Do you think the punishment handed down to Jim Black is fair?
Local reaction here, here, and here
I welcome your thoughts and comments!
For those that don’t know, Penn Holderness is our new sports director.
Today, I received a message asking where’s Penn? Here’s the message:
“I read in the N&O that Penn Holderness is joining the NBC17 sports staff. I thought he was to begin yesterday, 7/9, but I was unable to watch last night. I did notice that his bio is not on the website, nor does the website mention him joining the staff. What’s the real story?”
Yesterday was his first day on the job. As many of you undoubtedly know, the first day on any job is usually filled with paperwork, paperwork and more paperwork. It’s what I refer to as the HR thing.
Beyond the paperwork, anytime we have a new reporter or anchor join the team, we usually allow them to get acclimated for a few days before they appear on air.
We are putting the finishing touches on his bio and hope to have it on our website by the end of today. As for when you can expect to see Penn… I can tell you he is very excited to be on air. If he says he’s ready, you may very well see his on-air debut on tonight’s newscast.
That’s the real story.
I borrowed my girlfriend’s iphone for the purposes of this blog.
I have had several conversations with people about the iphone. I have a few observations that I have made about this device. First of all, it’s pricey. At more than six buck-er-oos the device is certainly not something to just run out and buy without thinking about your individual financial situation.
The style of the phone is soothing on the eyes but is certainly not molded to the contour of your hand. As such, using the phone as a, well…phone…is not necessarily an enjoyable experience.
The microphone is touchy and usually makes the iphone user sound distorted. In TV terms, we call it over-modulated. And, the speaker is not the best. Even with the phone turned up to high, any outside ambiance will make any call difficult. No, I am not going deaf. What did you just say?
I know everyone was excited about the touch screen keypad. I am not impressed. Unless you have ultra thin fingers, chances are you will inadvertently make countless typos amidst your feverish texting.
Personally, I am sick of hearing that AT&T is the provider with the “Fewest dropped calls”. As a journalist, I read the fine print at the bottom of all TV commercials. I want to know who says they have the fewest dropped calls. Why? Because as a journalist, I ask questions. I believe no one. I even question my mother when she tells me things. Why? Because I am a journalist. And since my girlfriend shifted to the AT&T phone plan on her iphone, I have now been disconnected more than a handful of times. No, she did not hang up on me.
I also figured out, while you can download all those songs from itunes onto your iphone, apple did not make it compatible with the adapter that allows you play your ipod songs thru your car’s stereo system.
Finally, remember that the front plate of the iphone is glass. Crack it - and that six hundred bucks is nothing more than shattered glass.
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Hope you had a great monday!
Jason
For baseball fans this week is a chance to see the next big thing in baseball. Japan’s Collegiate All Star team is playing all week and features Yuki Saito. You may have to ask who that is, don’t worry I asked the same question. What I learned is he is one of the best pitchers in the game today and while now he is an All-Star in Japan soon he could be a All-Star in the big leagues. (His numbers are amazing.)
Hundreds of media outlets from Japan are in town to cover his trip. Oddly enough many of those are entertainment folks. We have gotten a chance to meet a small group of journalists because they have been coming by the station to get all the video sent back to Tokyo. It is always fun to have journalists from other parts of the country in the station but it has been especially fun to meet this group of Japanese journalists.
We actually met them earlier in the week when we interviewed them about why Saito is so important. They in turn interviewed us about US media covering the event and then traded stories so we could see how we both cover the same media event. It is really fun to do stories like this and maybe just maybe get a chance to see the next David Beckham type super star athlete in the making. Afterall it is always fun to meet people who do the same thing you do just half way around the world.
Erin Worrell
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The news does not stop for holidays.
Therefore, we can’t stop gathering it. That means some of us have to work. Today, I am working night side. It’s a shift I worked for four years until I was promoted to management and had to shift my schedule to dayside.
Working dayside has its advantages and disadvantages. So too does night side. Yet, there is something very special about night side. It is a tight knit group of individuals. As journalists, we spend more time with our co-workers than we do our families. It’s the nature of our business.
If I say that we are five and six tonight, everyone would look at me like I am crazy….everyone but my producer. If I say it’s time for the quiz, my producer will understand. It’s funny, whenever I fill in night side it’s just like the good ole’ days. The producer and I are a single operating unit. We work together to seek out fresh content that is relevant to your lives. We are constantly talking to each other about things that are developing. When you work so closely with someone, you end up knowing what each other is thinking and how the other will react to certain stories and you get used to that routine.
I guess I should explain what those two saying mean, eh?
While working the night desk I had a saying “time for the quiz.” This is what I always referred to when it was time for the 10pm newscasts. What does it mean? How did I come up with it? Every station, no matter the market, monitors the competing stations. It’s not a secret. In school, I always remember getting the ten question quizzes each week leading up to the all important test. The test always carried a much heavier weight on your final grade. For an assignment editor, the quiz is the nightly check before the all important test (the 11pm news). Hence, the quiz.
The five and six saying is how I refer to the number of staff working on any given night. That number changes daily. The first number always refers to the number of reporters. The second number is the number of photographers. Some nights you may three and three while other nights two and two or four and four for that matter.
So tonight, I am back filling in night side and I can honestly say it’s always fun to work with my producer again, even if it is a holiday.
Inside The Core @ NBC17 is an inside look at how news coverage decisions are made at NBC17.
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