What did I just watch...?
A local TV reporter lead the 6:00 a.m. news today, standing in front of a not-yet-opened Dollar General store, covering, well-- That's the problem. She was reporting on something which clearly involved police, one of whom had, at some point during the night, discharged his sidearm, possibly in the general direction of a suspiciously-lurking man, about whom it appeared there had been a 911 call, for reasons that were not made clear but presumably having to do with the lurking and the suspiciousness. No one, it seemed, had been shot or hurt, but "the caller had given a detailed description of the suspect, which the officer matched," which was about the point at which I lost the thread entirely.
It was word salad. Mind you, the reporter had strung together all the usual words -- indeed, most of the usual phrases -- but not in a way that made coherent sense. I'm fond of relating thoughts in an unusual manner, filled with allusions and complex sentences, and I know when I'm in over my head. This reporter had drowned several times over and gave no sign of grasping her lapse into nonsense. I fulled expected to see a police spokesperson with doors or windows, or an elephant-giraffe stilting by in the background, on legs slender as threads.
Q: How do you make a serious writer crazy?
ReplyDeleteA: Speak a lot of words without saying anything.
As good a reason as any to stop watching broadcast news.
If the officer matched the description of the suspect, then he must have shot at himself.
ReplyDeleteNo real need to remind you (and their set-bound kin) are by and large barely literate meat puppets trying to make sense of what is coming up on the Teleprompter screen. If the writer in the background creates word salad that's what the puppet will say.
ReplyDeleteThe highlight for me was a TV news weasel butchering 'with malice aforethought' when OJ was charged with murder. It was clear they had never seen the phrase before and had no idea what it meant or how to pronounce it.
"The highlight for me was a TV news weasel butchering 'with malice aforethought' when OJ was charged with murder. It was clear they had never seen the phrase before and had no idea what it meant or how to pronounce it. "
ReplyDeleteYes that was a real "Chy-Chy Rodra-gweez" moment.
Rick, live on-the-scene reports don't work that way; there's no writer, no Teleprompter, and at most, there's only reporter, videographer and ENG or satellite-truck operator. Nowadays, the last two are increasingly scarce; the reporter sets up the camera in front of the scene of the whatever with autofocus and steps into or out of the shot as needed, while the link back to the studios is carried via cellular-service data paths.
ReplyDeleteThe pretty faces back at the studios are selected for looks and cold-reading ability and, if we the viewers are very lucky, they will have been field reporters at some point in the past -- but don't count on it. The best-looking stuffed shirts spend most of their career arc behind a desk, reading someone else's words (usually a news producer, who both write and run the newscasts).
When things fall apart in the field, it's on the reporter and it usually indicates poor note-taking skills, poor organization of thoughts ahead of time, or an inability to ad-lb when the information is updated. More often, some combination of those things.
And sometimes the on-scene reporter gets a little too creative.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.tmz.com/2016/11/04/abc-news-linsey-davis-fake-crime-scene/
Bobbie, I did not know those things about field reporters, especially the last that they may be the sole 'team member' on site. It also shows how much technology has changed, to go from a satellite link truck and a team to a single camera tethered to a cell phone.
ReplyDeleteMakes their efforts much more impressive.
What is most sad is the fact that the reporter's hastily-written word salad is what usually ends up on the station's website, without much (or anything) in the way of editing.
ReplyDelete