New Year, New Changes

As we begin a New Year, we’re about to lose one of our most esteemed production assistants.

Heather Torbitt has been a production assistant at WUSA 9 since the spring of this year. She served as a floor director and teleprompter operator, but she was so much more.

She’s directed broadcasts for the web and for our air product, edited commercial billboards for the sales department and spent time with me in learning our DEKO graphics computer.

In addition to that, she’s helped me format rundowns for our newscasts. Even more vital, she would catch spots in the rundown that could get us into trouble on the air BEFORE we even started the newscast!

Her hard work has earned her a spot at CNN here in Washington DC. WUSA-TV’s loss will most certainly be CNN’s gain!

Good luck, Heather!

It's the People's Choice...

The times, they are a'changing.

The management running "The People's Choice Awards" are determined to go on with the show.

A report from E! Online notes that "the 34th annual People's Choice Awards will slash its red carpet."

There will be a "reinvention" of the telecast as a pre-taped, magazine style format.
The speeches will still be there, but they will be pre-taped by the stars, nothing live at all.

Who knows? This format might actually prove more popular than the standard awards show. Wouldn't that be something?

I have a feeling this new year will bring about many changes within our industry. Hopefully, the fallout won't cost too many people their jobs!

More next year...

Tonight's Word: Repugnant

The jubilation I expressed in my last post sure didn't last long.

I had written about the father and his kids that were lost in the Northern California woods. The family had been found safe and alive.

It was a satisfying story with a cheerful ending. Those seem kind of rare nowadays.

Think I'm wrong? Take tonight's 11pm newscast as proof.

In our first block of tonight's 11pm newscast, we had three stories that dealt with the subject of sexual assault.

Prosecutors in Baltimore have charged a rabbi with sexually abusing two young boys during bar mitzvah lessons. While the alleged abuse dates back to 1988 and 1994, obviously, the alleged abuses have so damaged these people that they were finally able to bring charges forth in 2007.

Going down to the state of Virginia, a piano teacher is being accused of sexually assaulting one of his students.

Completing our sickening excursion in the DC Metro area is a case out of the District of Columbia. A DC police officer is facing federal charges after being accused of exchanging text messages in an attempt to entice a minor.

I have to finish prepping the 11pm newscast, so I can’t get into too many details at this time. Tune into 9 News Now at 11pm for full details and you'll understand where I'm coming from in terms of tonight's "word."

One last thing…as I write this, my producer killed the Virginia story in the rundown. She cited that there were too many sexual assault stories in the line up.

I totally agree with her.

Good News

Lately, it seems there has been a bunch of gloomy news to report. As I was about to go into the control room to direct the 6pm newscast, I took one final look at the wires.

What I saw uplifted me.

The father and his three children who vanished on a Christmas tree-cutting trip in the Northern California mountains were found alive Wednesday after huddling in a culvert for warmth during three days of heavy snowstorms.

This is a story that could have gone the other way real easy.

The family could have died of hypothermia. It was also reported that the father and mother were divorced. I immediately thought that this could be some kind of scheme of the father to kidnap his kids.

I'm so thankful that I'm wrong! It turns out the father has custody of the kids and takes his kids to church every Sunday. In fact, it was after a church outing that they went to search for their Christmas tree. It was also reported that the father said that his kids "were his life."

It's refreshing to read about a father putting his kids first when we usually have to report the opposite.

To be honest, it's marvelous to see this story have a happy ending.

Slow Strike Day

There's not much going on that's good or bad with the writers strike. The AMPTP did post a news item on their website.

Take a look:
http://www.amptp.org/

While you're at it, you can see a running meter on the right side of the page. The first meter is calculating what the WGA writers strike is costing writers.

The second meter is calculating what the strike is costing IATSE crews.

It's not going to be a very happy holiday season for a whole lot of people in the broadcasting/movie industry this year.

When this strike is over, the writers need to remember the production people that bring their thoughts to life!

A Hearty Congratulations

If you’ve read the Washington Post, or DCRTV, even TVSPY.Com, you know that our evening anchor, Tracey Neale will be vacating her anchor position in early January.

