Just a heads up that my business email account was compromised by some ne'er-do-wells in the UK looking for idiots to send them big checks.
Anyway, if you've tried to contact me in the past two weeks, your emails might have gotten lost, or you may have gotten one of those scammer emails in return, so please send me a note at tvnewsgrapevine@gmail.com.
Sorry for any inconvenience.
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Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
The May 2012 Sweeps Ideas
Time once again to float some suggestions out there to the idea challenged. You've more than likely already been assigned to your sweeps pieces, but if you're still looking, we're happy to oblige with some last minute ideas. Or you might have been assigned a real dog of an package and hope to convince your News Director that you have something better.
Bear in mind that almost all successful sweeps pieces have one or more of the following elements: money, fear or sex. The theory being that your basic crash dummy viewer drinking a six pack in a barcalounger is only concerned with these three things. If you can combine all three, you've really got something special.
So, here goes:
"Secret Service": Wow, talk about timely. No, we're not talking about those guys who protect the president, but the, ahem, "services" provided by women of questionable character in your market. Nothing says sweeps like grainy nighttime video of streetwalkers in your own neighborhood. The horror! Viewers will be shocked that these people are right in their own backyard. Make sure you interview some highbrow snob who says, "I cannot believe I saw a... trollop... a few blocks from the garden club." And the promo possibilities are endless. (The New York Post won the headline battle this week with "Ho-Down"). If you can score a local politician doing an impression of Eliot Spitzer, you'll hit the ratings bonanza.
"Quit Smoking by Siphoning Gas": Hey, it's no secret with sky high gas prices that people are stealing the stuff. The old-fashioned siphon hose (sometimes known as an Arkansas credit card) is in vogue once again. Sucking the gasoline from someone else's car and then lighting up a cigarette to celebrate will save you the trouble of buying nicotine gum.
"Death Can Kill You": Remember, every good sweeps month should have at least one piece that leaves the viewers shuddering in fear. Last year we told viewers that the germs from your dish scrubbie and shopping cart handles would send you to a quick dirt nap. This year, the dangers of going to a wake with an open coffin. The guy in the box may have gone on to a better place but who knows what horrible germs or viruses he left behind that might still be crawling around on him despite the formaldehyde. He's dead, isn't he? You really wanna say the rosary a few inches away?
"Personalized Weather Alerts": Every station has those email alerts it sends to viewers when severe weather is on the horizon. Now, your station can take things a step farther with a personal alert using those cell phones that talk to you. Show viewers how they can sign up and have your main anchor record a personal message designed specifically for their situation. Who needs another email that might end up in the spam folder when you can hear your favorite anchor yell, "We're not in Kansas anymore!" or "Get the hell out of the trailer, now!" Viewers can also opt for that sultry female voice which comes with the phone for a standard message that says, "Your house is about to be relocated. Honey."
"Live Convenience Store Cams": Let's face it, those static shots around town from weather cams are pretty boring, especially for those crack-of-dawn morning shows. Dark empty streets, highways with little traffic. Now you can jazz up your morning show by letting the public know you'll be placing cameras in convenience stores in the worst parts of town. (What the hell, evening newscasts are loaded with convenience store crime video anyway.) Imagine you're a morning weather anchor, and instead of, "The traffic on the interstate is non-existent at four a-m" you can pique the viewers interest with, "Let's see who's staggering into the Sack 'n' Save on Main Street." Video of hungover partyers spilling coffee on themselves or bleary-eyed husbands in their pajamas looking for diapers is highly entertaining. And, if you're lucky, you might even catch a robbery in progress, thus saving one of your reporters from the trouble of finding a real story.
"How to Date a Supermodel": Basically a promotional piece with little substance. Simply assemble all the pictures of old, funny-looking millionaires with gorgeous women young enough to be their daughters on their arms. (Sorry, Anna Nicole.) Nothing new here, but every guy in your market will tune in hoping to learn the secret handshake.
"Teach Your New College Graduate Daughter How to Talk on the Phone": We all know teenage girls and college age women will give up their cell phones when you pry them from their cold, dead fingers. But in the real business world they may have to actually talk rather than text. In this piece, parents take daughters in caps and gowns directly to speech therapists who teach them how to use their vocal chords which have atrophied from years of non-use. Each grad will then be presented with a recording labeled "my first words."
"Guess the Political Affiliation of Your Favorite News Person": Since every reporter and anchor seems to be biased these days, your station should set up a "voting booth" in which viewers can decide if the on-camera talent bleeds blue or red. Any reporter whose "don't know" votes outnumber the others gets an award designating him as an actual journalist.
