I love stupid reporters...

T

Terry E. Toller

Well-known member
A few days ago, we had a major fire here in Sacramento. about 1,300 feet of a Union Pacific railroad trestle burned to the ground. strangly, fully involved before the FD arrived. Here is how local TV reported it.

One reporter who I respect and has been reporting for the same station for at least 25 years said at least 50 times, "This trellis fire..." TRELLIS? most of the other reporters and anchors called it a trustle...

A helicopter pilot who also has years of experience said (to the effect) "I can tell you from my many years of experience that when those railroad tracks buckled up, that is absolutely proof that there was a major explosion? No, whey went up because of the heat...

Another reporter reported that he had been informed that there was a pipeline under the 'trustle' that moves gasoline. And, he was correct. However, he blew it when he said that all the black smoke was proof that the pipeline ruptured and the gasoline was burning... I am sure all you photogs know that those giant timbers are soaked with creosote (sp?) which is oil based...

The best of all was a reporter talking about two fire boats on the river keeping a bridge from burning. He actually said, "One of the boats is leaving now. He has been here a long time so he must be out of water". I kid you not!!!

I know reporters are 'supposed' to be educated but what up?!
 
cameradog

cameradog

Well-known member
I've been studying economics lately and reading a lot about incentives. In one of the books I'm reading, the author says one of the problems with education in the US is that the incentive system in education tends to drive out the best teachers. He says that the most academically accomplished students don't select education as a major (because other careers provide better incentives) and the ones that do select education end up leaving the field early because they realize they can do better in other fields (which provide better incentives).

As I was reading that, I couldn't help but substitute reporters for teachers. A reporter really needs to know a lot about a lot of things in order to avoid saying or writing something stupid. A reporter needs to be curious, rational and systematic in his approach to the things he doesn't know. People like that, however, can find much greater incentives in other fields. You have to face the fact that the brightest students usually don't choose journalism in the first place. You do have a few bright students who choose journalism specifically because they are curious about their world, and the incentive of exposure to the world makes up for the lack of incentives otherwise. But unfortunately they are in the minority, and many of them end up leaving for other fields when the adventure incentive wears off.

Reporters in general are doomed to be dumb. At least they make good entertainment for the rest of us.
 
shootist

shootist

PRO user
well...yesterday we had a reporter who wrote and tracked a line that an editor edited in a pkg referring to a baby born 14 months premature.


naow...THAT's a miracle.
 
stargazer

stargazer

Active member
I was doing a satellite shot for another station during a political event at an old historic train depot. The reporter refered to it as: "the historic home depot." After the shot, I went in a bought a lawnmower!
 
cameradog

cameradog

Well-known member
I once heard a weather guy say, very dramatically, "Rain is now falling where rain has fallen before." No, really?

My brother used to shoot, and during a live shot one of his favorite reporters once said, "I talked to two eyewitnesses who told me they didn't see or hear anything."

My favorite, which I've heard several times, is when a reporter at the scene of a plane crash breathlessly tells the viewers at home that "the engine stalled right before the crash." Whenever one says that, there's almost a 99.9% certainty that she means the wing stalled. Interviewees who are knowledgeable about airplanes (pilots, NTSB, etc.) will just say the plane stalled; but the reporters, not knowing what that means, will think they're talking about the engine.
 
lost focus

lost focus

Well-known member
from shootist

""well...yesterday we had a reporter who wrote and tracked a line that an editor edited in a pkg referring to a baby born 14 months premature.""

Please tell me that was a reporter than worked as an anchor in Ft. Myers...now a weekend anchor somewhere in PA
 
Goon

Goon

Well-known member
C-Dog is spot on with his observations. At my last station I had the pleasure of working with one of the smartest reporters/people that I have ever meet. He was just beginning his career in broadcast journalsim at the age of 41 making him a renaissance man. He was well versed in literature, history and politics. He possessed qualities that every reporter should have. He was curious and had the patience to listen to people. He kind of inspired me to try to become a reporter. That was market 150.

