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It's been close to a year since Chesapeake Energy tossed its Shale.tv start-up down an deep, dark shaft -- and, along with it, former KTVT-Channel 11 anchor Tracy Rowlett, who left the CBS affiliate in the summer of '08 to work for the online news service that wasn't. On Monday, Ed Bark checked in with Rowlett, who's now teaching broadcast journalism at SMU and "spending much of his free time with wife Jill and their autistic son, Michael," writes Uncle Barky. Rowlett tells Ed why he thinks Shale.tv really cratered, and what he thinks of the state of local TV news ... or, rather, what's left of it.
"If someone actually tried to do good, hard investigative reporting and put on a decent, informative newscast, I think it would still work. But whether the managers running those stations would have the guts to do that is very, very doubtful ... I don't mean to sound as negative as all that. I certainly think that television news should have an important role to play in all of our lives. But it's not playing that role now, and I'm not sure it ever will again."
Keep the Dallas Observer Free... Since we started the Dallas Observer, it has been defined as the free, independent voice of Dallas, and we would like to keep it that way. Offering our readers free access to incisive coverage of local news, food and culture. Producing stories on everything from political scandals to the hottest new bands, with gutsy reporting, stylish writing, and staffers who've won everything from the Society of Professional Journalists' Sigma Delta Chi feature-writing award to the Casey Medal for Meritorious Journalism. But with local journalism's existence under siege and advertising revenue setbacks having a larger impact, it is important now more than ever for us to rally support behind funding our local journalism. You can help by participating in our "I Support" membership program, allowing us to keep covering Dallas with no paywalls.
