News Worthy - A Woman's View -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 5/1/2006
Last Visited: 8/1/2008
Maribeth Anderson
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Maribeth Anderson
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Maribeth Anderson makes the news five times a day-and two hours each morning.It's her job.
The news director of WSAZ must judiciously balance what is in the public interest with what interests the public.In television, the news director holds a position of perpetual dichotomy, balancing journalism with entertainment, impartiality with independence, responsibility with influence and great responsibility without celebrity.
Maribeth says "Over 148,000 people in thirty three counties and three states watch our six o'clock news.We have to think about that number.Every word we write has power.Television news is a serious business with a serious impact."
It's a collaborative business, too, according to Maribeth, with producers, reporters, anchors and photojournalists contributing to the outcome.
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Maribeth says there's another important element they try to include in the news."It is giving voice to the voiceless, telling the stories that no one is talking about."She admits, "Sometimes we have to get outside of our comfort zone to find the other stories, We have to visit places we don't usually go and think outside our daily realm.Service in the public interest creates an obligation to reflect the diversity of the community and provide a full range of information."
The daughter of a United Methodist pastor, Maribeth was born in West Virginia and raised in Ripley, though the family moved to Huntington when she was 14.She attended Marshall University on a Yeager Scholarship, earning degrees in Journalism and Economics, clearly comfortable with the inherent duality of her chosen profession early on, and completed coursework at the University of Valencia, and Christ Church College at Oxford.She joined WSAZ in 1992.
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Maribeth goes home to a kindergartener and a three year old at the end of days that are often"non-stop and exhausting!"