Archives for February 2006

I’m disappointed. I suppose the folks at peggybluestv.blogspot must have won.

Peggy’s blog is gone. I’ll post more on this when I have time.

updated:
it’s not a technicality. Peggy has pulled the plug on her blog. A shame really.

I’ve said all along that I don’t understand why management at the 4 stations in Memphis refuse to give permission to their employees to have their own blogs. Well, thanks to the folks at peggybluestv, management can say “that’s why.”

Apparently, there are some reporters/photographers and other employees who aren’t mature enough to hold their tongue or their fingertips when given an opportunity to share their thoughts and opinions. Management has to feel that every word that comes out of reporters and anchors must be given approval by a manager.

They can’t behave themselves. They take everything personally and can’t contain themselves from typing out in anger.

Peggy posted her opinions on her blog. Sometimes she made pointed comments at the other stations. Big deal. Nothing is stopping the other stations from giving the greenlight to reporter blogs or news director blogs. Blogs are free. Reporters in Memphis are not.

Here in Nashville, we have about a dozen reporters and photographers and anchors with their own blog. Heck, my general manager (far and away the coolest and brightest gm I’ve ever had) has his own blog. News 2 has even hired it’s own full-time blogger!

You know the difference? Why WKRN can have so many employees with bogs and Memphis can’t?

Take a look at http://www.peggybluestv.blogspot.com and then www.peggyphillip.blogspot.com

Then you’ll know.

A shame.

I’m surprised it took this long.

Someone or someones have come up with a blog to put Peggy in her place. www.peggybluestv.blogspot.com has been up for nearly 2 weeks. It’s clearly written by a few posters who either used to work at 5 or are just angry that Peggy shares her opinions and thoughts at www.peggyphillip.blogspot.com

I’ve read some of the posts from the past few days. These folks have thrown down the gauntlet and promise Peggy “the ride of her life.” Judging from Peggy’s post today she’s not all that worried.

This could be an interesting blog, but only if the authors lose the chip on their collective shoulders and post thoughtful opinions and not what they’ve done thus far.

They look to blame Peggy for everything in this market. I expect they’ll point fingers to her for the lack of evidence of WMDs, the Olympic Park bombing, the struggles of the Democratic party, and the reason the yogurt in their refrigerator went bad.

Here’s hoping they come up with something more than whining about Peggy and Channel 5. And here’s hoping their identity is never revealed. One could lose a job at one of the other stations over something like this.

Seems management down on the river pulled the plug on a reporter blog Friday. Peggy posted a link to the site sometime Friday morning. When I looked at it I thought, and even said out loud “that’ll be gone by the 5 o’clock news”.

Daralene Jones hasn’t been at 3 long enough I suppose to fully comprehend and understand that management controls everything.

So Jones jumped into the blogosphere without telling anyone or asking for permission. The blog entries weren’t about 3 or giving away information on series pieces or inside workings of the station. She blogged about going to Wal-Mart and buying food and hair care products. She blogged about going to a Grizzlies game and getting popcorn in her hair. Big deal!

But you can’t do things like that there. Go to work. Do the stories they tell you to do and the way they tell you to do them. Wait until the clock on the wall says you’ve worked a full day and then go home until it’s time to come back. And keep your phone and pager charged up. Just in case.

Seems the meteorologists in Nashville can’t find the Snows of Mass Destruction. When I left town at around 6:30, they were calling for as much as 4 inches with another inch coming on Saturday.

I was concerned about driving west after dark. The snow started falling as soon as I walked out of the building and it kept getting stronger as I headed down I-40.

By the time I got to Hurricane Mills, (wave to Loretta) it turned to more rain than snow, but then as I got closer to Jackson it turned into heavy snow. There was some slush on the lanes and a few scattered cars in ditches.

Southaven and Memphis got a nice snow. Of course by morning it was mostly gone. Our meteorologists though are taking a beating back in Music City. But they’ve got a good sense of humor about it all. So does our gm.

Alright, I’m a fan of a few reality shows. Besides “American Idol”, the best on tv right now is The Golf Channel’s “Big Break V“. (the seasons with the female golfers are best because they get so catty and mean.) This season just started so it’s early enough to get to know the contestants.

But how have I missed VH1’s “Web Junk”?

