TAMPA, Fla. — This week, ABC Action News, along with our parent company E.W. Scripps, is highlighting the importance of news literacy, and the focus is trust.
We want to share with you the steps we take in our newsroom to make sure that we’re not only performing our role as community watchdogs and storytellers but also holding ourselves to the highest standards of journalism you can trust.
Our daily discussions start in an editorial meeting. In this meeting, we lay out the top news of the day and pitch stories in our communities, which includes identifying credible sources, verifying information, and different angles.
On January 20, we had breaking news — A federal judge denied Andrew Warren’s reinstatement as Hillsborough State Attorney.
Mary O’Connell is assigned to the story.
“I first called the Hillsborough State Attorney’s office to get a statement from them,” O’Connell explained. “I reached out to Andrew Warren’s people to see if they’ll be talking at all. I reached out to a former assistant state attorney who has worked with both Susan Lopez and Andrew Warren… So what I’ve been doing is going through the actual ruling from the judge and his order; you can see my highlights on important points.”
To explain the important steps we take and why we asked an expert at the National News Literacy Project to weigh in.
“There's a lot being decided on deadline, but responsible journalists talk to high-quality sources who are in a position to know key details about a story or who are experts on a subject,” said Hannah Covington with News Literacy Project.
“Producers and web, we do have a press conference today with Andrew Warren at three o’clock at his offices,” shouted Victoria Benchimol, ABC Action News Editorial Planner.
O’Connell and her photographer, Richard Taylor, hit the road.
But a newsroom really never stops.
Melanie Payne is the Investigative Producer at ABC Action News. She works every day managing the tipline, viewer emails, and full I-Team investigations, always fact-checking
“You have to kind of ask yourself, why is the person calling you? What you know, how credible is that person? How do they know what they're telling you? Do they have any proof of what they're telling you that they can share with you?” Payne explained.
Aside from how hard we work to vet our stories, we also strive to be objective.
We asked the News Literacy Project about the importance of not only our reporting being unbiased but also our sources and the information they share if it’s not a story with two opposing sides.
“I would say it's important to recognize that we all have biases, including journalists… but this is why newsrooms have standards and ethics in place to minimize the influence of bias… and to help make their news reporting as accurate and fair as possible.”
And our scripts always run through a manager before air.
“We have multiple people looking at a story, looking to see what gaps there might be in coverage, what questions a reader could have, where the reporting falls short, where we need to keep digging,” Covington said.
Within hours of the story assignment, it’s show time.
“ABC Action News Reporter Mary O’Connell has been following the developments and just heard from Andrew Warren,” Anchor Jamison Uhler said on live TV in the 5 p.m. newscast.
“She's live now with more, and Mary, it seems this is not over based on what Warren said…” Anchor Wendy Ryan asked, tossing to O’Connell live in front of Warren’s office in Ybor.
“That’s exactly how Andrew Warren ended his statement earlier this afternoon, though it’s unclear what action he’ll take next,” O’Connell replied.
And believe it or not, some reporters are actually called "multimedia journalists" and don't often work with a photographer. Instead, they report, shoot and edit their own stories— on deadline.
“I honestly feel that we can be trusted. You know, we really work hard not to make an error, not to let something on that’s not true,” Payne summarized.
Reporters then write a web article to share on social media, adding any additional information, such as full statement.
Viewers should know that what’s at stake for a journalist employed by a news company is a lot greater than what’s at stake for the average person tweeting or posting on TikTok. If we mess up, we do everything in our power to be transparent and correct it. If we mess up in a way that violates policy or code of ethics, it’s our job at stake.
This is our career, our livelihood, and for most of us, our purpose.
