See update below.
Live Apartment Fire is managed and written by ex-WAGA reporter Doug Richards, a 27 year veteran of the TV news biz, 21 of it in Atlanta. The writer is now co-owner (with the writer of the blog called the Daly Briefing) of a kickass video production company called TomorrowVision Media. Feel free to hire us.
“Live Apartment Fire” refers to the brightest, most incendiary cliche in Atlanta TV news. When an apartment building catches fire– especially close to news time– it doesn’t matter what good work a reporter has developed during the day. Nor does it matter if nobody is injured by the fire. The apartment fire will get top priority and will be treated like Armageddon, especially if the flames can be broadcast live during a newscast.
At its best, the news business is a remarkable institution, a pillar of our free society. Sadly, the folks who manage it have to chase an audience and ultimately, sell advertising. When the news business panders to an audience, and loses sight of its status as a beacon of enlightenment, then it starts covering Live Apartment Fires, and treating each of them as Armageddon. (Same thing with snowflakes).
The writer is also available for freelance writing projects. He can apply his patented snark filter, resulting in crisp, clean corporate-style copy.
The writer is uncomfortable referring to himself in the third person as LAF (or the first person plural as “we”), but is getting used to it.
Once, at the end of a TV news workday, my teenage son asked me: So, dad– cover any apartment fires today?
Not anymore.
The writer left the news biz voluntarily, with no bitterness or animosity, in July 2007. The writer retains affection and reverence for the good work that TV news can do, and horror at how often that opportunity is squandered. The blog is intended to be a constructive critique. Often it merely states publicly sentiments that are routinely expressed behind-the-scenes within the news biz.
Update: As of August 10, 2009, the blogger is a reporter at WXIA-TV.
- “Content without context is pretext.” - Jesse Jackson
