this is all just partisan carping, but when my friend Marc Abrams chimes in as an expert on journalistic ethics, I feel obligated to set the record straight.
10:02 p.m.
Mar 2, '08
Jack, how do you know all that? Do you have sources inside KEZI? Or are you reporting what Rick Dancer is telling you? Or are you just making a supposition?
Your comments are fascinating. A source on it would be very nice.
Mar 2, '08
Perhaps not everyone on BO values "accuracy" the way Mr. Roberts does, but I'll wager most recognize when someone parses the phrasing of a story so narrowly as to look past the import of the facts.
Whether or not "the reality is that Rick Dancer did not make the decision to schedule the announcement on KEZI", it is true that Mr. Dancer decided to use his post as a member of the media to promote his candidacy for Sec. of State. Surely we can't be expected to believe that he would be unaware of the value of that promotion.
If we are to infer that Mr. Dancer did not recognize that as an unfair advantage in regard to the election, are we not obliged to point out that failure of judgement as particularly telling of one aspiring to the office charged with enforcing election law fairly?
Whether or not the Poynter Institute is joined by other critics, their main objection rings true:
" 'The problem is that the news staff, the people who are supposed to be providing fair, distanced, clear-eyed coverage of political campaigns, apparently have been co-opted into one of their own staff members' campaigns,' McBride (ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute) said."
I note that Mr. Roberts did not comment on the accuracy of that.
6:57 a.m.
Mar 3, '08
Jack, how do you know all that? Do you have sources inside KEZI? Or are you reporting what Rick Dancer is telling you? Or are you just making a supposition?
Your comments are fascinating. A source on it would be very nice.
Rick is a friend of mine and I helped him negotiate the termination of his contract with KEZI so he could run in this race. I was also interviewed by the Register-Guard for both their exclusive and subsequent follow-up stories so I am personally aware of their involvement in all this.
As to all the wailing and gnashing of teeth about the "unfair advantage" Rick got by this send-off from his old job, I would remind people that he is currently unopposed in his primary and likely to remain so. Although most of the people who write on Blue Oregon apparently have no real experience with actual political campaigns, I think those of you who do will agree that what happens at a campaign kick-off in February will have no measurable effect on a general election in November.
Also, the people who saw that announcement on KEZI news were those who have been watching Rick on the nightly news for years anyway. Winning the election will depend on his ability to convince the rest of the state--which that news broadcast didn't reach.
This "controversy" is much ado about nothing, carried on by people who basically don't know what they are talking about. Or, in other words, a typical Blue Oregon thread.
By the way, before I went to law school, my undergraduate degree from UO was in journalism.
Mar 3, '08
Thanks for confirming that to justify your position as a member of thr "R" column you have to at least feign that you have no appreciation of ethical behavior in politics. By the the way, Mr. Roberts, we here at BO have no respect for blowhards who are so full of themselves that they think they are the repository of all knowledge.
7:30 a.m.
Mar 3, '08
By the the way, Mr. Roberts, we here at BO have no respect for blowhards who are so full of themselves that they think they are the repository of all knowledge.
Um . . . have you ever READ Blue Oregon? Believe me, I'm not alone. :-)
Mar 3, '08
Jack:
Maybe you should ask KEZI to offer "equal time". When all the other Republicans who have filed for SOS get their chance maybe the BO crowd will stop gnashing.
What a hoot to read.
8:57 a.m.
Mar 3, '08
Jack--
With all due respect, a reporter or an anchor has journalistic ethics independent of his television station just as you or I, as attorneys, have ethical obligations separate from what our firms would tell us. Rick Dancer's actions were beyond the norms of responsible reporting, and he should have declined. Instead, he is being reported as saying he would not let anyone else "scoop" him on his own announcement. You cannot be both reporter and story.
It's nice that you've got a BA in journalism, and take a shot as to whether I'm qualified to speak to journalistic ethics. I do believe all consumers of journalism are. Regardless, my MA in Journalism, teaching Law and Ethcis of Journalism at UO and as Executive Director of the Student Press Law Center (albeit a long time ago), and paychecks (also a long time ago) from the Philadelphia Inquirer and New York Times may be slight qualifications in this regard. Journalism was my first love and first career before the law.
As to Mr. Dancer as a candidate, I interviewed him yesterday on Kremer & Abrams. He was woefully unprepared. He had no knowledge of the laws he would enforce. When he declared he would eliminate laws that deter people from participating in the election system, and I asked him to name a single such law, he could not. I pressed him, and his response was "I've only been in this five days. Give me time to research." Jack, when you were practicing law, did you file a case and when a judge asked what your claim was, did you ask for time to research that?
9:59 a.m.
Mar 3, '08
if you're going to call my comment inaccurate Jack, tell me which parts are wrong. Those points are from published news accounts. If they sound over the top to you, perhaps you agree with most people about how inappropriate it was, more than you think.