Here’s the concept: scour the web for the funniest clips and then count them down on tv. The video quality isn’t good on tv but you can also watch the shows online.

Now I’ve seen just about all of these clips before but what makes them work is host Patrice O’Neal who has some of the funniest lines you could imagine. Good stuff.

Some of you who know me well will recognize the title of this post as a favorite line from my favorite “Andy Griffith Show” episode. Unfortunately, that’s how I’ve felt the past two days.

Monday night, after shooting part of two stories, I got the bug. Something didn’t feel right sometime around 2:30am Tuesday. I woke up feverish and not so good in the stomach. The station promoted a story from me for Tuesday at 6 that hadn’t been shot yet. I went in, stumbled through the story and got back to bed around 4. Then I slept. At 8 my wife called and I went back to sleep until she called again at 7 this morning. I went back to sleep until around 10.

The Fred Phelps people were protesting a soldier funeral in Clarksville and I really wanted to be there. The station thought it a good idea to send me with a photographer for this one. It was snowing. Very cold and very wet. We managed to grab plenty of interviews and video and I got ready for a 6pm live shot.

Funny, as I stood there ready to go live it dawned on me that it was my first television live shot in nearly 2 years.

The package ran tonight at 10 and Albuqerque called to get it for their late news too. I’ll probably do more on the Phelps’ beliefs tomorrow.

My kids have been sick this week too but they bounced back quicker than their old man. I didn’t eat a bite of food yesterday and only late tonight did I feel hungry. I’ve got some energy back and hopefully I worked my way through it for the rest of the week.

It stinks being sick. It stinks worse when you’re sick and away from home.

I’m not a Seahawks fan. I do admit I was pulling for them tonight, not real hard though.

But Jeezalou, after watching one bad call after another, I wonder how much closer this game would have been if the refs had either blown the whistle more or less on certain plays.

For example:

Seattle’s Jackson was called for a pass interference as he caught a TD pass in the first quarter. Even the announcers said it was a bad call. Result: Instead of a TD the Seahawks settle for a field goal

Ben Roethlisberger DID NOT get the ball across the goal line in the 2nd quarter that gave the Steelers a 7-3 lead.

Then in the 4th quarter, the Seahawks have momentum. Hasselbeck completes a long pass to the Steelers 1 but it was called back because of a holding call. Madden and Michaels again say they didn’t see the holding call.

Instead of Seattle at the 1 with momentum and with the opportunity to take the lead 17-14 the Hawks had the ball at the 29. Two plays later, Hasselbeck throws an interception and then gets called for a low block on the guy he tackled.

Frustrating game to watch. I’m not saying the Seahawks would have won the game if those calls were made correctly, but it sure would have been a different game.

I’ve never seen such crap on local tv than I have in Memphis during ratings.

I just got back in town in time to see the local 10. Sheesh. I wouldn’t have missed anything had I come in an hour later.

3 and 5 have spent a good part of the newscast going back and forth to a live shot of an interstate overpass on I-40. Breathless anchors and reporters talk about long delays as the State Highway Department prepares to implode the bridge to make room for an expansion. I drove through there just a couple of hours ago and didn’t really think much about it. They routed us up the off-ramp and then down the other side.

The stations keep checking back in with their reporters in the field (or mobile newsroom) for updates. Finally, the bridge blew and 5 was in a commercial break. Yeah, I have to admit it was kinda cool, but not worth watching in the little corner box or from the station helicopter for 35 minutes.

And when are the stations going to run out of ideas for using a “spycam” to see what’s dirty. I’ve seen this done to death. The reporter sneaks into a place, sets up the “spycam” and then runs a sponge over a surface, takes the sponge to a lab and have a guy in a white coat say “yeah…that’s really dirty.”

We’ve seen this with hotel beds, public restrooms, supermarket baskets, and now tanning beds. I know sweeps months aren’t about journalism and news and just about what a station can tease in a promo in order to get people to tune into that newscast for a few minutes. We all know this. But why do people keep falling for it?

A Nashville station is giving money away this month to people who tune in. Another has an exclusive with a guy who’s wife mysteriously disappeared. Shortly after, he skipped the country.

Why do the tv stations still use inflated ratings numbers to set their ad rates. Isn’t that kind of like ranking a college football team #1 to start the season because they beat “University of Utah at Monterey” 94-0?

I try not to watch Memphis local news during sweeps months.