Timing...and Breaking News

Well, today went much better...a bit busy, but that's ok.

I was doing my usual remote coordinator duty at 5pm, directed the 6pm and also the 7pm. All the broadcasts were clean, no problems.

The only thing that really made me chuckle was the timing some people have in calling the control room.

I was about to go on the air with Derek, teasing what's coming up at 7pm. I'm starting my 10 second countdown to everyone, and what happens?

All the phones in the control room start ringing off the hook! Normally, when a phone rings, you answer it, but when you're about to go on the air, forget about it!

Afterwards, I thought, well it could have been important. Someone may have changed the tease and wanted new copy to air. However, we were under 10 seconds. If I had taken the time to answer the phone, we wouldn't have been on the air at all.

Ok, that's small stuff. I actually wanted to write a bit about breaking news. We've had a bit of that in the past day with the Ocean City story.

There's so much I could write about, but I just wanted to pass on one thing that I tell people when they wish so hard that they would have breaking news to put in their newscast.

Before I do, let me ask you a question.

When breaking news occurs, what usually happens?

The clock’s ticking…give up?




Ok, time’s up.

I'll tell you what happens. Someone is usually injured, missing or killed. If it's not that, it's the latest antics of Paris Hilton.

When's the last time you saw breaking news on a happy story?

I'll bet ... Never!

Sure, when breaking news happens, people tune in...But at what cost to the people who are in the story...to the parents who are missing their child, to the wife who had her husband killed in a beltway accident?

Then you have the networks that label everything "breaking news." That is so annoying. What's breaking news about President Bush leaving on Air Force One? I've seen a breaking news graphic over that type of video.

We all need to be careful what we wish for, first and foremost, but we also have to be careful on what we call "breaking news." It's not breaking if it happened two hours ago. It’s not breaking, if it’s something that people do in the normal course of business.

Now that I’ve said my piece, I will say that one of the more effective uses of the breaking news label is probably weather related events. When there's a tornado warning issued for our area, we are on the air as fast as possible...and that's good.

I think that when we're on the air with information like that, we actually have the chance to SAVE people's lives, and that is the most gratifying thing to me.

In these cases, we’re ahead of the story and we’re doing our best to prevent the kind of mayhem I described above.

Agree or Disagree, let me know!