Who’s out of line?! is the wildly unpopular game started in this space earlier this week! In it, we examine actual moments of confrontation between competing Atlanta news crews, based on this blogger’s second-hand knowledge. If you missed the first round of Who’s Out of Line?!, you overlooked an exciting judgment made in this space [...]
Archive for the ‘WGCL’ Category
14 May
Who’s out of line?
Good news! Today, this blog launches a service called Who’s Out of Line? It’s a service nobody wants, and does no good whatsoever, designed to resolve the occasional disputes that arise in the field among competing TV news crews. Because most TV news crews in the Atlanta market behave professionally and get along reasonably well, [...]
26 Mar
Monty’s weird little war
One day, a man named Monty White Jr. decided to start a heating and air conditioning company based in Marietta, GA. The company did legitimate HVAC work. But it also developed a reputation for diagnosing nonexistent problems, and clobbering customers with a “no refunds” policy buried in its standard contract. Monty’s company drew some deserved [...]
12 Mar
Unanswerable questions
The Hemy Neuman murder trial will go to the jury this week, and reporters covering the trial will have to brace themselves. This is the part of the trial where anxious and perhaps inexperienced newsroom personnel will ask them unanswerable questions regarding the verdict and the coverage thereof. Fortunately, nobody in my newsroom will ask [...]
27 Feb
Within the pool
What’s she doing in the shot?!? The question erupted in the press room of the Hemy Neuman murder trial. The courtroom camera was fixed on Andrea Sneiderman, who was seated in the gallery of the courtroom. Mrs. Sneiderman was having a visible reaction to some of the opening statements made by attorneys at the start [...]
19 Dec
Confessional
Happy holidays. Here’s my gift to you. I’m going to admit that a competitor kicked my ass on a story. This will be a bit of heresy. Getting one’s ass kicked on a story isn’t something TV reporters enjoy discussing. Just the opposite actually. If somebody beats you on a story, you cling to the [...]
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 [...]
3 Jun
Sunny day, real estate
She sees a world where human beings answer phones, where e-mails requesting information are promptly returned, where newsmakers are forthcoming and available for comment at her convenience, and where the craft of television is applied with care and cleverness every evening, with plenty of time before deadline. He’s the jaunty photog who can’t bear to [...]
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