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 [...]
Archive for the ‘WGCL’ Category
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 [...]
9 May
FrenEmmys
Noteworthy, overlooked and undervalued observations from the 2010 Southeast Regional Emmy nominations, announced Friday: The region’s “best” news anchor may work in Montgomery, Albany GA, Jackson Miss. or Asheville. Mark Bullock, the Montgomery anchor (and UGA grad) who won an Emmy last year for “On-Camera Talent – Anchor – News,” is nominated again this year. [...]
12 Apr
Plus ca change…
Photo from Feeding the News Beast. The news business may evolve, but certain truths remain constant. A TV newscast must have stories that are timely, relevant and interesting. Important stories are a plus. When news is done well, it helps viewers. It doesn’t help them pay their bills, necessarily, or win grievances with their landlords. [...]
14 Mar
“Victim”? No.
Generally speaking, police officers expect fair scrutiny from the news media. They know there are bad apples in their ranks. If the media helps weed them out, good cops will cheer us on. But like the rest of us, police officers recoil from cheap shots, real or perceived. More than anything, they get defensive very [...]
8 Mar
LAF by the numbers
Recently this silly blog managed to grab the attention of its 400,000th set of eyeballs. At around the same time, it recorded its 3000th comment. That doesn’t necessarily speak to its popularity as much as it speaks to my inexplicable persistence in crunching out new material every week. One reason for the persistence: My stats [...]
18 Feb
Disinformation officer
See update below. It’s easy to underappreciate the Public Information Officer. When they do their jobs well, they make their bosses look good and draw no attention to themselves. But when a PIO screws up, it’s like when a surgeon screws up. Somebody gets hurt, and a lot of people notice. PIOs inherently have the [...]
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