In the time that Tracey has anchored here, I have come to know her as a compassionate, dedicated and professional journalist and just as important a kind and thoughtful human being.

She's multi-talented beyond belief and has always struck me as a woman who has her priorities straight.

As such, she's leaving the evening anchor position to care for her newly adopted children. As a father of twins, I know the angst she must have gone through to make this decision, but I also know that in her heart of hearts, it's the right decision for her.

While she will be missed, she's about to embark on the most momentous career of her life in nurturing her children into adulthood. I wish her all the best in the world!

She deserves it.

Santa's New Wardrobe

Hey! Breaking News! Santa's changed the color scheme of his outfit.

Luckily, our sports anchor, Brett Haber, had the eagle eyes to notice this so that all you viewers out there could also see Santa's new fashion!

Take a look!

...and while you're at it, you can marvel at David Whittenburg's marvelous camera work at the end of the show!

Cross Pollination

Nope, I'm not writing about flowers. This particular case of cross pollination has to do with NBC/Universal.

TV Week's, James Hibberd has just announced that USA Network hits “Psych” and “Monk” will receive a second airing on NBC.

I knew this was just a matter of time. NBC actually has a history of doing something like this. Episodes of "Battlestar Galactica" air on the Sci-Fi network. NBC has given "Galactica" several airings on NBC in the past. World Wrestling Entertainment programming also has a history of airing on USA network and NBC. In fact, that dates back to the decade of the '80's.

Programming bureaucrats may say that they planned these moves all along, but I just don't know. It's my belief these additional airings have nothing to do with the past history of "cross pollination."

Strike starved programming executives will have no choice but to use their original cable programming to air on the broadcast networks if this writers strike lingers for awhile.

I shudder to think what our industry will have come to IF I ever see a promo on the FOX Broadcasting Network, starting with the phrase, "...On the next, "Nip/Tuck..."

It's Official

As I wrote yesterday, the The Writers Guild of America (WGA) was not going to give any waivers to the upcoming awards shows to let the writers actually write for them.

From USA Today, it's official. The WGA will not allow their writers to work on the upcoming Academy Awards or Golden Globes.

The Golden Globes was supposed to air on January 13th. I would imagine that broadcast is in doubt without writers and probably without actors who are also honoring the strike.

In terms of the Oscars', their request to use movie clips and scenes from past Oscar broadcasts was also turned down. They can't even use written material from the past!

The next award "victim:" the Academy Awards. Indications are that the WGA would deny writing services for this show too.

For many people, outside of Hollywood, this may be a big, "who cares?" That may be true. As a person that used to direct awards shows in the state of Florida, I think about all the out of work production people, carpenters, and stagehands. That's money out of their pocket. Sure, the networks will lose out on the money by not broadcasting these shows. They'll survive, they'll hurt, but survive. It's the people that I've mentioned that we all should be thinking about!

Redskins Legend Announced!

Last night, WUSA 9 introduced the all-time Redskins legend. Over 90,000 votes were recorded at wusa9.com as the fans voted which Redskins football player would receive this honor. It was truly remarkable to see all the participation from the fans.

In case you didn’t see it last night, James Brown was live in our studio and he announced the winner of this prestigious honor. The final two legends were Art Monk and Darrell Green. With his twenty year football career with the Washington Redskins, coupled with his Pro Bowl appearances and Super Bowl appearances Darrell Green became the all-time Redskins legend.

Darrell was truly humbled and honored by this special award from the Redskins faithful!

From the control room, everyone did a magnificent job with the telecast. Joel McDonald directed a truly Emmy award winning show. Supporting Joel in this effort was a top notch team of James Williams, the technical director, Matt Hall, the show’s line producer and Matt King, the executive producer of sports.

Other people of importance include:

Tom Buckley, Ismere Peyton, Heather Torbitt, Tony Lucas, Adam Theoharris, David Whittenberg and Tom Hunsicker.

All of them did an exceptional job in bringing this broadcast to all the Redskins fans!

Strike Talk...EXTRA Innings...

There was no way that I could wrap up the strike talk in only 3 posts. There's virtually something new to report everyday.

Today's big news: NBC is bringing back the late night comedy/talk shows. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and Late Night with Conan O'Brien will return in early January without their writers.

