Q: Callista. That’s an unusual name, no? A: Well, there’s Calista Flockhart. That bit of chit-chat followed an encounter with the wife of Newt Gingrich last weekend. I’ve made smalltalk with Mrs. Gingrich once, and the weather was the subject. My encounter with Calista Flockhart, the actress, was much more interesting, though not because of [...]
Archive for the ‘WAGA’ Category
23 Jan
Winne Watch 1.23.12
“He’s agreed to talk to Mark Winne and nobody else.” Those spirit-draining words came from Lt. Sean Smith, the new temporary PIO for the Gwinnett County Sheriff. We were at the Gwinnett County jail, which was holding inmate Victor Hill. Hill, a former sheriff, had been arrested following a public corruption indictment. Every local media [...]
5 Dec
A convenient target
Herman Cain ended his campaign for president Saturday. I attended the speech he delivered announcing his exit, and heard the crowd roar loudest when he denounced the news media. The news media is a convenient object of scorn. It’s easy to clobber reporters, whose jobs are to look for and tell interesting real-life stories. Frequently, [...]
14 Nov
The 60s coat
This month, I started packing my winter overcoat to work. I’ve been wearing the same coat to work for 23 years. 45 seconds into the above video, you’ll see the coat on a much-younger version of yours truly in 1991. Jeff Hullinger, Brenda Wood and Bill Hartman are also in it. I’m pretty sure they’ve [...]
22 Aug
Like a mighty stream
As a 20-something working at KMTV in Omaha, I eyed the expanse of the United States in search of the Bigger Market. Figuring cities like New York, Chicago and San Francisco were out of reach, I aimed a bit lower and set my sights on Atlanta. Denver and Seattle were a close second and third. [...]
14 Aug
The land of Oss
When I showed up to work at WXIA for the first time in 2009, nobody greeted me more warmly than Paul Ossmann. We’d become acquainted when WAGA first hired him in 1988. He became one of the founding hosts of WAGA’s Good Day Atlanta. Ossmann jumped ship 13 years ago when WXIA offered him a [...]
20 Jun
Burn unit
Earlier this year, members of WAGA’s I-Team made a video for a non-profit organization to be played at a banquet. The video was a public service project. The I-Team’s editor burned the video onto a DVD using a new DVD burner. When they took the DVD to the banquet early, the house machine couldn’t play [...]
16 May
Amateur hour
Most politicians, and their staffs, have sense enough to avoid the hamhanded treatment Gov. Nathan Deal gave WAGA Friday. It inevitably hurts the politician, not the news organization. It happened to Deal Friday. Deal’s communications director Brian Robinson ordered state troopers to banish WAGA from a high-profile news conference. A day earlier,WAGA’s Dale Russell reported [...]
27 Mar
Battle rattle
Sometimes, it pays to be the old guy. There are a lot of things I could write about the cop-killer / hostage standoff / media intervention Friday night. I’ll mostly stick to the competitive aspect. First, the thumbnail: A guy inexplicably shoots and injures an Athens / Clarke County police officer Tuesday, then shoots another [...]
23 Mar
Happy face
The carload of people drove up to our live truck. Two of them stepped out, then swept past our truck to the WAGA truck a few feet away. Within minutes, I saw Russ Spencer interviewing one of the occupants, a woman about my age. We had spent the evening staking out Athens Regional, the trauma [...]
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