By Paul Greeley
817-578-6324, Paul@NewsBlues.com

NOTE: This is from Stacey Woelfel’s Substack column, The Last Editor by Stacey Woelfel.

Stacey Woelfel spent 35 years on the faculty of the Missouri School of Journalism.

And for 24 years, he was the news director for KOMU, the University of Missouri-owned NBC affiliate for central Missouri.

News Blues does accept submissions for Guest Commentaries, but we reserve the right to publish or edit them. Send your commentary to Paul@NewsBlues.com

The ̵C̵u̵s̵t̵o̵m̵e̵r̵ ̵ Audience is Always Right? Wrong!

I miss taking viewer complaints. As a local TV news director for more than 24 years, taking angry calls, letters and emails from viewers was part of the job. I prided myself on personally responding to everyone who reached out—the luxury of being in a small market—even when the volume got to be a lot to handle (I’ll write about my post-9/11 issues at some point).
There’s an art to handling unhappy people and getting them to come around to your point of view.

And, all modesty aside, I was pretty good at handling viewer complaints. First of all, if we got something wrong on the air, I’d admit it—no excuses—and make steps to correct it. But that’s not what most of the calls were about. People called most often to complain about how we did the story—not the content in it. I always saw this as a chance to explain why we did what we did and could usually win them over once I explained our position. It was a win-win. I was able to defend what we did as journalistically sound and the people who complained went away happier than when they reached out.

My time behind the news director’s desk ran from 1990 to 2014—ending not so long ago, but definitely during a different time when it came to civility. It was a pre-MAGA era, and a time when people weren’t so quick to go into attack mode. When I was a news director, hostility toward the media had been growing since the early 1980s, but had not yet kicked into overdrive thanks to all the “enemy of the people” comments out of the White House. I’d like to think I’d still be good at defusing some of the angriest callers, but I’m not sure that’s even possible anymore. So how do we handle viewer complaints these days?

The answer may be found in how a local Palm Springs TV station dealt with a viewer complaint about a simple Christmas lights community showcase.

Local houses are featured in short segments that air on NBC Palm Springs (KMIR-TV) under the title “Holiday Lights.”

These segments shouldn’t generate anything more than Christmas cheer, but sadly, that wasn’t the case last week.

The station’s weeknight, in-depth newscast called “The Roggin Report,” hosted by longtime national and LA sportscaster Fred Roggin, who now lives in Palm Springs, decided to air a complaint the newsroom had received about the segments—and respond to it in a way from which all of us could learn a thing or two.

The segment that generated the complaint aired back in early December and featured, as talent, a local drag queen going by the name Sandy Claus and her assistant, Scotty the Elf.

The segment ran just like all the others the station has been airing for years, with the hosts introducing video of Christmas lights on a local home, an interview with the home’s owner about his enjoyment of Christmas and a final shot of Sandy and Scotty putting a sign in the house’s yard showing it has appeared on the Holiday Lights segment. Simple, holiday cheer, right?

Well, not to a viewer named Roy. Roy wrote, “As a devoted viewer of KMIR and a prior participant in your annual Christmas lights specials, I’m disappointed in this year’s program…I realize you’re dedicated to the inclusivity of the LGBTetc+ (sic) community, but you might have ventured ‘out of bounds’ here.”

The Roggin Report co-host Tim O’Brien addressed the letter on the program the night after the original segment aired. O’Brien says Roy went on to say, “Can I suggest the majority of the Coachella Valley does not believe there are 32 genders?” O’Brien handled that first question well, replying by asking his own question, “Who said anything about 32 genders?” He then let Roy continue, “To the point, can you grasp why so many of us prefer not to have a Flaming Drag Queen and a Retired Gay Elf prancing around our Holiday yards?” O’Brien was back again with an honest answer to that question, too, “No Roy, we cannot. We are all about inclusivity and that means everyone. And if there are 32 genders, we welcome them all. Holiday Lights is about joy and fun and that’s also what Sandy Claus and her elf bring.”

O’Brien ended the segment with one more comment from Roy, “No one wants a sign in their yard saying their display is drag queen approved,” after which O’Brien held up one of the Holiday Lights signs the station plants in the featured yards, asking, “Does this say anywhere in here that it’s drag queen-approved?” He goes on to put Roy’s complaint into a little perspective, “How does this affect you in the least? You still gotta get up and go to work, right? You still gotta pay your taxes. And you know what the best part is? It pissed you off so much you are still gonna watch every single night.” O’Brien ends the segment with, “So Roy was completely appropriate to speak for the entire valley? Well Roy, we can tell you this: we would much rather a flaming drag queen and a retired gay elf—which is pretty rude since Scotty the retired elf has not spoken about his sexuality whatsoever, because that would be inappropriate much like your letter, Roy—so we would much rather have them in our yard than a bah, humbug Grinch like you.”
Here’s why this was exactly the right way to handle this viewer.

First of all, to respond to Roy on the air gives the station the chance to address him and anyone else who might have the same feelings, explaining why the station created the segments with that chosen style and approach. O’Brien and team weren’t apologetic about anything—and they shouldn’t be—the segments run exactly as planned. Second, it gave the station a chance to share its mission and view of its community.

Palm Springs has one of the highest percentages of LGBTQ+ population in the country—as much as a third to a half of residents are LGBTQ+, by some estimates. The station clearly knows its audience and has chosen a drag queen to host the Holiday Lights segments specifically to let members of a large portion of its audience know they are seen. Third, the station responded to the exaggerations in the complaint (32 genders, drag queen-approved, etc.) with just the facts, showing that what it actually broadcast in contrast to what the viewer alleges. This is important because when people complain, we are usually right. We need to stand up for ourselves and let the person complaining (and everyone else) know that we got it right.

Was the KMIR response a bit on snarky side? Yes, undoubtedly.  Would I have taken such an aggressive approach as a new news director 35 years ago? No, probably not. But again, times have changed. Politicians have trained the public not to trust us. We have to stand up for ourselves and fight back against the mistrust that’s been falsely fed to the audience. Using our on-air, online or in-print platforms is one way. We also need to aggressively use social media to spread the word to people who only consume our content on those platforms.

I do find myself in a newsroom from time to time, most often at KOMU-TV when I’m back on campus in Columbia. I hear the phone ring and wonder if it’s someone calling to make a complaint. I want to jump in and answer—ready to spar with the person on the other end. I envy those of you who still get to do that these days. I know it’s not easy, but it’s so very important.

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