Not what you want to hear on April Fools Day

Anyone who has worked in a newsroom knows you get some real crackpot calls on a regular basis. When I worked down on the river, we used to get phone calls from a man who identified himself as “Jesus”. On the weekends back in the early 90’s we used to get a call [...]

Nothing like a funeral to bring out the best and worst in people

I’m not sure I know of many news people who enjoy covering funerals. Some might see funerals as easy, one stop shopping gigs where all the players can be shot at one location. Plug in some of the service, get tight shots of the grieving family members or friends, add a little B-Roll [...]

Just a person willing to help out some fellow reporters

In Selmer, Tennessee while covering the Reverand Winkler murder, I ran into a guy I hadn’t seen for a few years. The guy’s name is Doug Viar and he was running a sat truck for NBC and some of its affiliates. I last saw Doug after the deadly tornadoes that tore into [...]

Nothing like two-a-days to get you in shape

You know things get serious in football when teams start with two-a-day practices to get in shape for the season. That means a practice in the morning and a practice in the afternoon. It builds stamina and gives team members something to look forward to: no more two-a-days.Word on the street these days is that [...]

Two out of three ain’t bad

I try to be a law abiding citizen. I’ve been known to speed on occasion and I don’t come to a complete stop to turn “right on red”. That’s about the extent of my lawlessness at this particular time in my life. However, I have maintained for years that if I should [...]

Note quite back in the saddle but one foot in the stirrup

I got a call Friday morning from a local production facility. I had expressed an interest in any freelance work they might have available and I got a call wanting to know if I would be interested in doing some work on a news story in Selmer, Tennessee. It seems a young minster was found [...]

No lions but Tigers and Bears (Bruins) "Oh My!"

A bittersweet evening at stately LarkSmith Manor as the Memphis Tigers won and the Gonzaga Bulldogs lost. My lovely and talented bride loves both teams and has bemoaned the fact they are in the same bracket in the NCAA tournament knowing there was the possibility they could face each other. That is now [...]

Entertainment This Morning and now I know why my roof is leaking

I ran across a discussion in the Watercooler section of Shoptalk www.tvspy.com that was suggesting that Mary Hart of Entertainment Tonight is being considered to replace Katie Couric on the Today show. The information is coming from Wikipedia so I’m not sure how valid it is, but some interesting comments were posted. Some [...]

The news business ought to get a BIG boost from this.

Polls show that the news business ranks somewhere along the level of attorneys in terms of respect among Americans. Well, it’s getting a boost these days.First the background. In Florida, a 25 year old teacher from Tampa is accused of having sex with a 14-year old student in the back of a SUV [...]

The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco

With apologies to Mark Twain, this second day of Spring in the Midsouth feels like one of the colder days of this past winter. Granted I have seen it snow briefly on April 1st here in the Memphis area, but this isn’t Nebraska or any of those other rectangular states in the Midwest [...]