Comments on: Protect the Children

By: sayejibley

sayejibley — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 21:03:40 +0000

I got this warning when I was an intern, but continued on that path anyway. Fortunately, I’ve now escaped and have a great job at a respectable non-profit, but those 7 years in news- seeing the Daniel Pearl beheading, the sadaam torture videos, watching the world trade center collaspse over and over, a man hit by a car and bounced across 285 like a ragdoll, a lady squished into a Quick Trip, people getting swept up by the tsunami… the list goes on and on… it’s made me hard and jaded. I don’t know if that’s for better or worse.

By: SSG Daly

SSG Daly — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:18:20 +0000

Summer = “Bumper Crop o’ Interns.”
I was an intern once. No one hit on me in the newsroom of the small station in Savannah that eventually hired me. It was a hell of a career that gave me a front row ticket to history in the making (Hurricanes,Wars,Atlanta Cotton Mill Fire). Too bad the industry took a turn for the worse.
Interns – I’m telling you now what I told every intern during the last 5 years at WAGA. If you stay with it, somehow change TV news for the better.

By: Scott Hedeen

Scott Hedeen — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:14:09 +0000

“By the time your child has become an experienced broadcaster, he or she will use drugs and alcohol at almost the same rates as food service employees”

So? I always viewed TV news as the fast food version of journalism. Reality is… this is reality.

By: Scott Hedeen

Scott Hedeen — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:11:44 +0000

Race Bannon? Johnny Quest is on the line… wants his body guard back!

By: Jeremiah

Jeremiah — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 16:01:07 +0000

I wasted more than a decade of my life at a so-called “leading” NBC affiliate TV station in one of the Rocky Mountain states. I wish this blog post were not true. Unfortunately, it is true. I would not permit any child of my own to embark on a career in TV news. I lucked out and managed to move into other, higher-paying jobs in other fields, but I’ll never be able to make up for the lost income and lost retirement savings that I could have otherwise acquired had I started out in a healthier, more employee-friendly industry. I know of a general manager of a TV station who prides himself on his public relations efforts to curb substance abuse. Sadly, this individual doesn’t seem to understand how the dismal management/labor climate at his own TV station has — for years — been a significant catalyst for substance abuse among his own employees. A book needs to be written to document and expose the dark, filthy “secret” side of the American TV news industry.

By: Creative Loafing Atlanta » Fresh Loaf » Blog Archive » Atlanta blogs today

Mon, 07 Jul 2008 17:04:18 +0000

[...] Someone in the Atlanta TV news business is cynical, cynical, cynical. On the Live Apartment Fire blog (one of our faves, btw), a guest poster using the pseudonym of Race Bannon discourages young people [...]

By: bigear

bigear — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 20:18:14 +0000

This is so true! You forgot to mention that if your young daughter wants to be an intern, that she will be subjected to all the “older men” of the newsroom swarming around her “sharing” their old war stories. And how everyone else in the newsroom have pools going on who will starting hitting on, I mean “sharing” those stories first.

By: LBJ

LBJ — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 16:21:14 +0000

Race, no truer words have been written. At least they didn’t work in radio. Talk about no future…

By: Austin Rhodes

Austin Rhodes — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:01:33 +0000

Just like in love, the heart wants what the heart wants. Only experience and “living the dream” will tell the tale. There is no one I know that has worked in the industry that regretted the lessons…

By: rptrcub

rptrcub — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:51:05 +0000

I'm of two minds about journalism/media/etc., when talking to the children. Part of me wants to scream and say "hell f**k no" to those who ask about going into the industry. Then another part of me realizes that you learn a lot about yourself through the trials by fire that journalists experience, which inevitably makes you stronger. I would suggest to them to find another area of occupation to have skills in as a backup in case their media companies decide to lay folks off/not renew contracts, etc.