We need our own Terri Gross… or Where have you Gone Boyd Lewis?
Atlanta is a city that wants to be known as a media capitol, yet we lack a crucial voice. Atlanta has no Terri Gross, no Charlie Rose, no Tavis Smiley. Atlanta has no leading journalist able to bring international figures to the table and ask them questions infused with Atlantan Point of View.
Sure, Atlanta has major media voices. The Weather Channel and CNN are based here. However, these channels only use their home towns in cursory ways. They don’t try to bring a local perspective to their view points.
We also have national talk show hosts that blast the county. Neal Boortz, Clark Howard, and Mike Malloy, all talk from Atlanta but their goal is not conversation, it’s propaganda.
Yes. Smiley, Rose, and Gross all have a point of view, but their main purpose is getting notable and important people to discuss issues of concern and ask tough questions. They do it with particular emphasis to their own region. Can you imagine Terri Gross trying to ignore Philadelphia in her job? It’s not going to happen.
With all of the journalistic talent in the city, you’d think there would at least be local public affairs program dealing with this level of programming. Even Charlotte, North Carolina has a local daily program! WFAE presents Charlotte Talks right after Morning Edition.
In L.A. The Packard, Irvine, Hewlett, and Ahmanson foundations all pitched in to create a $13 million facility for NPR to raise the level of west coast coverage. The Tavis Smiley show is now broadcast from that facility.
The South is the third way in America at the moment. If Atlanta wants to retain ontology as ‘Capitol of the New South’ it needs to provide an edified, spivvy voice to that effect. At a minimum we need an ‘Atlanta Talks’ and if we’ve some vision, the Blank, Woodruff, and Turner Foundations need to build Public Broadcasting South, where regional, national, and international programming with a southern focus can thrive.
Where have you gone Boyd Lewis?
December 8th, 2004 at 6:38 pm
I agree 100%.
You’ve left out this line of thinking on the subject though: with the corruption and cronyism that every Atlantan (who I know, anyway) feels is pretty rampant within city government, where are the investigative journalists to expose those guilty of abusing the trust? CL blusters a lot, but there’s little depth to their complaints.