As for me being an egotistical dick, if I am I'm a dick in the appropriate forum. I'm self aware enough never to talk about how much people all love me.
10:01 a.m.
Mar 3, '08
Gee, Mark, I didn't know you were so touchy. But as long as you are touting your credentials, you shouldn't forget to mention that you are also a former chairman of the Oregon Democratic Party.
Not that this would affect your opinion of Rick Dancer as a Republican candidate . . .
10:33 a.m.
Mar 3, '08
Jack--
Not "touchy" at all, but you implicitly disparraged my background without knowing what it was. As to being the former chair of the Democratic Party, that's right there in the "contributors" bio here at Blue Oregon. But it's irrelevant. Dancer's lack of journalistic ethics would be no less acceptable from a Democrat. I have a lot of respect for some Republicans -- you among them -- but so far Mr. Dancer has shown me lack of preparedness, lack of ethics, and not a lot of "meat," to harken back to the Mondale days.
I DO get "touchy," however, when you spell my name with a "k" instead of a "c."
Mar 3, '08
Not that this all that relevent at this point, but since when has the media ever really given equal air-time to political candidates?
12:38 p.m.
Mar 3, '08
Jack, when you were practicing law, did you file a case and when a judge asked what your claim was, did you ask for time to research that?
Actually, it is very common for lawyers to file a complaint based on general allegations, then amend your complaint to make it more specific after you've had the opportunity to finish your discovery.
I DO get "touchy," however, when you spell my name with a "k" instead of a "c."
You got me there, Marc. I often make that mistake since I'm fortunate enough to have both a "c" and a "k" in my name.
Finally, let me say I'm confident that Rick will have plenty of specifics by the time of the general election . . . sort of like Barack Obama.
12:47 p.m.
Mar 3, '08
So, any substantiation of your claims of inaccuracy, Jack? What part isn't accurate?
1:24 p.m.
Mar 3, '08
Okay, Torrid, since you are so insistent, these are the inaccuracies in your post:
"Illegal or not, . . . " No one has seriously suggested there was anything illegal in the announcement. If in doubt, look up the word "illegal" in the dictionary.
"the guy is a complete egotistical dick. I know him, you don't. I really doubt you can find a single person who does know him, Democrat or Republican, who would agree with your characterization of him.
"They asked him why and he literally said because people loved him and he couldn't walk down the street without people saying they were going to vote for him (which they weren't doing before he announced...?)," This is your paraphrase of what he said, not what he "literally" said and is a mischaracterization of why he said he is running (which is what I assume you meant to say with your incomplete first phrase).
"and because he wasn't going to be scooped on the big story of a Republican filing for SoS." That is, again, your paraphrase of what he said and the last part is totally fabricated by you, not said by him.
" It was a staged production," It was the regularly scheduled 11:00 news.
"and everyone working that show was suddenly filming his campaign moment." Not everyone working the show was involved in this small part of the news, and the major announcement was that their anchorman for the last 18 years was leaving. That the reason he was leaving was to run for Secretary of State was just one part of that story, and I would argue the smaller part of it.
"It was a vanity show with GOP bigwigs standing in the shadows of the studio," I wasn't there so I don't know exactly who was but I wonder who you consider "GOP bigwigs."
"an embarassment to any producer who wants to make a reputable news show." Campaign workers and supporters often accompany a candidate being interviewed at a television studio so there is absolutely nothing unusual, not to mention disreputable, if GOP party officials were there, particularly considering the fact that the Register-Guard interview also took place there.
"Read the way EVERY OTHER journalist who ran in this state handled things, and you'll see how outrageous and self-serving it all was to let him do it." So it is only appropriate to do things the way they have always been done before? So are you a Hillary supporter after all?
"Were they really going to run a live interview with Vicki Walker to LEAD OFF the Sunday 11pm news for three minutes? Ever in anyone's wildest Murrow fantasy would they ever have done that? Hell no." You're sure that if Vicki had offered KATU an exclusive, they wouldn't have led the news off with a live interview? After all, it is 11:00; they would probably love to be able to announce, "Tune in at 11:00 for an exclusive announcement from a local legislator." I don't think you understand the pressures local stations are under to get people to watch their news shows if you really think that is beyond "anyone's wildes Murrow fantasy" that they would do that.
Had enough? Can we now just agree that everything you said was, to one extend or another, inaccurate and leave it at that?
Mar 4, '08
Ohmigosh, I came here after making my Barack Obama campaign calls this evening to just "check in". This thread is embarrassing, absolutely embarrassing. Do you all hear yourselves? Good grief.....I'm sorry I wasted my time. I kept scrolling down and reading, hoping somebody, somewhere would make some sense, or at least seem rational. I am beginning to think that the majority of folks who comment on blogs are pro wrestling fans whose television sets are on the fritz.
If this is a representation of my beloved Democratic party, I shudder to think what I'd find on "Red Oregon" if there even is such a thing.