Rock video
There are things TV news can do better than any other news medium. Sometimes, it’s just a matter of knowing where to be with a camera. Last night, WGCL showed that Broad St. in downtown Atlanta is such a place. Harry Samler produced a terrific piece on drug use and drug dealing there– just blocks away from the Federal buildings, City Hall and the state Capitol.
Samler used an old-school hidden camera technique. His photog simply went into a Broad St. business, and shot video out the window. The camera captured street folks transacting drug deals, lighting one-hit pipes, even dropping rocks of crack to the ground and picking them up again. He watched a cop handcuff a guy, then release him. Best of all, Samler somehow convinced a drug dealer to empty his pockets and show him his stash– with the camera in plain sight, and the CBS-46 truck in the background.
The story would have been better if Samler had done an on-camera interview with a Zone 5 cop. But we won’t quibble. This was very nicely done, giving WGCL’s paltry viewership a good reason to keep watching.
Even though I’m a print refugee, you hafta give major props to television on certain stories. I am still getting a chuckle about one TV station’s interview with an arrested individual, while he was in the back of a police cruiser, only showing his posterior on camera.
I wasn’t watching the news last night but I could swear I saw this piece months ago.
You may very well have seen this piece three years ago, “ARS.” I didn’t want to steal Harry’s thunder, but a certain ex-WAGA reporter did it in, like, 2005. And he got the drug guys to solicit him and a city council member! Thing is, it was way easy. But good TV, still.
Harry’s a good guy. The story must have been an update to the Broad St. story he did a few weeks ago. I don’t work at his station, I run into him every once in a while, and he told me about how he got a tip and got a day, one afternoon, to shoot it. He said he totally lucked out on getting the druggie interview. He made the most of it. Oh yeah, I think he shot the story, or some of it, himself. Anyway, good job.
No, I mean the actual piece, which is excellent, same pharmacy and all. Of course I remember yours, also excellent. I just remember tuning in to see this story just because of the promos. Anyway, dmr, happy blogging and happy birthday!