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Bear in mind that almost all successful sweeps pieces have one or more of the following elements: money, fear or sex. The theory being that your basic crash dummy viewer drinking a six pack in a barcalounger is only concerned with these three things. If you can combine all three, you've really got something special.
So, here goes:
"Secret Service": Wow, talk about timely. No, we're not talking about those guys who protect the president, but the, ahem, "services" provided by women of questionable character in your market. Nothing says sweeps like grainy nighttime video of streetwalkers in your own neighborhood. The horror! Viewers will be shocked that these people are right in their own backyard. Make sure you interview some highbrow snob who says, "I cannot believe I saw a... trollop... a few blocks from the garden club." And the promo possibilities are endless. (The New York Post won the headline battle this week with "Ho-Down"). If you can score a local politician doing an impression of Eliot Spitzer, you'll hit the ratings bonanza.
"Quit Smoking by Siphoning Gas": Hey, it's no secret with sky high gas prices that people are stealing the stuff. The old-fashioned siphon hose (sometimes known as an Arkansas credit card) is in vogue once again. Sucking the gasoline from someone else's car and then lighting up a cigarette to celebrate will save you the trouble of buying nicotine gum.
"Death Can Kill You": Remember, every good sweeps month should have at least one piece that leaves the viewers shuddering in fear. Last year we told viewers that the germs from your dish scrubbie and shopping cart handles would send you to a quick dirt nap. This year, the dangers of going to a wake with an open coffin. The guy in the box may have gone on to a better place but who knows what horrible germs or viruses he left behind that might still be crawling around on him despite the formaldehyde. He's dead, isn't he? You really wanna say the rosary a few inches away?
"Personalized Weather Alerts": Every station has those email alerts it sends to viewers when severe weather is on the horizon. Now, your station can take things a step farther with a personal alert using those cell phones that talk to you. Show viewers how they can sign up and have your main anchor record a personal message designed specifically for their situation. Who needs another email that might end up in the spam folder when you can hear your favorite anchor yell, "We're not in Kansas anymore!" or "Get the hell out of the trailer, now!" Viewers can also opt for that sultry female voice which comes with the phone for a standard message that says, "Your house is about to be relocated. Honey."
"Live Convenience Store Cams": Let's face it, those static shots around town from weather cams are pretty boring, especially for those crack-of-dawn morning shows. Dark empty streets, highways with little traffic. Now you can jazz up your morning show by letting the public know you'll be placing cameras in convenience stores in the worst parts of town. (What the hell, evening newscasts are loaded with convenience store crime video anyway.) Imagine you're a morning weather anchor, and instead of, "The traffic on the interstate is non-existent at four a-m" you can pique the viewers interest with, "Let's see who's staggering into the Sack 'n' Save on Main Street." Video of hungover partyers spilling coffee on themselves or bleary-eyed husbands in their pajamas looking for diapers is highly entertaining. And, if you're lucky, you might even catch a robbery in progress, thus saving one of your reporters from the trouble of finding a real story.
"How to Date a Supermodel": Basically a promotional piece with little substance. Simply assemble all the pictures of old, funny-looking millionaires with gorgeous women young enough to be their daughters on their arms. (Sorry, Anna Nicole.) Nothing new here, but every guy in your market will tune in hoping to learn the secret handshake.
"Teach Your New College Graduate Daughter How to Talk on the Phone": We all know teenage girls and college age women will give up their cell phones when you pry them from their cold, dead fingers. But in the real business world they may have to actually talk rather than text. In this piece, parents take daughters in caps and gowns directly to speech therapists who teach them how to use their vocal chords which have atrophied from years of non-use. Each grad will then be presented with a recording labeled "my first words."
"Guess the Political Affiliation of Your Favorite News Person": Since every reporter and anchor seems to be biased these days, your station should set up a "voting booth" in which viewers can decide if the on-camera talent bleeds blue or red. Any reporter whose "don't know" votes outnumber the others gets an award designating him as an actual journalist.
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Monday, April 16, 2012
Mental health days: The care and feeding of a muse
Back in the day I had a News Director who realized creative people get burned out every so often. I don't mean burned out to the extent you change careers; but when you have to get creative every single day, eventually your muse goes into vapor lock and needs a lounge chair and a drink with an umbrella in it.
Anyway, every two weeks or so you'd either get a day off the street to work on something special or you'd get assigned to what we called "v-o patrol." The desk would give one reporter and photog all the voiceovers and vo/sots to pick up. Still work, yes, but without really having to bother the muse. The next day it seemed you'd always knock out a great package.
