Flipped off

Although they seem ubiquitious, it's not everyday youre friendly neighborhood lensman(woman) gets to capture scenes from a perpwalk.

Do this job long enough though and the number of scenes could fill up a nice little tape reel. The characters on this reel range from the famous to the infamous. From those you feel sorry for, to those who couldn't even garner a sliver of sympathy from most people.

I've taken part in many backpedaling contests as have others...(Lenslinger and here)

Most are innocuous and easily forgettable. For me that boring streak ended yesterday. I was waiting in the courthouse for the alleged getaway driver in murder to make an appearance in court.

After several false starts with other inmates getting off of the elevator my subject appears through the door. This is what I get. --------->

Well that and being told several colorful suggestions.  It was the most interesting and entertaining 15 seconds of video I've shot in this week.

Maybe the CIA is hiring

Or maybe not...

Either way, I'm not sure I could get a job after yesterday's fiasco.

Many times in this business we get our interviews by calling in and setting them up. Sometimes, though, people just aren't ready to talk, and we have to try face to face to get our interviews. Today was one of those times...

Our poor subject today: The Superintendent of a local school district who is leaving after a year on the job.

Our mission: Our ND has tasked us today with finding Mr. H. and getting sound to fill the insatiable news beast(5,5:30,6,&11).



[upbeat flashback music swells in and the scene dissolves into the inside of unit 12][music fades out]
"Let's park in the back lot. I think that's where the staff parks," I tell reporter Kirk as I pull the plain white news Jeep around the back of the school district administrative offices. I find an open space giving me a view of the door and the whole parking lot.

"His secretary says he's in a meeting until 10:30 then he's heading to Indianapolis," Kirk says as he flips through the background in the file folder sitting on his lap.

He shows me a picture in the article he's been reading.

"Yeah, I know what he looks like. I've interviewed him before, on the NightSide beat."

I zone out a little and turn up the radio because it's only 10:15.

"Brian, is that him?" Kirk asks me as a man gets out of his car and heads into the building.

"I don't know...I didn't get a good look at his face."

"I have to go ask him."

Kirk gets out and approaches the man asking him if he is Mr. H. -- No!

"I think we blew our 'cover'," Kirk laments as he climbs back into the unit.

Several minutes pass and the assistant Superintendent comes out of the building acting normal(that should have tipped me off. Unknown to us this is where the chase actually begins). She heads to a jeep, gets in, and drives off. As I watch, she pulls around to the front of the building.

"She's headed around front. I bet she's going to pick him up," I realize and I throw jeep into drive and pull around front.

The rest of the is like a keystone cops movie. As I'm moving, the assistant hops out of the car and Mr. H. gets into the driver's seat. I look for a parking spot in a limited area, trying to move around people getting into the car. By the time I get the car askew into some sort of parking space, and out of the car, our quarry is on his way to Indianapolis, having eluded this tape toting photog.

When Good Pop Goes Bad!

January 13, 2006
South Bend - Fame is a double edge sword. When firefighters got the call of a fire at the South Side Grocery they didn't know they would find yet another victim cut the cruel bite of success.

Arriving on scene, firefighters found flames licking up the front wall of the grocery behind several pop machines. Although the fire was doused quickly, a gaping hole in the roof marked the toll the conflagration took on the building.

Sounds like a normal fire for South Bend's Bravest, deserving nothing more than a few lines in the metro briefs? This is where the normalcy ends.

(From here on out is my fictional interpretation. This is the story I wish had happened.)

"I could not believe what the first responders were telling me what they saw when they got on scene," a fire chief says just minutes into his investigation of the fire. "It appears right now the fire started behind these pop machines here," he points behind the Pepsi, 7-up, and Coke machines which were pulled away from the building to fight the fire.

"There's no hope, the damage is too much," a fire fighter playing his flashlight across the charred shell of the 7-up machine.

"I told them this would happen," Joe Wolb says jabbing his stumpy thumb back to the scorch marks on the wall. "I knew he was bad news when he came in with that cocky attitude thinking he was the best pop on the block."

Investigators think the fire was started by the Pepsi machine. The outlet shorted causing the siding to flare up and race up the wall.

It seems Pepsi machine has been despondent as of late. "He's never been the same since his cousin got that TV deal," Pepsi machine's friend Dr. Pepper machine.

The commercial features Diet Pepsi Machine getting drafted by the NFL's New England Patriots. The ads started airing at the beginning of the football season in September.

