About a week ago, I spotted an interesting contrast in the widely disparate tone of how two similar news stories were covered by their local TV stations:

Note the extremely positive style in which the local TV news station in Blue State generally “anti-War” Bobos In Paradise Santa Rosa, California reported the story of an elderly Army vet who defended himself against a robbery attempt. Then compare it how one now infamous ex-reporter in the generally more conservative area of Dallas reported the story of another elderly Army vet who defended himself against multiple robbery attempts.

The contrasting styles indicate, among other things, the folly of the remaining pockets of the media who claim to be “objective”, unbiased, and generally above the fray. The above videos also illustrate that tone, language and context are all key parts of crafting the news, whether it’s for print, TV or radio, as well consideration of how the news will be received by the local audience. (Hence the additional outrage over former Dallas-area journalist Rebecca Aguilar’s badgering tone.) And all of those elements are based on the skill and life experiences of the producer, editor and/or reporter, who brings together the writing, interviewing, and soundbites, whether they’re printed quotes or A/V clips.

That’s the subject of our latest Silicon Graffiti video podcast, complete with a quote from Glenn Reynolds, and a cameo appearance by Liz Stephans and Scott Baker of Breitbart.TV, via an excerpt from this clip.

(More video blogging found here, incidentally.)

Late Update 1/15/09: After a large initial flurry of traffic and then months of quiet but study activity, this video had quite a checkered history in the waning months of 2008. You can read about the efforts to banish it from YouTube, here.