breaking news dance

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turdpolisher1

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what strange rituals do you perform to encourage spot news to break on slow news days?

we had a producer who would whoop like an indian and dance around her desk to ask the news gods to bless us with multi-car accidents, double homicides, lynchings, or drive-by yellings on really slow days.

it almost always worked.
 

geek

Member
just go do somthing you can't while thiers news out thier like get gas food, wash the car. the one that works the best for is logging all the scanner freqs and search for new ones.
 

Sentinel94

Well-known member
yep....I'd have to say that sitting down to eat your fine homecooked dinner that you've been craving all day is the best time for all hell breakin' loose. Never fails!!! :mad: That and reading the paper in the bathroom. ;)
 

2000lux

Well-known member
Sunday mornings are the worst at our shop! We often joke about praying or making sacrifices to "the breaking news gods." I've been thinking we should build a shrine to Saint Claire, the patron saint of television. At my last station some one had a plastic glow in the dark figurine of her on top of his computer monitor that always cracked me up because it was so tacky.

-Brian
 

leftcoastphotog

Well-known member
i have a st. clair figurine attached to a scanner in my car. whenever i want breaking news i just tap her head and say "bring it on st. clair." it's also cool cause she glows in the dark. tacky sure but we dont have alot of saints in tv.
 

Shaky & Blue

Well-known member
Somehow I can't shake the feeling that praying to a saint for breaking news, which usually involves misfortune to fall upon someone, is a sure way to end up in hell. :confused:
 

TC

Member
Yeah, last time we did the breaking news wish, a popular sheriff died. We don't do that anymore
 
I know everyone one is joking, but I am glad to see that I am not the only human being posting on this thread. The second we stop looking at breaking news as a tragedy is the second we stop seeing the real story. We MUST remember its a tragedy to everyone involved, and we will be able to see the real story. I'm sorry, but I would rather shoot fluffy crap on a slow day than pray for a wreck to happen or for people to be killed. It's my job, and I will do it when it happens, but there is better news to hope for than that. Even a political scandal would be better than that. Because most of the time they actually deserve it. Not like the poor souls who fall victim to tragedy.
 

D-ice

Member
Change your days off....
i.e..if your off on Tuesday,Wenesday...change it to Thursday, friday.....
THis has worked for me...it kind of strange....ever since I went to Thur,Fri off...
Bank Robberies, small planes crashing, stand-off's
etc, etc, it's kind of funny. The other photog's
think I'm cursed... :rolleyes:
 

2000lux

Well-known member
When people complain that it's slow, I remind them that when we're having a "good" day, that usually means that some one else is having a really bad day.

This was driven home for me (again) recently when I was sent out to cover a story about a man who died in a garage fire. I was working it in the usual manor. The street was blocked off so I found a nighbor's driveway I could get some shots from. Another neighbor invited me to shoot from his back yard. Then I got some shots from the tape of the cops out front, etc. The station was calling me every five minutes to find out if I'd found out any thing new...

Then a shooter from another station told me that the house actually belongs to a photog' from a third station in town, and that it was his brother who had died in the fire. We all felt absolutely awful about it (everyone covered it).

The photg' who owns the place is one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. He was out of town when it happend but I hear he was on the first plane back. I hope he and his family are coping as well as possible.

I'm going to feel really awkward the next time I see him. I was present for a major tragedy in his life, but to me, it was just another day at work. That is, until I found out. You can say, "Hey I can shoot any thing from the side walk I want" all day, but I'll still feel like I violated the family's privacy. Now I'll never look at one of those stories the same again. :( :( :( :(
 

Cambot Mk. II

Well-known member
It's strange that this thread should pop up again. We also had an unusually bad day here- 4 very violent deaths in one day, with two being suicides, two in an accident, and one of those suicides the end of a police standoff.

I was at the car accident and close enough to see quite a bit since nobody kept us back from the scene. One person had thick clots of blood coming from every orifice in their head. The other person in the car had a heart attack and the first responders spent about 20 minutes doing chest compressions on his unresponsive body before the ambulances arrived. Both people died.

My chief was at both of the suicides. The one that wasn't the police standoff was with a person running a car into a tree at more than 70 mph. She was decapitated by the force of the impact. What made that situation even worse was that he was the on-call photographer and missed his daughter's 6th birthday because he was on scene until 9 that night.

I won't complain about being stuck covering a school board meeting for a while.
 

Cambot Mk. II

Well-known member
Generally, we don't cover suicides unless it's something where it's brought out in a public forum. that includes police standoffs and, sadly, fatal wrecks. Not my Policy but the ND's.
 

livedude

Member
In Baltimore this year we have had over 23 people killed in fatal fires. Its kind of bad when I come in for my AM shift and I know that most likely we are going to lead with a fatal fire that kids died in overnight.
 

SAwood

Well-known member
start shooting something you really WANT to shoot. something fun. Kidna like when you sit down to eat, as soon as it's brought out to you, that's when the fires start. usually, I just hide behind a computer and enjoy the silence while I have it.
 
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