I don't expect News Directors to do this anymore, not with skeleton crew staffs and newscasts that are longer than Gone With The Wind. So you'll have to do this yourself off the clock. Remember, the muse wants what the muse wants. And every once in awhile, the muse wants some time off.
As Captain Kirk once said, the more complex the mind, the greater the need for simplicity of play. (I'm assuming anyone in this business has a complex mind. Except, of course, for the beancounters.) Anyway, when you're off the clock, give your brain a short vacation. Do something mindless. It might be in vogue to watch a deep, meaningful movie that makes you think, but that's not what you want. You want something in which you don't have to think. You want The Hangover, not The Descendants. Something that takes your brain out for an airing. You want to play spider solitaire, to play with the cat. The key word here is "play."
While you can't phone it in, your muse can. The care and feeding of a muse is a delicate proposition. Don't take it lightly.
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Anyway, every two weeks or so you'd either get a day off the street to work on something special or you'd get assigned to what we called "v-o patrol." The desk would give one reporter and photog all the voiceovers and vo/sots to pick up. Still work, yes, but without really having to bother the muse. The next day it seemed you'd always knock out a great package.
I don't expect News Directors to do this anymore, not with skeleton crew staffs and newscasts that are longer than Gone With The Wind. So you'll have to do this yourself off the clock. Remember, the muse wants what the muse wants. And every once in awhile, the muse wants some time off.
As Captain Kirk once said, the more complex the mind, the greater the need for simplicity of play. (I'm assuming anyone in this business has a complex mind. Except, of course, for the beancounters.) Anyway, when you're off the clock, give your brain a short vacation. Do something mindless. It might be in vogue to watch a deep, meaningful movie that makes you think, but that's not what you want. You want something in which you don't have to think. You want The Hangover, not The Descendants. Something that takes your brain out for an airing. You want to play spider solitaire, to play with the cat. The key word here is "play."
While you can't phone it in, your muse can. The care and feeding of a muse is a delicate proposition. Don't take it lightly.
-
Friday, April 13, 2012
"Call me irresponsible"... not just a Sinatra hit, but the latest motto for broadcast journalism
Responsible journalism, if it even exists anymore, may have seen the final nail driven into its coffin this week.
Lady Gaga may as well be the poster child for our business: let's be as outrageous as possible, do something that goes viral on the Internet. Doesn't matter who it hurts or if it affects the story. The bottom line is all that matters. Be controversial, break rules, don't worry about hurting anyone. Human beings are just collateral damage. Bad taste is now more the rule than the exception.
Back in the day people in our business strove to have class. There were things that you didn't say on television, stories that didn't belong. Kids were watching. You wouldn't do a story that you'd be ashamed to show your mother. While political correctness didn't exist, you didn't want to say anything offensive. We were proper, polite, respectful. Our language was squeaky clean on air even though the salty language of the newsroom may have rivaled a bunch of sailors. Like doctors, we believed this: first do no harm.
So when a network reporter manages to drop both an f-bomb and the n-word in the same sentence, it's irresponsibility at its highest level. Yes, let's take a potentially explosive situation and pour gasoline on the fire. This wasn't one of those open mic moments that we've all had, but simply premeditated irresponsibility. What did the reporter think would happen? And what if those words inflamed the situation to the point that someone was hurt or killed? We'd know whose hands the blood was on. Apologize all you want, but, as they say, that barn door has sailed.
I always go back to a News Director I had more than 20 years ago. He was checking scripts, as he always did, and I had been doing a story with possible legal implications. I pointed to one track and said, "I wasn't sure if this might get us in trouble." He took his red pen and crossed it out. "If you have to think about it," he said, "don't do it."
Problem these days is that people think about it, then do it anyway.
Whether it's making personal attacks on a politician's wife (that network sure has had a great week, huh?) or trying a case in the media, it's irresponsible journalism. We can't know what is in someone's mind, we can't know what happened in a crime with no eyewitnesses because we weren't there. We can't walk in someone's shoes, can't judge someone because that person is different. We can't hammer someone else's opinion, because everyone is entitled to one, and as smart as we may think we are, there's someone out there who thinks our opinions are just as wrong.
We can't be irresponsible, because in this day and age it gets noticed big time. And the trickle down effect is that the industry, as a whole, loses the respect of the public. Eventually, if this keeps up, we'll be broadcasting to no one.