It'll be interesting to see how the shows stack up. It must be painful in one respect for the hosts to do their shows. O'Brien was once a member of the WGA.

At the same time, I support what both late night hosts are doing. They've supported their writers for over two months. It's now time to support the rest of their production staff, the staff that they have been paying out of their own pockets, the staff that didn't walk off the job.

To be fair, Letterman has also paid his staff out of his own pocket. In fact, he was one of the FIRST to do so. He also owns his show, while the NBC hosts do not.

I would imagine we will see Letterman back on the air soon. In fact, he is trying to broker a deal with the WGA to go on the air with union writers in an interim agreement. If he does that, he will have one up on his NBC competition, and that should prove quite interesting.

Before the strike, Leno was the ratings leader of late night. What will the strike do to Leno's numbers if he goes head to head with a full staffed Letterman production?

Stay tuned!

A Special Evening with the Washington Redskins

For the past few months, Redskins fans have been voting in a "Survivor" style format their choice for the All-Time Redskins Legend.

Each week during the countdown, WUSA 9 has also been rewarding voters with pieces of authentic Redskins merchandise, either autographed by a Redskins player, or used in an actual Redskins game.

Tonight, the grand prize will be awarded to some lucky fan who voted in the poll. That prize will be two tickets and field passes to the Redskins game against the Cowboys, which will be the season finale at Fed Ex Field on December 30th. The lucky winners will get to walk onto the field and stand on the Redskins sideline before the sold out crowd of rabid Cowboys and Redskins fans and of course with all the Redskins players!

Nearly 100,000 votes have been cast and soon the wait will be over, making the anticipation for this announcement extremely high, especially at this time in Redskins history.

To those in the Washington DC metro area, make sure you join Brett Haber and Brian Mitchell Monday evening at 7:30pm, when WUSA 9 will announce our contest winner and the All-Time Redskins Legend.

For Redskins fans every where, THIS is a must see television event!

Strike..Three!

Back for more strike talk—

This story gets more fascinating each and every day. In recent days, the Writers Guild of America leadership has filed labor charges against the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television
Producers in an attempt to force studios back to the table.

Most major late night hosts remain on track to return to work next month. In the case of David Letterman and Craig Ferguson of CBS, the WGA may give both shows the go ahead signal.

In the hopes of making some progress in the stalled negotiations, the WGA may talk straight to the studios rather than through the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers bargaining unit.

To further spread the pain of the strike, the production of scripted TV shows in Los Angeles has officially been killed as television programs go dark and have used up the remaining scripts in inventory.

The beginning of the New Year also marks the time of year that awards shows are broadcast. Stars may honor the strike by NOT appearing in these upcoming telecasts and even if they do show up, there’s nobody to write them!

These are just some effects of the strike. Think of all of the production people who are out of work because the studios have gone dark. What’s really painful is that these production people don’t make the kind of money that writers and actors make. For all we know, they could be living paycheck to paycheck.

You also have the Los Angeles economy taking a blow as restaurants, catering businesses, and carpenters have no people to feed or sets to build.

Because of the strike, The Television Critics Association has canceled their January press tour. It’s a major gathering that includes all-day panel sessions showcasing midseason series as well as nightly parties. All those hotels and restaurants will never be able to replace that lost business.

All of this is due because writers and producers can’t come into agreement over fair compensation of material.

As indicated in the past, I believe the writers do deserve fair compensation over the material they write that is distributed in new media venues. However, these venues are just that, new.
Do the writers even know what their fair share of the “pie” should be? Do the producers? Those are some key sticking points.

At the same time, there are some demands that the writers are making that they do NOT deserve.

The writers want full control over reality programming. By its very nature, reality programming is NOT scripted. There is some minor writing that’s done, but my understanding is that this isn’t done by WGA writers, but by editors. The bottom line here is that reality programming is radically different from a fully scripted show.

The WGA is also demanding the right to join in strikes of other labor organizations. In other words, if the directors or actors go on strike, the writers want the right to strike with them even though it’s not about their contracts.

To me, that is simply outrageous. If the writers make a deal between their union and the producers, they have to stick with it. It’s between the writers and producers. You don’t bring other unions into your contract.

