Alan Pergament: Defending journalism is harder than containing Patrick Mahomes

But I didn’t expect to be called “insane,” “asinine” and an expletive close to asinine after trying to explain journalism to readers.

Here’s the tweet: “I am sure this will be an unpopular take for everyone but journalists. News anchors should not wear Bills winter hats as Ch. 4’s Melanie Orlins and Dave Greber did today during their reports. You are not supposed to be cheerleaders.”

How unpopular was my tweet?

According to a tech-savvy colleague, it was “ratioed,” which he explained meant it received a ton of comments compared to “likes” and “retweets.” He said that is almost always a sign of a particularly unpopular tweet.

That didn’t surprise me. As Albert Einstein famously said: “What is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right."

Several media people agreed with me, though they didn’t want to go public with support and get caught in the crossfire.

Star 102.5 personality Rob Lucas was one of the brave ones.

“I totally agree with this take,” he replied. “A local anchor wearing Bills apparel is the same as a national political reporter or anchor wearing a lapel pin of a donkey or an elephant. You can easily report, without cheerleading. Too many air talents and news directors don’t get that.”

Defending journalism is harder than containing Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes.

I explained my stance in a follow-up tweet in which I thanked people for the criticism and support: “Stations should report about all the proud Bills support without being part of it.”

To expand on that, here is journalism explained in two simple sentences. Anchors and reporters are supposed to be neutral. Neutrality is even required when you cover Bills fans whether you are a news anchor or a sports anchor.

Some followers thought it was fine for news anchors to wear the hats to show they are part of the community but not OK for the sports reporters who cover the team.

I doubt they are suggesting that sports reporters aren’t part of the community. More likely, they are suggesting that sports reporters shouldn’t appear to be biased.

However, in Buffalo just about every news anchor and reporter also potentially covers the team or organization in some way.

The Bills are often the lead story or near the top of newscasts, especially with the big issue concerning how much public money should be spent to finance a $1.5 billion stadium.

Do you think a news reporter on the station wearing a Bills hat can appear to be objective covering that story?

Or does wearing the hat give the perception that the station is on the side of the organization in stadium talks, perhaps because it makes a lot of money from carrying the games?

There were several good questions about my unpopular take that will help people understand journalism better.

“I loved that they were wearing Bills hats,” wrote one mother. “The hat Dave was wearing was designed by my son, a patient at Oishei, which put a big smile on my face when seeing that on TV. The funds for those hats went to the hospital, a double bonus.”

I’m glad for her and her son. But journalistically, a heartwarming feature on the child, perhaps wearing the designed hat, was the way to go.

Several people wondered whether I was bothered by the Bills support from CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, CBS’ Jeff Glor and the late NBC news legend Tim Russert.

“There is a difference,” I explained. “Blitzer and Glor are national anchors who grew up in Buffalo as Bills fans. Orlins and Greber are anchors IN Buffalo.”

The national guys don’t have to cover the stadium talks or anything involving the Bills.

By the way, Greber is from Cincinnati. Orlins is from Virginia. I never want to judge a person’s sincerity, but I doubt they grew up Bills fans.

Another person explained it was sports and not international war and added I should “lighten up.”

Sorry, I take my profession seriously.

Someone said wearing Bills hats was an OK practice in a small market like Buffalo though it wouldn’t fly in New York City.

Sorry, I don’t think market size suspends journalism practices.

WIVB-TV News Director Lisa Polster wrote: “Our pride in our city is so overwhelming that we can’t help but show it off everywhere we go.”

I was overwhelmed with laughter. It seemed like an excuse to pander to the audience.

I may have missed it, but I didn’t see anyone on WGRZ-TV or WKBW-TV wearing Bills hats while reporting and I’m pretty sure they have just as much pride in the community as those on WIVB.

A few TV management types chimed in defending Channel 4 by noting that waving the pompoms is done elsewhere.

”Sorry, but this take is wrong,” wrote someone identifying himself as a news director in Indianapolis. “We’re part of the community. Our anchors are Colts fans. We wear blue on Fridays during the NFL season. The journalistic ‘risk’ is so small that it’s largely irrelevant.”

Once again, no risk to journalism ethics is too small.

“You can root for the team and cover the organization,” he wrote. “It’s been done for decades. You do a disservice to your audience to pretend otherwise. All journalists have biases. The risk is allowing biases to affect coverage. Pretending there are no biases makes a journalist a liar.”

I don’t care about the reasons news executives have elsewhere for compromising journalistic values. My bias is for objectivity.

And then there was a shot at my take that made me smile.

“This guy must be fun at parties,” she wrote.

Who has parties in the Covid era?

If I ever go to a party again, I’ll be sure to explain journalism to anyone who will listen.