“ When you work in television, you never get to really sense the experience of the audience – you can’t see them or hear them or know what they think.”
Grant McOmie
This quote, taken directly from the Forest Grove News-Times, caps what this critic has said all along about the elitist Portland media. In that crowded coterie of self-congratulatory asses, the honor of the most inflated egos goes to the broadcast television news types. Talk about out of touch.
Portland TV news organizations are over-staffed with inexperienced pretty faces who don’t know the market, have only a vague understanding of current affairs and can barely read from a teleprompter. Producers are most likely overheard complaining about what they see is the disconnect between their importance and their salary, while reporters are nearly always found seated in front of the dressing room mirror, pimping their make-up until seconds before they go on. But hey, it’s like McOmie said, “…you can’t see them (the viewers) or hear them (the viewers) or know what they (the viewers) think.” Remember, if you can, that television is about ratings. Ratings is about viewers – you know…those simple folks out there in TV land.
Here’s just a smattering of laudatory remarks OMI regulars flooded the site with when it was learned that McOmie was unable to run his silly adieu on his last day on the job.
a. “I'm ashamed at this very moment that I work in that building.” (so quit)
b. “I'm so disgusted with KATU right now I can hardly stand it.” (take 2 aspirin-call me in the AM)
c. “I agree -- no reason to watch KATU news anymore.” (was there ever a reason?)
d. “…he is/was part of the Oregon culture like Ramblin' Rod or Bud Clark.” (leprosy is part of the culture too.)
I’ll give you D – McOmie was, in many ways, akin to Ramblin’ Rod. On the other hand, Ramblin’ Rod suffered few illusions about his place in the pecking order. One doubts the same can be said of McOmie.
And now, in the midst of a period when discretion is crucial, McOmie is granting newspaper interviews with a local rag, telling the readership how, “Fortunately, the competition in town disagrees with (KATU’s) decision, so I’ve been in discussion and negotiations with other channels,” Talk about a massive ego!
Station managers and News Directors considering McOmie ought to carefully reconsider any notion they might have. Comments like McOmie’s point directly to the problem facing television news, particularly Portland television news. The degree of insularity and isolation pervading PDX news organizations is precisely why the public continues to abandon local TV and daily paper news.
The outlook is grim. Most News Directors rise through the ranks, so their judgement is based on the same faulty ground. The wheel turns. The Anchors change. A new graphics package is developed, and still we are force-fed the same tired product.
Once you've been in the market as long as McOmie has, you're bound to have fans.
But if you really listened to his work you realize how mediocre it was.
His delivery is so phony, so 1970's-Mr.-Broadcaster syrupy, I could barely stand to listen to his reports.
Plus he wasn't working full time and he simply didn't turn that many stories.
Why would any manager pay someone as much as a long time veteran earned for turning out few stories, poorly?