The writers are calling it a “sympathy strike.” I call it a lack of good faith. Each union needs to be responsible for their own people and settle their contracts in their own way.

If this strike isn’t settled soon, it could literally change television for good.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that it will finally do away with the traditional television season. I say that because as of now, we are in danger of losing the rest of this season. As the strike drags on, we are in the danger of losing NEXT season too. Early next year is when new pilots start the process of being written and sold to studios. With no writers, there is no new season to plan for.

The writers AND producers need to look at the bigger picture in all this. Because of their inability to negotiate a new contract, thousands of people are out of work during the holidays. Who’s to say these people will get their jobs back when everything is resolved?

The Southern California economy has been impacted at a time when our national economy isn’t doing so well.

Finally, the impact of broadcast television in general may take a long time to recover as people have more choices for their entertainment.

Strike…Two

As promised more on the writer’s strike.

Last time, I mentioned that the main thrust of the strike concerned compensation for the writers. They want to be fairly compensated for their work when it is distributed through downloads, websites, cell phones and DVD’s.

Writers have some valid points here. Many shows have started something called “webisodes.” They may be two or three minute storylines that are used to enhance the viewing experience of the show when it is broadcast on mainstream television.

A good example of this is the Sci-Fi program “Battlestar Galactica.” The Sci-Fi Channel has been streaming “webisodes” of Battlestar Galactica for the past few weeks, leading up to a two hour movie release called, “Razor.” The writers believe they should be paid for the work done on the “webisodes.” Studios believe these “webisodes” fall under a “promotional-use" category which exempts them from residual payouts.

In the case of “Galactica,” the “webisodes” were promotional vignettes for the main show, but at the same time the “webisodes” actually advanced the plot line of the series.
Furthermore, the movie was actually designed for a “made for DVD” release.

The Sci-Fi Channel actually ended up airing the movie, but then released an extended DVD version two weeks later that was unrated and uncut.

In cases such as this, the writers have every right to be compensated for the “webisodes” and the DVD release.

Tomorrow: What the writers DON’T deserve.

Fallen Idols

We look up to our sports heroes. They inspire and energize us. They have a particularly robust effect on our young people.

Many young people playing high school football or baseball have dreams of becoming the next Barry Bonds or the next Michael Vick.

All those idols have fallen now...their pedestals have huge cracks in them.

Just today, the Mitchell Report came out. It's an All-Star list of the best and brightest in baseball.

The Associated Press has an in depth report on what names came out on the Mitchell Report.

Some of the names on the list:

Roger Clemens, Miguel Tejada, Andy Pettitte, Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, Eric Gagne, Jason Giambi, Troy Glaus, Gary Matthews Jr., Paul Byrd, Jose Guillen, Brian Roberts, Paul Lo Duca and Rick Ankiel.

From what I understand, EVERY major league baseball team is linked to this report...and it doesn't stop at the players.

Then you have Michael Vick.
Today, Michael Vick had the audacity to ask for leniency from the federal judge who sentenced him to 23 months in prison for a dogfighting conspiracy.

Again, according to the Associated Press, in a letter to U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson, Vick declared he is ... quote ... "not the bad person or beast I've been made
out to be."

Yea, right.

What's this world coming to when our sports idols resort to this type of behavior? What does that say to the kids in this country? What does this say about OUR country, OUR morals and behavior?

Baseball is going to have a long road to recovery as the details of this report come out. Why would fans support these players knowing that so many of them cheated to reach their goals and break these records?

I feel sorry for the former sports legends that had their old records shattered by the likes of Barry Bonds and others. They worked hard and honestly to be the best they could be only to have their records shattered by players under the suspicion of steroid abuse.

Where does it stop? Ask yourself that the next time you go to a baseball game.

Strike talk later...

The "Strike"

Ok, it’s time for Strike Talk!

This is one subject that will be ongoing for awhile. Right now, I thought I might start with a little introduction.

Writers from the WGA (Writers Guild of America) have been on strike since the beginning of November. They have major problems with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) and the studios out in Hollywood.