Fastforward to market 60 (Its Ft. Myers by the way Lost Focus). Most of the reporters I work with are fairly young (early to mid twenties) and display all the bad stereotypes of broadcast news. They are cocky, self absorbed, and impatient. (A few of them are brain dead.) They care about stories only in the sense of how they make themselves look and how they can advance their career. There are some smart reporters in the market but they are drowned out by the new kids on the block who are satisfied with being on tv and working for peanuts.

Low paying jobs don't attract bright people.
 
cameradog

cameradog

Well-known member
Goon said:
Low paying jobs don't attract bright people.
Click to expand...
UNLESS there's some other incentive. There used to be more incentives in television. It was a cool job that took you cool places. Then stations piled on more work and cut travel budgets. You used to be able to do big J journalism if you wanted, to feel as though you were providing a valuable public service. Then flash and trash edged it out, and most stations that had them cut their documentary units. You once could be proud of the quality of the work you turned out. Now you can be proud that you got it on the air at all under ridiculous demands. Viewers used to respect their local television reporters. Now they dislike and distrust them.

There are still incentives in television, but they have diminished significantly. With diminishing incentives, the better people will leave the market. Station owners thought they could take away all these other incentives, and the smart people they had attracted would stay if the pay was the same. They didn't realize the pay was already insufficient, that these other less tangible incentives were the only thing keeping the good people around.

As the good ones who are left age out or get wise and get out, the replacements aren't going to be much good. And they'll continue to think that fireboats have to reload, that babies can be born 5 months before they're even conceived, that there are 720 degrees in a circle and that you can have such a thing as an eyewitness who didn't witness anything at all.
 
cameragod

cameragod

Well-known member
One that annoys me is the perennial “what chance of Asteroids hitting the Earth.” Asteroids by definition become meteors as soon as they enter the atmosphere so it is impossible for the Earth to be hit by an Asteroid.
 
servo

servo

Active member
I was shooting and the reporter walks up to a woman who lost her mother and brother in a tornado the day before and the reporter asks, "How are you doing?" (in the everyday pleasentry way)
We got cussed out.
Gee, thanks reporter for the insensitivity and getting me cussed out as well.
 
Camera Face

Camera Face

Active member
A reporter at my old station once said something along the lines of, "he struck a man with his car, fatally killing him." Then a little later he used the phrase "fatally killing" again. It was awesome.
 
pre-set

pre-set

Well-known member
A reporter/anchor just has to be hot and have good "Q" numbers. Jeez, don't you guys know anything?
 
INLANDNEWS

INLANDNEWS

Well-known member
How many times can a reporter use the words grieve and grieving in the same package? I counted about 8, and the package was only 1:15.
 
Wutangmaster

Wutangmaster

Well-known member
The worst question that was ever asked in my opinion, was when one of the reporters at my old station asked a person at the juneteenth parade if she was happy to be emancipated. The photographer thought they were going to get lynched.
 
Turdpolisher

Turdpolisher

Well-known member
wutang said:
The worst question that was ever asked in my opinion, was when one of the reporters at my old station asked a person at the juneteenth parade if she was happy to be emancipated. The photographer thought they were going to get lynched.
Click to expand...
We have a winner!
 
Land Rover

Land Rover

Well-known member
Reporters?

We left a train derailment and my reporter was writing her story on the way back to the station. The conversation when something like this:

"What are the cars in the middle called?"
"What?".
"You know. The cars in the middle of the train."
"What are you talking about?"
"You have the engine and the caboose. What are the cars between them called?"
"Boxcars."
"Yeah, that's it!"

I once had a reporter ask what was wrong with our cows? I looked at her funny and she said it was because they weren't black and white. She's from New Jersey and after a moment of silence I had to explain that cows come in more colors than black and white. She was amazed.
 
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