“Be creative. We don’t want you to just stand there during your live shot. Do something. Get involved in the story.” If you earn a wage as a field hand in the local TV news, you’ve heard it. You’ve probably heard it uttered by somebody who covers news by staying indoors all day in a [...]
Archive for September, 2009
28 Sep
Class action
Adam Murphy probably has many loyal friends. No doubt, they love his Restaurant Report Card stories on WGCL. They follow his regular appearances on the pop radio station known as Q100, wherein Murphy talks (we presume) about the failings of restaurants, as well as other exposés in the “Action Adam” portfolio. They probably love his [...]
24 Sep
My laptop
Q: Hey, TV reporter! Who writes your stories for you while you’re fixing your hair and makeup?? A: Unless my name is Jenna Bush Hager, nobody writes stories for me. I write them myself. This answer often surprises the questioner, until it’s explained: “That’s why so many TV stories are so poorly written.” I would [...]
24 Sep
Mentally handicapped
2pm, Douglasville GA. 9.23.09. When it’s insufficient to merely park illegally in a handicapped spot, do it sideways. While I was on foot covering flooding, this asshat nearly hit me. He was racing through a parking lot toward this spot. We will resume our regular programming shortly. Update: Now you’ve hit the bigtime, dipwad!
22 Sep
Should I stay or should I go?
When weather gets rough, it’s news. Sure, a downed tree is sometimes overblown. But severe weather deserves blowout treatment. Problem is, weather makes logistics rough. The story may be good, but it may also be impossible to get on the air. The result may be a classic crapshoot. Stay put in the rough weather, and [...]
18 Sep
The gorilla ball
The Gorilla Ball is Saturday. The event is a competition among Atlanta TV stations to see which can produce the most entertaining blooper reel. The reels are always worthy viewing. CNN typically enlivens the event by providing a blooper reel, though CNN is ineligible for the Otto Focus Award, the plastic trophy handed over to [...]
16 Sep
Sustenance
Thank goodness there are so many caring people who love TV. Without them, the denizens of newsrooms across America would surely wither and die. Tuesday was an excellent example. As newsroom staff at WXIA were beginning to collapse from starvation — deprived, as they were, of nutrition due to their extraordinary hard work and their [...]
14 Sep
Overheard in the newsroom
News professionals who are still unsure about using Facebook — and they are surprisingly numerous — may reconsider when they learn that they can “become a fan of” an entity called “overheard in the newsroom.” By so doing, the daily Facebook feed will provide you with a regular litany of newsroom howlers. Here are a [...]
6 Sep
Multiple sources
This week I got my first piece of hate mail at WXIA. It could have been a critique of my prowess as a videographer. That aspect of my Dragon*Con story, which aired Monday, was overlooked by the unhappy correspondent. Had the writer carefully checked 11alive.com, he would have found that WXIA produced two pieces on [...]
5 Sep
Immunity
Jerry Carnes is a clever, talented and mostly healthy TV reporter. He’s one of the best storytellers in town. But this isn’t about Carnes’s strengths as a journalist. This is about how the finger of fate can point, then keep pointing. First, Carnes beat prostate cancer. He’s been cancer free for quite some time. Then, [...]
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