Naturally, it all comes down to money. The writers strongly believe they are not being compensated fairly for their work as it is distributed in new media. This would include the internet, DVD sales, downloads to cell phones, MP3 and IPOD players.

Both sides have “talked” about the issue but to no avail. As a result, the writers have walked.

There are so many topics to this issue that one post can not contain them all.

In tomorrow’s blog, I’ll get more in depth on some of the key sticking points

Road To Recovery

There’s some good news to report tonight within the WUSA family.

Six weeks ago, 9 News Now reported on the injuries of four DC firefighters. They were battling a blaze in a row house in northeast Washington DC when some propane was ignited. This set off an explosion that further fueled the inferno. The firefighter most seriously injured was Michael LaCore. He is the son of one of our co-workers, Madeline Lacore. Madeline has been with the station for many years and is our Community Relations Senior Producer.
Michael faced life threatening injuries after he suffered third degree burns over much of his body.

After a long six weeks in the hospital, Sergeant Michael Lacore has the upper hand in his comeback from the injuries he faced in the fire. As of tonight, he is back home with his family. Engine 6 picked him up from the hospital and Michael drove himself home in the fire truck.

Michael still has a long battle ahead of him as he recuperates from his injuries, but tonight he has made major progress on the road to recovery!

For more on the story, visit Dave Statter’s blog at:

http://www.wusa9.com/news/columnist/blogs/davestatter.aspx

A busy December...

It’s been a busy week. Actually, it’s been a busy two or three weeks. Last week we had more coverage on Sean Taylor, his funeral and the capture of his killers.

Then in the middle of the week, we had our first snow of the season…and it turned out to be a pretty good one.

One of our reporters, Bruce Leshan was doing his live report from the field and closed his report by talking about driving in the perilous conditions. I'm quoting from memory, but as he closed, he said something to the effect, “it’s better to slow down rather than be dead.”
His basic message was that nothing was that important that you had to speed to your destination in icy conditions.

At any rate, I can’t even remember what we had going at the end of last week…but I do remember that it kept us busy.

Tonight, I directed the 6 and 7pm newscasts, attended a company meeting, streamed video for our reporters and just got done posting some video to our website.

I’ve been wanting to write about the writer’s strike and of course that’s a story that keeps changing every day. I’ve got a lot of information piled up and I’m ready to go...so, I promise next post will deal with the writer’s strike and what that means to the viewing public.

--Making Sense of the Senseless--

--Unpremeditated Murder--

That's a new one to me. Charges were filed against three of the suspects held in the shooting death of Washington Redskins star Sean Taylor. I'm not sure what charges are pending against the fourth suspect at this time.

The suspects in the Sean Taylor murder didn't mean to kill Taylor...it just "happened." All they wanted to do was rob him blind...but they didn't mean to kill...

As I read these facts, I can't help but feel angry about the whole thing. This was so senseless. How do you make sense of this? We're talking about KIDS here! You really can't make any sense out of this. There is NO justification here, no sane reason for this to have happened.

These teenagers heard about Sean's wealth and that he kept valuables in his home. They thought, "well, golly gee, it's football season, he won't be home, let's rob him blind."

WRONG! As we all know, he was home. He was trying to get a second opinion on his football injury when these KIDS gunned him down in his own house.

How tragic...how horrible is that? Not only do we lose Sean Taylor, these KIDS have just thrown their lives away...and let's just pour salt on the wound and find out that the killers may have known Taylor, even may have mowed his lawn!

This story just gets more tragic by the day. I keep thinking about the family Taylor has left behind because these KIDS didn't want to work to earn money, but steal.

In the process of their attempted theft, they've damaged themselves, their families, the family of Sean Taylor and his extended family of the Washington Redskins.

Sean Taylor was only 24. He wasn't a kid anymore, but he was still young and had his whole life ahead of him. These suspects had their whole lives ahead of them too and now they could be facing life in jail or even worse.

When kids kill, what does that say about our society?

As I write this, I'm listening to Eric Clapton's "Change The World." It's a great song, an uplifting song. I sure could use that lift right now as everyone else connected to this story could.

Let's all take a page from Eric's song, let's change the world for the better...and what better way to start than by paying attention to our future, the kids of the world...