-
Lady Gaga may as well be the poster child for our business: let's be as outrageous as possible, do something that goes viral on the Internet. Doesn't matter who it hurts or if it affects the story. The bottom line is all that matters. Be controversial, break rules, don't worry about hurting anyone. Human beings are just collateral damage. Bad taste is now more the rule than the exception.
Back in the day people in our business strove to have class. There were things that you didn't say on television, stories that didn't belong. Kids were watching. You wouldn't do a story that you'd be ashamed to show your mother. While political correctness didn't exist, you didn't want to say anything offensive. We were proper, polite, respectful. Our language was squeaky clean on air even though the salty language of the newsroom may have rivaled a bunch of sailors. Like doctors, we believed this: first do no harm.
So when a network reporter manages to drop both an f-bomb and the n-word in the same sentence, it's irresponsibility at its highest level. Yes, let's take a potentially explosive situation and pour gasoline on the fire. This wasn't one of those open mic moments that we've all had, but simply premeditated irresponsibility. What did the reporter think would happen? And what if those words inflamed the situation to the point that someone was hurt or killed? We'd know whose hands the blood was on. Apologize all you want, but, as they say, that barn door has sailed.
I always go back to a News Director I had more than 20 years ago. He was checking scripts, as he always did, and I had been doing a story with possible legal implications. I pointed to one track and said, "I wasn't sure if this might get us in trouble." He took his red pen and crossed it out. "If you have to think about it," he said, "don't do it."
Problem these days is that people think about it, then do it anyway.
Whether it's making personal attacks on a politician's wife (that network sure has had a great week, huh?) or trying a case in the media, it's irresponsible journalism. We can't know what is in someone's mind, we can't know what happened in a crime with no eyewitnesses because we weren't there. We can't walk in someone's shoes, can't judge someone because that person is different. We can't hammer someone else's opinion, because everyone is entitled to one, and as smart as we may think we are, there's someone out there who thinks our opinions are just as wrong.
We can't be irresponsible, because in this day and age it gets noticed big time. And the trickle down effect is that the industry, as a whole, loses the respect of the public. Eventually, if this keeps up, we'll be broadcasting to no one.
-
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Your own words should not be in someone else's sound bite
Several years ago I was covering a national story, one of those things where every news organization is represented. We had to take turns with an interview subject, and I caught a little of the dialogue between one reporter and the woman she was interviewing. The woman had answered the same question several times, but apparently it was not to the liking of the reporter.
Reporter: "So, aren't you trying to say this? (She explained what she thought the woman should say.) And if you could repeat your answer for me it would help."
Great. Wonderful. Why the hell bother interviewing someone if you're gonna put words in her mouth? In this case we had a reporter either trying to put forth her own agenda or wanting the perfect sound bite.
(By the way, I looked up that reporter and she is apparently no longer in the business.)
This is a rather blatant example of putting words into someone's mouth, but I see it in a more subtle manner all the time. If your question begins with, "So, what you're trying to say is..." then you are, as they say in court, leading the witness.
If you're interviewing someone and you don't get a great sound bite, ask another question. Don't ask the exact same question hoping to get a different answer. And do not, under any circumstances, "help" the person "figure out" what he or she is "trying" to say.
Of course sometimes with politicians you have to ask the same question over and over because they simply go off on tangents and don't answer it. "Let me repeat the question since you didn't really answer it," is a common line when the pols are dodging an issue.
But when the average Joe is on the other end of the microphone, keep your words and opinions out of his mouth.
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Reporter: "So, aren't you trying to say this? (She explained what she thought the woman should say.) And if you could repeat your answer for me it would help."
Great. Wonderful. Why the hell bother interviewing someone if you're gonna put words in her mouth? In this case we had a reporter either trying to put forth her own agenda or wanting the perfect sound bite.
(By the way, I looked up that reporter and she is apparently no longer in the business.)
This is a rather blatant example of putting words into someone's mouth, but I see it in a more subtle manner all the time. If your question begins with, "So, what you're trying to say is..." then you are, as they say in court, leading the witness.
If you're interviewing someone and you don't get a great sound bite, ask another question. Don't ask the exact same question hoping to get a different answer. And do not, under any circumstances, "help" the person "figure out" what he or she is "trying" to say.
Of course sometimes with politicians you have to ask the same question over and over because they simply go off on tangents and don't answer it. "Let me repeat the question since you didn't really answer it," is a common line when the pols are dodging an issue.
But when the average Joe is on the other end of the microphone, keep your words and opinions out of his mouth.
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