This week, I got a 500 word letter from a man who was unhappy about a story I had produced. I was delighted. I take no joy in ticking off viewers. But I do admire a guy who is thoughtful and passionate and honorable enough to actually analyze my story and critique it thoughtfully. And [...]
Archive for the ‘WXIA’ Category
30 Jan
The poor man’s jib
TV news folk are well-equipped to shoot images of events happening right in front of them. We can produce pictures of fires or images of people talking with near perfection. But put us in a situation that requires us to make interesting the routine settings of real life, and our equipment sometimes isn’t sufficient. Real [...]
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 [...]
16 Jan
Indecision 2012
When I learned that a crew from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart would shoot a piece in Ellijay, I initially hadn’t considered turning it into a local news story. They were doing a piece on some Mitt Romney supporters whose over-the-top enthusiasm for the milquetoast Republican seemed newsworthy when I did the piece in [...]
9 Jan
The empty gesture
When we speak, most of us gesture. We can’t help it. It’s natural. Especially when we’re being emphatic, the hands and arms tend to move in conjunction with the words. The best of us do so with the style of a symphony conductor, with words and movements that fully communicate. Even on the phone, gesturing [...]
27 Dec
At the top of his game
Richard Crabbe’s retirement was a bittersweet moment. Viewed selfishly, it irritated me because he is such a talented photographer and editor. Such folk can make my stories look great and make me look like I actually know what I’m doing. Viewed through the evolution of the TV news business, it makes more sense. Crabbe spent [...]
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 [...]
12 Dec
Names you remember
The disappearance and murder of seven year old Jorelys Rivera was undeniably awful. Most news folk are able to detach themselves emotionally from stories they cover, in part because they’ve frequently seen similar stories before. But thankfully, children are rarely murdered in metro Atlanta nowadays. That made this story rough. My career in Atlanta started [...]
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, [...]
22 Nov
The Thanksgiving Trifecta
When young people enter the TV news business, they often do so for two reasons: They desire a career that spontaneously puts them in strange situations on tight deadlines. And, they want to see their pretty faces on TV and make lots of money as a big-time TV personality or whatever. The spontaneity aspect of [...]
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