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Television can't do it. Period. Unlike text, the medium is hopelessly compromised by the inherent limitations:
The low ceiling on the amount of content- as in "factual details"- that can be transmitted in a given period of time
which in turn leads to
massive compromises in editing- "i.e., which details that are absolutely necessary to produce anything resembling an accurate and thoughtful account of an event will I leave out?" Soundbite/vidbite world.
For example, consider all of the "polls" you've seen on television, asking people their opinion on a given question. If the number of respondents was less than a minimum of 30 (and a randomly selected 30, to boot!), it's a statistically inaccurate poll. That's a mathematical maxim of statistics. That doesn't stop TV news programs from broadcasting them, though. They'll find 12 people all coming out of the same restaurant, and edit the responses down to 4 or 5. Or 3. Or 2.
10,000 people killed by death squads is a statistic- a very nasty statistic. In print, it has the potential of being a reviewable and referencable one. On television, it becomes an unreferenced statement. It doesn't stick around long enough to be contradicted if it isn't accurate- or to be reliably used as a citation if it is. The statistic is usually connected to a news account that's edited down to 2-minutes, similarly unusable in terms of lasting value as an information source.
Meanwhile, on television, one missing child can become a Cause. Not for 2 minutes. For 2 weeks. 2 months. 2 years.
Image trumps content on television. No way around it. The most important thing is whether the camera loves you. Everything else is secondary.
I could go on for pages about how misleading television news broadcasting is- inherently, as a medium. Except for interviews- and to a lesser extent, a good, long format, well-moderated debate. But even then, the person who the camera loves the most gets an unfair edge- one that doesn't exist in the medium of radio. And radio doesn't indulge in irrelevant distractions like whether you have an ink stain on your shirt, or whatever.
