By Tom Tucker In the noon shows Thursday, three of the four local stations led with job fair stories (live shots). But only WXIA did anything different — and compelling. WGCL: reporter at job fair, Georgia International Convention Center, standing in the line for the standup. WAGA: reporter at job fair, south Fulton county, standing [...]
Archive for February, 2009
25 Feb
Freak
Way back when, an NBC guy named Edwin Newman produced an annual rhyme that summarized the year’s news. He’d read the rhyme on the Today show. Best we can recall, it was always clever and fun. Brett Martin, the ex-WAGA and ex-WGCL morning guy, would probably be the first to say that he’s no Edwin [...]
24 Feb
Cling-on warrior
WAGA’s metronomic general-assignment drumbeat of petty exclusives and plodding reporter storytelling got a somewhat interesting reprieve Monday. Denise Dillon’s piece on a guy who intervened in a hit-and-run accident wasn’t big news. But Dillon’s storytelling was fun and the photog had a big ol’ time with a story that lacked visuals. It helped that the [...]
20 Feb
First blood
Timing is everything, the cliche goes. This cliche has a measure of truth, at least regarding the story of DeKalb police chief Terrell Bolton. Unlikely to survive his current contretemps with his new boss, DeKalb CEO Burrell Ellis, Bolton may be inclined to blame WAGA’s Dale Russell for digging up information leading to his demise. [...]
19 Feb
Conductivity
WAGA’s weather coverage Wednesday was a lovely exercise in cognitive dissonance. First, you gotta understand: Nothing spikes the adrenaline of desk-bound news managers more than the prospect of sending their field crews into awful weather. They know viewers are watching in greater numbers. Get a live funnel cloud behind a reporter, and you’ve smacked a [...]
17 Feb
More with less
Given the fact that Gannett has had to furlough employees in 2009, it would have seemed downright criminal for WXIA to cover the start of baseball’s spring training with its usual compliment of reporters, anchors, photographers and live truck operators. Yet the story is high interest. And with Orlando but a one-day drive away, the [...]
16 Feb
Inconvenient truths
Mark Winne is a proud man, and he should be. Winne does a lot of good work as one of WSB’s investigative reporters. He’s done some of that work with the help of Terrell Bolton, DeKalb County’s police chief. Bolton gave Winne an exclusive last year when Bolton decided he needed to arm his cops [...]
12 Feb
It’s all about me vol. 4
The life of a general assignment TV reporter can rewarding. It can also be nasty, brutish and unpredictable. There are several ways to avoid its perils. You can become an anchor. You can take a pay cut and find a smaller market. You can find another line of work. Or you can get a gig. The [...]
11 Feb
It’s all about me, vol. 3
Five weird career moments as a TV newsman, 1980 – 1994. 1. The only time I tried to do weather, 1981, WTVA Tupelo Mississippi. I had a weather map with magnetic pieces stuck to it, indicating weather images I’d made up based on AP copy. I was absurdly nervous. I used a pointer, and dislodged [...]
9 Feb
It’s all about me, vol 2
This week, we indulge the writer of this blog as he marks his one-year anniversary of his first LAF post. No doubt, the craziest story I ever covered was the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. Embedded with the 3rd Infantry Division, the coverage was a combination of weird intensity and a comedy of errors. [...]
Recent Comments