Interviewing a local TV station manager -- suggestions?

What do I do to get you started? (4.00 / 1)

Philip, if you've worked local TV, drop some of that there knowledge on me (in your spare time, haha).  I want to ask intelligent questions of this guy if possible.

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by: bythepeople @ Sun Jul 01, 2007 at 02:32:50 AM UTC

i'd ask about editorial decisions (0.00 / 0)

as they regards the very images you see. one of the things i've noticed over the last decade or so is that no matter how effin' trivial the story, no matter how stupid or irrelevant that story, if there are pictures, they'll run with it. watch some daytime CNN. a bus goes off the road in hicktown, NE or wherever, but there's a chopper with a live feed. this equals hours of breathless live coverage. not like there is a war on or anything...

also, why the insistence on stand ups at the scene of any freakin' story hours or even days afterwards? say a murder trial ends. great. why do you have a correspondent standing outside that courthouse at 11:15pm a day later? what about this story needs to be both live and at the scene?

look, i know those sattelite trucks are cool and all, and someone in the organization is probably always looking to justify the cost of them, but seriously, this just looks dumb.

and finally, back to images again. i presonally have been instructed to re-edit packages to emphasize or even to trivialize subjects of the story.

an actual real example: feb 15 2003. i shoot great video of a really large anti war protest in hollywood. i come back and edit a great package. my ME says "great work, but i want more hippies. give me more of those dreadlock kids."

50,000 people march through hollywodd before a single shot is fired in this awful war. everyday people for the most part. people with their kids, union folks, vietnam vets, even a number of elderly folks in their motorized wheelchairs. of this 50K or so, perhaps 150 are your stereotypical "dirty effin' hippie" types.

who do you see on your evening news? the dirty effin' hippies. this is a conscious decision. it is made for a number of reasons, no the least of which is that it just looks better on screen in the minds of the PTB. that said, it also serves to trivialize the entire excercise.

i could go on and on and on...

TODAY is day one. It always is.

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by: phillip anderson @ Sun Jul 01, 2007 at 14:58:18 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

Thanks (0.00 / 0)

I expect some of these kinds of things would only come up if I ask specific questions based on a specific case.  Example:

Me: So, did you ever try to emphasize or de-emphasize certain aspects of stories the station was reporting?
Him: nah, hmm. can't think of any.
Me: what about war protests.
Him: oh, you mean THAT kind of story.

We'll see how it goes...

Any other input?  Bueller....bueller...?

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by: bythepeople @ Mon Jul 02, 2007 at 16:29:37 PM UTC

[ Parent ]

I'd ask how they choose their talking heads (0.00 / 0)

because lack of political, racial and gender diversity is a huge issue on talking head segments.

And ditto to everything that Phillip said.

www.dmiblog.com

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by: ElanaDMIBlog @ Mon Jul 02, 2007 at 16:29:36 PM UTC

Thanks Elana (0.00 / 0)

I'll check out their current talking head lineup for homework.

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by: bythepeople @ Mon Jul 02, 2007 at 16:31:09 PM UTC

[ Parent ]