Category Archives: Work

Work

Conversation with a viewer

This is a true story.

Caller: Hi, I have a question about the website.

Me: OK

Caller: I was watching the news tonight and saw on the [newspaper crawl] a story about [I forget] in the Daily Breeze, but I can’t find that story on the website.

Me: It’s probably not on our site, but will likely be on the Daily Breeze’s website.

Caller: I can’t find it on the Daily Breeze’s website either. Can you tell me where it is?

Me: I’m sorry, I don’t know the Daily Breeze’s website.

Caller: Can you tell me about the story?

Me: No, I’m sorry, I don’t know what story that is.

Caller: OK, then. Thank you.

Me: Thanks, Bye.

Michael Jackson front pages

So, yesterday was a crazy day. I nearly even called in sick, thanks to some major cramps, but thank God I didn’t. Michael Jackson died, and even though I’m not the type to idolize famous people (I still can’t think of what my favorite Michael Jackson song is), when I realized how much his death affected so many people, I made my night that much harder by suggesting we host a live chat during our 8-11 p.m. coverage on KCAL 9. (It’s not hard, but moderating chat rooms and watching out for the yahoos can be annoying.)

CA_LATCA_DNCA_DB

But even though newspapers may be a relic in the future, you know everyone is going for their front page to see how their pop icon was treated. Trinity’s page from last night kind of inspired this post, but I also wanted to give some props to our SoCal newspapers.

The LAT, Daily News and Daily Breeze all selected performance photos of MJ, with the Daily news including a photo of young Mike on the bottom. Farrah Fawcett also has a prominent place on each page.

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I got a shout-out at work

I was actually working when this aired, but one of the guys on the assignment desk started mentioning my name loudly, so I wondered if there was a chase or a fire that I needed to post right away. No — what happened was that Josh Rubenstein had featured one of my photos to promote his new Photo Club on our website and gave me a shout-out on the air. Heheheh.

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Just call me color

I’m actually quite glad Rick Garcia came to our station; it was concerning me that our many newscasts were increasingly being dominated by females. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but I do like balance.

But I was less than ecstatic when I realized marketing was setting up some promo shots right at my desk. I did run away for a bit, but I actually did have to get some work done, so I sat down for a second to do it, and ended up getting caught in the background of the shot.

I didn’t even realize the spot started airing until my old boss (now at KTLA) left me a note on my Facebook, telling me he saw me in it. I was like, “what! I haven’t even seen it!”

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Chatsworth train crash

Photo by Spencer Weiner/LA Times

Photo by Spencer Weiner/LA Times

Its unfortunate to say, but journalists bear with your everyday stories and news reports just to be able to cover a story like this — a devastating train crash with a death toll of 18 and rising.

Yesterday was one of the busiest Fridays I ever had.

That said, I want to put out the call to anyone who wants to tell the story of their loved one, or their story of survival, or their story of being lucky not taking the train that day. Let me know if you want to talk, and I’ll hook you up with the right people. In addition, if you have photos you want to share, let me know, and I’ll post those on my work site too.

This crash gives me mixed feelings because Trin and I have been talking about possibly moving to Camarillo in the future (more bang for your buck, though farther for me from work). If we were to move to Camarillo, taking the train would be the natural solution to the extra long commute. I don’t think the crashes I’ve seen — first Glendale, now Chatsworth — scare me off, but they do give me pause.

And, I gotta say, being in the newsroom as this train crash coverage went down felt like deja vu. It was like Glendale all over again — not being able to go out to the scene and all. In fact, this is the third major train crash I’ve missed out on covering — the semester after my editor stint at Cal State Fullerton’s Daily Titan, there was a big train crash in Fullerton.

Dude. That ain’t right.