Chuck Howard resigned under protest last week from Channel 36 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
You would have to be an astute and long time viewer of Erie television for that name to ring a bell, but Howard was a sports reporter and weekend anchor for WSEE-TV in the early 1990’s.
From here he moved on to Buffalo and from there, in the true nomadic tradition of many in my business, he moved on to Charlotte.
But bucking that tradition, Howard stayed in Charlotte for 11 years, becoming the Sports Director for WCNC.
By all accounts he has a loyal following and one year was named the Best Sportscaster in the Carolinas.
So why has he left the station?
He said a bad word.
Howard had finished the 11 o’clock show and was recording some pieces that would be used the next morning.
After some gaff, he said, “Ah s***, let’s do that again.”
Sure enough, the next morning the technician cues up the wrong take and the aforementioned manure hits the airwaves fan.
Why?
Because after Janet Jackson’s now famous Super Bowl peep show, the government’s morality police are waiting to fine broadcasters hundreds of thousands of dollars for the smallest of vocal offenses.
Station GM’s have started looking to mitigate the circumstance by burning the offender at the vocational stake, thereby hoping to provide an offering to the government that the station is truly contrite and should avoid the big bucks penalty.
I will neither condone nor condemn Howard’s use of language here; trust me, a lot worse is said every day in most newsrooms, not to mention most schools and most streets.
That said, I also understand the concept of individual responsibility, and most professionals know that you have to tone it down around microphones, our current President notwithstanding.
Howard was in the middle of contract negotiations and there is probably more to this story, but an 11-year career gone in a single word?
Yes, it’s bad to say bad words, but does that punishment really fit that crime?
If the intent is to punish station owners for allowing obscenity on the air, do you believe that’s happening?
If the intent is to improve the national soundscape and keep bad words out of society, I think we all know how well that’s working.
The truth is, all the government is achieving is finding fall guys among rank-and-file reporters and anchors to provide at least the appearance that they are concerned and doing something about it.
Like most wars, in this War on Words it’s the foot soldiers who are becoming the first casualties.