MSNBC’s PhotoBlog posted this photo taken by Mel Evans of the AP. The two gentlemen are Michael Aron and Jim Hooker, and this was taken as they signed off the final news broadcast of the New Jersey Network on Thursday, June 30. Teresa Masterson of NBC Philadelphia:
State-owned television network New Jersey Network will permanently go dark Friday, after more than a year’s fight against Gov. Chris Christie and the N.J. Senate’s decision to get out of the television business.
At midnight on Friday NJN will turn into NJTV, controlled by WNET, a New York television station. WHYY will also have control of five of NJN’s radio transmitters, reports WHYY’s Newsworks.org.
Christie decided a year ago that state funds should not be used to run a television station, which has been reporting news to the area for the past 40 years. The New Jersey Assembly rejected the proposal, but the state senate let the resolution to privatize NJN go through.
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Under the deal with New Jersey, WNET will broadcast 20 hours a week of New Jersey-centric programming.
Many fear that with the loss of NJN’s hyper-local news coverage of the state of New Jersey, New Jerseyans will now have to depend on out-of-state news organizations to cover their state.
“As Benjamin Franklin said, we’re a barrel tapped at both ends: Philadelphia and New York,” NJN producer Michael Curtis told Newsworks. “No one tells the New Jersey story. We cover only New Jersey and why it’s important. We’re the information source for 8 million people. Now that story’s gone.”
I’m not really sure how I feel about this, since all the public television networks I’ve been familiar with over the years have never been state-owned. There’s really no good way to spin 130 lost jobs.
I wasn’t planning on posting anything about this, but something about that photo stuck with me.