In our business, there are consequences for failure. This was mine: I got to do a live report on a tree.
True, the tree had dislodged from its rootwork on a hillside in DeKalb County. It had the good fortune, from the perspective of the news, of falling across a roadway during a thunderstorm.
But I was there because I’d spent the day failing.
That morning, I exited the morning editorial meeting assigned to a story that produced a series of unanswered phone calls and emails. It was Friday, after all.
Midday, I was sitting at my desk, high and dry. A home invasion robbery / person shot story called my name.
Dan Reilly and I drove to Stone Mountain in a live truck. The details emerged. It was garden-variety mayhem, of the sort we thankfully avoid at 11 Alive News.
But I’d failed again. I couldn’t / wouldn’t try to “sell” the story. Maybe if I’d done so, I wouldn’t have ended up in front of a tree.
A couple hours passed. 5pm brought storms. Somebody in the weather department got a little excited, which had a contagious effect among certain decision makers.
The manager who caught my eye had a hint of evil in his smile. “There’s some bad lightning in Gwinnett County. Try to get there for six.”
Traffic was a bitch. It was not only Friday rush hour, but there was bad weather. We spent thirty minutes traveling eight miles.
We exited Chamblee Tucker Rd. At 5:45 we started to look for a place to alight. There was rain, but the storms had passed.
Dan had WSB radio tuned in. “There’s a tree down on Presidential Drive near Chamblee Tucker and 285.” The voice was Doug Turnbull’s. I knew Turnbull when he was in high school. He and my kids were pals.
The road was two blocks from us. There we went.
There I stood, talking about a tree.
“It’s an oak tree,” I began. I had a tree, but very little other material.
My live shot ended quickly, and we wrapped our “coverage.”
It gave my punishment, on a Friday evening, a measure of mercy. Nonetheless, it was a reminder of why failure is a very poor option in my line of work.
I’m sure days like this keep you humble!
It’s starting to look like you need to rename the blog from LAF to Falling Trees Everywhere. My wife and I now have a bet on which part of the city the obligatory fallen tree shot will be located in, since there’s one on every newscast. Not just WXIA-everyone seems to be on this kick.
Every station, in every market, in the entire United States has a fallen tree starring in their newscast during stormy weather. The trees should unionize.