The entire school was blazing with orange and black last Friday, eager for the Fox News coverage of our school. We were unusually spirited for this occasion; it’s rare for so much attention to be given to a school as small as ours. Preceding the football game on Friday, Fox had filmed our a cappella groups: the T-Tones, the Madrigals, and the Muses. The students in these groups were excited to show what they had been practicing, and they performed well.

Likewise, the football team made us proud with its 35-29 win against Lincoln-Sudbury. Mike Mitchell and Dylan Register, especially, proved their capabilities in the game.

Yet, as much as we take pride in our a cappella groups and our football team, the coverage seemed unbalanced. The two groups do not represent our school as a whole. What about SADD, or Students Against Destructive Decisions, which Wayland founded and which has now become a nationwide organization? What about our First Robotics Team? Our PB&J Club? Our Asian Culture Club? The golf team? Jazz Ensemble? Mock Trial? The Wayland High School History Project? Academic Decathlon? Winter Week? There is more to our school than football and singing. There are so many other teams, clubs, activities, and student organizations that Fox failed to touch upon. With such a dearth of coverage in these other areas, it’s clear that our school was not depicted properly. Their broadcast disregarded numerous dimensions of the community.

Of course, Fox News was not able to film every aspect of our school. They probably wanted to keep their coverage simple. Yet it is disappointing to find that a professional broadcasting station had such a narrow focus.

Even the way these groups were filmed showed a bias. While the Madrigals simply sang and the Muses only answered a few questions in addition to performing, the T-Tones presented their history and achievements in a far more superiorly shot and edited section of the news. During their exclusive coverage, Mrs. Carroll commented on the group, and members were interviewed rather extensively and professionally compared with the Muses’ interview. Fox covered the T-Tones in two locations on campus and interviewed four members of the group. Their coverage was filmed using both tripods and handheld cameras and added up to more than three minutes. In comparison, the Madrigals and Muses were informally shot with a handheld camera in one place for half a minute and two minutes respectively. Even the manner in which they introduced the three groups was imbalanced: “Watch a performance by The Muses,” “Watch a performance by The Madrigals,” “Wayland High’s all-male A cappella group, Testostertones.” There was an obvious preference towards the T-Tones.

Fox’s coverage is a reminder that we should strive for balanced broadcasting, whether we are on the reporting side or the subject side. If in the future we are offered the opportunity to appear on a news program, we should make sure that we are portrayed in the most accurate and comprehensive way possible.