WAGA’s “Mission to China” was a distressingly colorless thirty-minute recap of Russ Spencer’s recent trip to China with Gov. Sonny Perdue. It appeared that WAGA simply re-broadcast pieces Spencer and chief photographer Fred Plummer produced on-the-fly in China and fed back. The pieces were acceptable deadline stories, but weren’t worthy of showcasing in a half-hour [...]
Archive for April, 2008
18 Apr
Flat-footed
In TV land, it seems everybody but WAGA got caught flat-footed on the Mike Evans resignation from the DOT board. Evans quit after revealing he’d developed a “personal relationship” with the board’s newest hire, commissioner Gena Abraham. Unlike other stations, WAGA actually covered the meeting with reporters Dale Russell and Paul Yates. WAGA did an [...]
18 Apr
Bottom feeding
“Never saw that before,” chortled the LAF spouse while watching WSB’s Thursday 6pm news. Tom Jones was covering a police chase / wreck in East Point. As such stories go, Jones had all the goods: An interview with a driver who’s car got whacked by a severed power pole; and an interview with the driver [...]
17 Apr
Turns of phrase
Some noteworthy lines that emerged from our too-long sit in front of the DVR this morning: WSB’s Mark Winne, reporting that a victim’s car “turned up burned up on Church Street.” WSB’s Ryan Young, reporting this morning that “at 2am, we discovered from police that the motive in this multiple shooting is still not clear.” [...]
17 Apr
Dispiriting
Your name is Aungelique Proctor. You’ve been a reporter at WAGA for, what– 15 years. You got into the news business for all the right reasons. You’re a digger. You’re a wife and mother, a native Atlantan, and you’re good at your job. You spent much of Wednesday digging into some story, probably a story [...]
16 Apr
Apartment fire drinking game
During today’s coverage of the Norcross apartment fire, do a shot whenever you hear “narrowly escaped,” “lost everything,” “escaped with their lives” “lucky to be alive,” “team coverage.” Do a double shot if anybody says “the roof is on fire.” If you have to go anyplace afterward, please take a cab.
16 Apr
Deadline reporting
This is puzzling. Why did WAGA do a tax-deadline live shot Tuesday at 10pm in Decatur? Is “lazy” too strong a word? The post office live shot is an irresistible staple of local TV news on April 15. It usually makes sense. Each year, TV captures the good-natured last-minute scramble to file before the midnight [...]
15 Apr
Michelle’s Racist Roommate
Some local bloggers are getting very, very excited about a Sunday AJC story they consider to be hideously written. The piece was about a local woman who was a roommate at Princeton with Michelle Obama. From The Stone’s Colossal Dream: “Poor Brian Feagans must have drawn the short straw when he got assigned this remarkable [...]
14 Apr
Get this man / woman a hard hat
Though we’ve seen much of this through the years, this compilation of dangerous on-camera moments is pretty eye-opening. The guy with the dog is our favorite. Every TV reporter learns how to talk down an angry dog. Melissa Sander’s unfortunate on-camera plunge at Chateau Elan is still hard to watch. Thanks to Matt-!
13 Apr
Windblown
Put yourself in the shoes of WSB’s Richard Elliott. He’s working the late shift on a Friday night. The weather turns slightly ugly, a few thunderstorms. But nothing gets Elliott’s bossfolk more excited than the potential for storm damage. Elliott gets the call: A tree is down! Location: Dawsonville. So Elliott and a photog drive [...]
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