Here’s what I’m missing this week by not being part of the 5th estate:
Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton announced he is a ‘baby daddy’ to a 4 month old child with a woman he had “relations” with.
Memphis State Senator John Ford announced to a court judge that he has two families. He isn’t “married” to either mother but has children with at least one other woman. He’s trying to get his child support payments reduced.
Memphis Forensic scientist goes on trial today for allegedly strapping a bomb to himself looking for sympathy.
The Logan Young trial is in closing arguments today.
Did I say this is what I’m MISSING? I don’t actually miss any of it.
I also don’t miss: standing in a pouring rain and describing how hard it’s raining, standing on a frozen and ice-covered street explaining how the authorities say “If you don’t have to be out, don’t go out.”, gearing up for a sweeps piece that purports to “expose the truth about a politician, public servant, church leader, business owner, or school system policy.
I also don’t miss working double-time to make up for the reporters who are working on a special “sweeps piece”. I also don’t miss trying to turn a story that someone pitches in a morning meeting that has no merits, but sounds “sexy”.
I don’t miss standing in front of a dark building at 6:15 waiting to report live on a story that ended 4-6 hours earlier. I don’t miss waiting outside a funeral/memorial service to interview family members about their personal tragedy. I also don’t miss picking up a story that was an exclusive or enterprise story from the newspaper and trying to “advance it for 5”.
I don’t miss standing outside a supermarket or Wal-Mart looking for soundbytes from the general public on whatever national story made headlines in that day’s USA Today.
I do miss the storytelling, but I had time to get over that even while I was on a payroll since storytelling in the news ended around August of 2000.