WCVB Channel 5, Boston’s News Leader, is significantly expanding and updating its biennial pledge to devote extensive television and digital news coverage of election discourse throughout the Boston market.
Under the group-wide “Commitment 2016” banner of its parent company Hearst Television, one of the country’s largest television station groups and a Peabody- and Cronkite-award-winning leader in television and digital political journalism, WCVB will continue its policy of a 12-minute minimum airtime commitment per day in the 30 days leading up to the 2016 general election.
WCVB also will continue to produce, among other elements, its weekly political program “On The Record” (Su. 11-11:30AM), local, regional and national debates and on-air and online “Truth Check” and “Issue Check” segments vetting campaign statements and the accuracy of campaign and PAC advertising.
For 2016, WCVB and other Hearst stations will introduce “Candidate Accountability” features, for TV and digital platforms, for which WCVB journalists will explore whether candidates kept campaign promises – and if not, candidates will be invited to explain why not.
WCVB along with other Hearst stations, will also launch “8 Issues/8 Weeks,” a three-pronged approach to reporting candidates’ positions on eight major issues in the eight weeks leading up to the Massachusetts presidential primary.
“8 Issues/8 Weeks” will encompass:
- Televised reports that frame the issues
- Online interviews with the candidates wherein they address the issues with their specific responses and stances. These stances will then be compared to those of other candidates on these same issues via an online “grid”
- Facebook content consisting of edited and differentiated versions of the televised issues-focused reports; these postings will be placed on WCVB’s Facebook platforms and will in turn link back to the online positions grid.
