Thursday, January 3, 2008

Works in progress

I spent Wednesday hawking down a number of newsroom tips, which seem to be panning out ... but if it wets your whistle, among the New Year's stories that arrived in my lap:
  • some high school students in big, big trouble .. at a NE Ohio school you'd never expect ...
  • local police chief living with someone who did time for a serious crime.

Are the rumors true? It looks like it.

So does that make it news? Not sure yet.

So will these stories be on tonight's broadcast? Depends on whose willing to go on camera and whether there's enough detail there to warrant coverage.

But if you know the stories are true, why can't you just say so? Because there's other factors involved in both stories ... and ruining someone's lives with a rush-to-air TV News story isn't always a good idea.

Hmmmmmm ... then why tease people by telling them what you're working on? Well, many people wonder what the heck we do all day in a TV newsroom and what part our ethics play in what we put on the air. Also, if I've heard these rumors, you can bet others have too.

Okay .... So after all of that, what's left to do? Stay tuned of course.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Quote "local police chief living with someone who did time for a serious crime."

Ummm... Call me what you will, but isn't the idea such that if you get convicted of a crime and do the punishment for it (whether it's jail, fine, or a combination) and are done with the crime, that it's pretty much over unless you've you prove yourself to be a repeat offender?

Eric Mansfield said...

Tony ...
Yep .. which is one of the reason I take caution in airing a story like this ...
Still, when the story comes in to the newsroom, I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't at least check it out ..
That's where all the "grey" comes in ... not every story is as black and white as others make it out to be ...
Good point .. stay in touch .. Eric