According to Dr. Pepper machine, Pepsi Machine had been seeing a toaster for counselling. "Every time he saw that ad, he would turn the channel and grumble. He would say, 'That should have been me. I told him everything he knows about acting.'"

Wolb, who lives near the store, says Pepsi Machine had been flickering "more than normal" lately, "I walked in and told the owner he better keep an eye on that machine. He at least needed to unplug him at night."

When reached by phone before his playoff game in Denver, Diet Pepsi Machine didn't have much to say about his cousin.

"He's never been happy with my accomplishments. I think he's just trying to cover up for his shortcomings. He's just one of many regular pop machines. It takes something special to dispense diet pop."

This possible arson could just be another bad decision in a long descent into a life of crime and destitution.

"I've been worrying about him since he went off and had that fling with the Ciggarette Vending Machine," Diet Pepsi Machine offers as a possible explanation of Pepsi's recent run-in with police.

"Last I heard, he was hanging outside a 'Gentleman's Club' in some town out in the midwest. I knew he would betray his brand name. I just hope he can turn his life around."

After surveying the damage inside the store, investigators exited to find that Pepsi Machine had pushed past the gawkers and fled the scene. Police searched the area and only found an extension several blocks away. Police consider Pepsi Machine dangerous and mentally ill. They are asking that if you see Pepsi Machine, do not approach him, but call the police.

UPDATE: January 17, 2006
Police in LaCrosse, Indiana say they were tipped off about the missing Pepsi Machine when they received a tip that someone got a can of Pepsi that had a smoky bitter taste.

The Machine was found hiding next to a Faygo Machine in the local garage. Police moved in and Pepsi Machine was taken into custody. He was last seen being loaded by dolly onto a flatbed truck to be incarcerated in the police department breakroom.

Chilling video

It's chilling video knowing the ending.

Pictures of families rejoicing.

I stood watching in horror as the replay came down on the satellite feed this morning. After living a day and a half worrying about their loved ones trapped in a mine, families in a rural West Virginia community get word the word they are alive.

Knowing the awful truth to follow I think, "Oh my God, those poor people."

With the flicker of a slate and the beginning of a new tape the rejoicing turns to images of grief.

Here's just one story:

---

[T]heir joy turned instantly to fury.

...

The devastating information about the dead shocked and angered family members, who had rejoiced with Gov. Joe Manchin hours earlier when word spread that 12 miners were alive. Bystanders applauded as they saw McCloy brought from the mine early Wednesday, not realizing he would be the only one to make it out alive.

...

But late Tuesday night, families began streaming out of the church, yelling "They're alive!" The church bells began ringing and families embraced, as politicians proclaimed word of the apparent rescue a miracle. The governor was among those who announced there were 12 survivors.

Hatfield blamed the wrong information on a "miscommunication." The news spread after people overheard cell phone calls, he said. In reality, rescuers had only confirmed finding 12 miners and were checking their vital signs. At least two family members in the church said they received cell phone calls from a mine foreman.

"That information spread like wildfire, because it had come from the command center," he said.

---

I've never been on any story exactly like this one. I have been on stories where family members have given us information that may not be readily available from "Officials". We either treat this information as background or give it the modifier "according to so and so".

The facts have not all been fleshed out, but if(as according to the story) you have the governor telling you the miners are alive, how much more confirmation do you need? Unless the governor said he only had gotten the information from the families, the governor counts in my book. That's not to say I wouldn't get suspicious if, after awhile, new information failed to trickle out.

I hope the critiques deserved for the press are aimed at the right spot. In the little I've seen, it appears the blame goes into the continued publication and broadcasting of the wrong information. The media did not give the wrong information to the families. The families unwittingly gave that out.

For example: I was watching a replay of Geraldo's live interview of some family members who had just come out of the church celebrating. He asked them why they were so happy. They replied they had been told the miners were found alive. Geraldo asked several times "Who" told you this. As he is trying to figure out what's going on you hear the bells ringing and more people come out of the church rejoicing and calling family members about the good news.

The downfall came when the wrong story was left to linger for several hours and no new information came out. Being a journalist, I would be aghast if this happened to me. I know there is a lesson to be learned and I hope that we learn it. I don’t think the solution is to not report the news, but to be more aware as events are coming in live. Reporters need to temper reports like this by reminding people this is unconfirmed information. I think the media outlets burnt the worst on this are the print outlets who have early deadlines and can't easily change their reportage.

Bottom line, the circumstances played against both the "live/gotta have it first" mentality and immovable deadlines faced by today's media. We just need to be aware of these limitations and make sure our reporting reflects these limits.