I hope the naming of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as the Republican vice presidential candidate will open doors for another University of Idaho journalism graduate who minored in political science.

Me.

My ambitions are modest. Instead of running for vice president, I’ve decided to become a television critic.

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I watch a lot of TV. I even got paid during a brief 1972 stint with KOLD news as “Steve Emerine on the scene for Channel 13.”

Note the triple rhyme. John C. Scott was the anchorman, a young Patty Weiss was a producer, and Charlie Boyd, now a Sundt Companies executive, shot film for us.

I have more, unpaid, experience. KUAT-TV boss Frank Barreca asked me to succeed Arnold Jeffers as host of “It’s Your Town” on Channel 6 in 1967 and 1968, and KZAZ (forerunner of KMSB) owner Gene Adelstein let me host “Pima County Forum” on Channel 11 in the mid-1970s. Both were half-hour interview shows.

I was KVOA’s Democratic election analyst in 1968 with Republican University of Arizona Professor Donald Roots Hall and in 2000 with Republican Pima County Supervisor Mike Boyd. If Channel 4 waits another 32 years to invite me back, I’ll be very old.

Currently, host Bill Buckmaster occasionally asks me to fill in on KUAT-TV’s “Arizona Illustrated” when some regular “Reporters’ Roundtable” panelist can’t make it on a Friday night.

With those TV credentials, I think residents of a million-person urban area like Tucson should be able to see every UA football and basketball game, plus every Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game.

You’ve probably noticed that we don’t. Thirty years ago, Adelstein made sure we got virtually all of the UA games on TV.

I also want KVOA, once my favorite local TV news station, to stop rerunning stories from its network news in its “local” newscasts and stop wasting time at 5 p.m. and 6 p.m. telling us about stories it won’t show us until 10 p.m.

And they should stop bragging how “fair and balanced” their local news is.

Channel 4 reporters must practice looking earnestly into the camera to admit they couldn’t reach anyone to disagree with their stories. You mean they couldn’t find someone in Tucson who favors dangerous storms, auto fatalities, bank hold-ups or murders?

I’m sure high-paid consultants told KVOA to push the “fair and balanced” message in every newscast, but I’d rather see local stations hire consultants before Nov. 4 to teach their staffs how elections work in Arizona:

1. Each Arizona legislative district elects one state senator and two state representatives. If there are only two House candidates, they both win. If there are more than two, those finishing third or lower lose.

2. Some legislative districts cover parts of other counties, not just Pima. A candidate who leads in this county may not win when votes from other counties are tallied.

3. Unlike Tucson city elections, where the mayor and council are elected citywide in the general election, county supervisors are chosen only within their districts. This year, four of the supervisors have no opposition. The only general election race is between three-term incumbent Democrat Sharon Bronson and Republican businessman Barney Brenner.

4. Three seats are open on the Arizona Corporation Commission. Republican Marian McClure will probably carry Pima County because she lives here. Ditto for Democrat Paul Newman of Cochise County. But they could lose when votes from the other 14 counties are counted. Since we haven’t had any Southern Arizona commissioners in years, let’s hope they win.

5. Finally, all TV anchor people and reporters should read and understand the November ballot’s initiative and referendum proposals well before election day.

I’ll bet at least one local news person will make the mistake of telling viewers Proposition 200, which deviously calls itself “Reform Payday Loans,” will clean up the payday loan mess in Arizona.

It won’t, but if it is defeated, the law authorizing payday loan firms will expire in 2010.

That would be the best reform of all.

 Contact Steve Emerine or e-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com. Emerine, a Tucson resident since 1960, has run Steve Emerine Strategic Public Relations since 1994. He is a former local newspaper reporter, editor and columnist and served as Pima County Assessor from 1973 to 1980. He is a regular Monday guest on the John C. Scott radio talk show, which airs from 6 a.m. to 7 a.m. and from 11 a.m. to noon weekdays on The Voice KVOI 690-AM. This column appears weekly in Inside Tucson Business.