MMJ Serendipity and a Little From the Wayback Machine

Newsblues posted this today, so a tip of the hat to Mike James.  And a tip of the hat to Lori Jane Gliha.  I don't know her but I'm proud she is a Scripps co-worker.  Lori Jane sang this song at a station gathering recently:



Her song struck a chord.  I blogged about our new reality six years ago when I was a news director in another market:

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Wednesday, December 10, 2003
Tonight something happened that got me thinking. Let me set the stage. Our service technician (consultant) has been in for the past three days. That's Always stressful even if you like the person (and I think I do). So tonight, I left work early (6:25pm) and was settled into my couch about thirty minutes later. I learned from another station's cut-in that a robbery and shooting had occured at a grocery store. MY grocery store. Less than two miles from my house.

I immediately started putting my shoes back on and told John he should drive me there. Good plan until I realized the camcorder was dead. No battery. Dead freaking camera. Somehow it got left on when we were shooting video of our fantastic holiday light display.

A big story happening in my neighborhood and No battery.

For a moment, I was apoplectic. Seriously irritated.

But then I remembered that I work with professionals and although they could not get to the scene as quickly as I could, they would get there and do a good job.  And they did. I watched the late news and save for an audio buzz in the lead live shot, our coverage was fine. More than fine. I'm proud of my team. (Thanks y'all)

But dammit, I really wanted to be involved...shoot some video. Twice in my tenure here, I've shot stories that made it onto the NBC regional feed.  I gotta tell ya, that's serious thrill.

Probably the photojournalists who work at Action News 5 have a "no-big-deal" attitude about shooting stories that are good enough to be sent via satellite to the rest of the world because they do it all the time but I haven't had a camera on my shoulder for a living since the 70's. Nixon was president, for godsakes!

Where I'm going here is that Forward Thinkers say that at some point, all local TV news employees will carry cameras and all will report stories.

I can't wait./pp
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Here's the deal.  The Newsroom of the Future is HERE.  On NBC Action News Thursday evening, we presented our viewers with four stories that were shot, written, edited and presented by MMJ's.  It is the new way.  And we will do it every day.

Since that night in December, 2003, I've never been without a video camera (complete with fully charged battery).  These days I carry a Flip with me and I hope to upgrade to a Flip HD.

I intend to make the network feed again.  Hopefully soon.