The understandable furore over the embellishment of his CV by the US's NBC presenter Brian Williams has drawn attention to the entire television news industry, with many observers saying that it is now more than ever an extension of show business.
Long gone are the days when the BBC news presenter, wearing a black bow tie would solemnly announce: "And now the news. There is no news," which was followed by 10 minutes of classical music until the next programme was due to start.
From appointment viewing at key times of the day, such as 7am, 1pm, 6pm and 10pm, in many countries to the growth of 24-hour news channels, the TV news industry is facing an existential crisis created by the immediacy of the internet, the exponentially growing use of smartphones worldwide and the rise of citizen journalism.
TV news directors felt obliged to add a touch of glamour to their shows by choosing photogenic presenters who owed more to acting skills than to journalistic talent. The aim was to make the man or woman who told us about world events in the comfort of our living rooms a person of authority capable of pulling a face appropriate to the story, whether it be grim, winning, wry or downright funny. He or she was meant to be regarded as a friend, and, as others have commented, the presenter is seen more often on the screen than a Hollywood star. They hold a special place in our lives.
But behind all this are some murkier facts about the TV news business, which places so much importance on appearance.
I worked with a TV reporter who was notorious for embellishing his reports. On one occasion, during the Yugoslav civil war in the 1990s, he kept flinching while narrating a piece to camera. The cameraman stopped filming and asked him what he was doing. "We'll dub the sound of bullets on later," came back the response from the man who was nowhere near the front line.
On another occasion, the same reporter noticed a hotel during the same conflict that had been hit by a mortar, destroying a corner room. He immediately booked the room next to it so that he could report that the room next door had been struck by an explosion, giving the impression it happened while he was already ensconced in his room in what one must assume was an attempt to make him look braver.
CNN famously had lengthy guidelines outlining the need for staff to produce work with integrity, yet its London bureau had an office covered in wallpaper designed to look like a library so that interviewees could look suitably bookish without a real book in sight.
The falsity in what many outsiders regard as the glamourous world of television news is not limited to self-aggrandisement, although many are waiting with bated breath for the next installment on the Williams front following news that all his reports from the field are being investigated by NBC. And one can be reasonably certain that more "mis-statements" will emerge.
Because of the desire to have an interesting backdrop for the reporter, he or she is flown to a conflict zone. However, it often has to be a safe part so that the reporter can deliver a script without being harmed or killed. Moreover, because it is a safe zone, there is no news there. So the reporter is reliant on the texts of news agencies to find out what is happening, but most viewers don't know that.
Several times I would rouse my TV station's Middle East correspondent from the comfort of his bed in relatively safe Cyprus to inform him of a bombing in Beirut. I would then dictate a script to him based on agency copy, which he would then read to camera as if they were his own words.
On other occasions, one agency would report an incident, then we would report it, citing the agency, then another agency would report it citing us.
Sometimes it is just sheer ignorance that misinforms the public and leads it to lose trust in television news. On one occasion, a junior producer at one TV station was "painting" pictures onto a script from a correspondent in Kashmir. The person didn't have sufficient recent images of soldiers to cover the piece about the latest conflict and resorted to using library footage.
Unfortunately, she selected pictures of blue-helmeted United Nations soldiers in another country. It is a matter of pride to the Indians that the United Nations has never been involved in Kashmir. When the finished piece was transmitted around the world, there were riots in the subcontinent in which many people were killed. The TV station's head was carpeted by India's ambassador to London.
It is fair to say that the shenanigans exposed surrounding Williams has lifted the lid on some other unsavoury practices in the world of TV news, but it is unlikely many have had such drastic consequences. It is also true many brave journalists have been killed trying to inform the public about events. But have they died in vain because of vainglorious TV anchors?
Mark Hughes is a former producer for BBC, ITN, CNN and Bloomberg TV and works with the Bangkok Post as a Foreign News Editor.