Housecat rant

satpimp

Well-known member
So I'm driving back from my 5pm liveshot and I see a brilliant white contrail. Very fast and obviously very high as it's lit by the setting sun. The Falcon launch. For well over a minute I was able to watch as the stages seperated and a new commercial satellite winged it's way out of the atmosphere.

The first private payload launch and the first from Florida. A huge boost for any aerospace workers who's fortunes changed with the shuttle's demise. A pretty big story in these parts and I saw it for what it was while driving. I get back to the desk with my discs from the day and ask.."who shot the launch". Blank stare, crickets, and then "oh that's what the calls were about."

Anyone in this market who looked up saw a spectacular thing. We missed an opportunity to tell the story of Falcon. The story of the future of Florida's biggest and most prestigious industry.

Countdown, launch, gorgeous overflight with nats of a crowd of station employees cheering in parking lot. The story writes its self in whatever order you build it.

I was told "it's okay we'll get the nasa video" Yes, but what people here saw will most likely be provided to our viewers by someone who mails in cell phone video.

Fail

Omar
 
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cyndygreen1

Well-known member
True story. Reporter and I were watching live radar and see a potential funnel cloud/tornado heading for a small town about thirty minutes out. We call the desk and tell them we're heading that way. They order us to sit still and wait for direction. We wait...tornado touches town hits a few buildings and moves of. When the desk hears it on another station they tell use to move. End of story.
 

satpimp

Well-known member
Cyndy,

I've had a couple like that too. I think you're right on the mark. My news director is tired of hearing me bitch about people not protecting their own broadcast. An update to my rant.. they used a cell phone still e-mailed from the Bahamas. Dark, not the brilliant daylight everbody here saw Nice to know they're still seeing us in the Bahamas tho.

Omar
 

Run&Gun

Well-known member
It's not just local. It's at the network level, too. One of the biggest problems is that the people in the decision making positions have no news judgement. And the people that have "been around the block" and do, are just pawns to them. The new generation of leaders aren't there because they've spent years in the field honing their skills and instincts and judgement. They're there because they have shown a knack for saving the company money. A few years ago we were at the other end of the spectrum(and actually worse off in my opinion), you had to be FIRST. Being the first RIGHT didn't matter. Now they'll just play catch-up or play it off and make the story seem less important because they weren't on the leading edge of it. But hey, they saved the company money this year.

I won't get into specifics of this, but last year I had a producer at a net vent to me about the ball being dropped, too. This net had basically an exclusive and information about something that was going to happen after the story ran. Instead of having a crew IN PLACE and ready, they waited until the day after they ran the story to send a crew in. Instead of staying ahead of the rest of the country, they were then playing catch-up and using video from locals instead of their own if they had been doing what experienced field producers had said instead of "the house cats". Getting "scooped" happens, but getting scooped on your own "scoop" is inexcusable.

The divide between the "news" and "feature" ends grows more every day. News continues to race down the toilet with cell phone pics and producers shooting on handy cams and even the "everyday-run-of-the-mill" features look more and more like they were turned out by Hollywood.
 
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