Andrea Smith, a writer for the very popular tech blog, Mashable recently did an Op Ed piece on three Today Show personalities who make millions of dollars every year, who admitted on air nationwide they know little about social media. Smith was upset by this caviler attitude because when she worked for ABC as a news writer and producer for 20 years, she was expected to be knowledgable about current news and pop culture.
I met Andrea Smith a number of times at industry events and I can honestly say she doesn’t easily rag on people. That’s why her piece in Mashable caught my eye. Smith was offended that “Today’s Willie Geist, Savannah Guthrie and Natalie Morales — three TV journalists at the top of their profession — laughed on network TV about their lack of knowledge about Facebook, Twitter and privacy on social media.”
The admission took place after a segment about Randi Zuckerberg’s private family photos being shared publicly. This was a story publicized everywhere because of the privacy issue. The sister of the founder of Facebook got caught in the same privacy issue concerning the majority of Facebook users. Why is Facebook taking certain liberties with personal content belonging to its members?
Smith sent a warning to the Today Show.
“Here’s a wake-up call, morning crew; your audience is not that dumb. They watch TV news to keep up with what’s happening in the world. It is your job to inform them. Reading the news and then proclaiming you don’t understand any part of it is the epitome of failure.”
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