Hi-Def Porn and Bison

Once again, we've managed to anger viewers in southwest Montana.

First it was Jenny's tie incident. (see previous post). Then, on the 10 o'clock news two nights ago, I chose to run a story about how the porn business is dealing with Hi-Def technology. Apparently, people in the business are finding that it's showing too many imperfections that weren't previously seen. It wasn't a long story...a 20-second blurb at the most and it was at the very end of the newscast.

I'm not stupid. I knew it could be a little controversial. But I ran it for 3 reasons.
1. It was the late news. I wouldn't have run it at 6 o'clock.
2. It came from our national NBC News feed.
3. Controversial or not...it was interesting and unusual.

What I really wanted to do was segue from that to some brief anchor chatter on how hi-def technology is changing things in the broadcasting business too. Because of hi-def, people are beginning to see just how ugly people in TV can be.

I guess that was lost on some people...or they just didn't care. A story about porn is inappropriate...no matter what the story is. Some say that's the attitude in Montana. That may be true to a certain extent but I think the story would have gotten complaints no matter which city it was shown in.

Then, on last night's news, we showed video of a bison near Yellowstone National Park being shot and killed. (For those who don't know, bison hunting is a hot-button issue in this part of the country). The hunter had shot at the animal 4 times. The first 3 shots were legal as it was on public property. But the bison starting running and jumped a fence before the last shot was fired. The final shot was on private property...which is a no-no. We had video of the incident and people weren't happy we showed it.

I've always heard that it's better to have angry reaction than no reaction at all. I agree. Whether people are happy or not, I feel like we're having some sort of a dialogue with the community. I like that.