My local ABC affiliate began broadcasting some of their local news reports from home. The Metrologist and several assignment reports earnestly informed us (cue dramatic music) that they’re isolating and working from home. My oh my.
Btw, the lead anchor is in the studio. Which means the production crew is there too. One of the assignment reporters did a report from roadside. I assume she probably ventured into the station to edit the footage.
The oh so brave broadcasts from home won’t get on the air unless engineers working in the station patch them into the live feed. The video referenced by the reporter had to be edited by someone.
My bullshit meter is pegging off the scale.
A skeleton crew in the station can keep a reasonable distance from each other. Wear masks & gloves to open doors and use equipment. Use hand sanitizer.
Leaving the Metrologist and a couple reporters at home doesn’t accomplish very much.
Haven’t journalists been categorized as essential personnel? They’re allowed to work?
How are our intrepid reporters gathering the news with their backsides parked on the sofa?
They are doing this in the UK too but generally they explain it is because those broadcasting from home are self-isolating due to them or a family member have shown a symptom. But yes it needs staff in the office to make the broadcast work but they would presumably also stay at home should they need to.
I understand isolating at home. My employer closed two weeks ago.
My governor closed the schools. Restaurants are not allowed dine-in. Dentist offices are closed. Hair dressers and barbers are closed.
It’s a smart strategy to flat line the Coronavirus curve. I think Gov Hutchinson is handling the crises really well.
Local Tv news is considered essential. The public has to be kept informed.
Step 1 would be to identify who needs to work. The receptionist, payroll clerk, HR staff etc. can stay home. On air talent and most of the production crew are needed for the broadcast.
Hypothetically let’s presume there’s usually 24 people in the office. A skeleton crew of essential personnel is 13 people. Sending 3 to broadcast from home just doesn’t seem that useful.
The office work area is already much emptier with the skeleton crew. They can keep the recommended 4 to 6 feet apart.
Maybe it is just a panicked reaction to the virus.
The average TV news studio isn’t much bigger than my living room. I’ve seen some where the main anchor desk is front and center with the green weather wall on one side and the sports desk on the other. Add cameras, the ever-present production intern, and a floor director, and you can easily have ten people in a 20x25 foot room. More if you’ve got someone doing traffic and someone doing consumer reporting (aka 7 on your side) The control rooms are even more cozy with somewhere around four to six people in what might be 8x12 feet, making social distancing impossible.
If you can get a couple of the on-camera people to skype in, it’s pretty easy to improve the spacing in the studio. Its a little harder to skype in the control room functions, but with a fairly trivial bit of work, functions like titles and captions, the weather and traffic maps can be done from an editing room, and in a pinch, the director can press the buttons instead of telling someone else to.
I’d call it, as they say on CBS, “an abundance of caution.” Anthony Mason, one of the co-anchors of the CBS morning news, stayed at home this morning because one of his family members lost their sense of taste and smell, which is a possible symptom of coronavirus. I wouldn’t call it a ratings stunt. They really are trying to slow the spread of the virus.
An entertainment and features reporter in Chicago has a couple kids at home so she’s there with them. None of what she’d normally visit is open so she needs to stretch to fill her segments.
The sports guy is probably taking some vacation to cuz he gone.
My city council meeting was canceled this week. I’m pissed (I’m a council member) because it would have been 10 people in a disinfected room for like 15-20 mins. I didn’t see the need to cancel.
But, we’re city council. We need to set a good example. If you don’t need to get together (and our lawyer determined we didn’t), don’t get together. Be smart. Be safe.
If the TV news shows that they can still put on a show and be clever with technology and people are staying at home, well, we all can do it!
I don’t know—maybe the you didn’t read below the fold, or you’ve been having a staycation in an isolation tank for the last couple of months—but we’re in the midst of the largest global pandemic in a century with projected casualties in the United States alone in the millions. So, maybe doing “Live at Five” and “This Just In: Is Your Car Detailer Overcharging You?” are a little less important than preventing further spread of contagion.
Even if it’s not necessary from a practical standpoint (and I’m not saying it isn’t), the message it sends to viewers isn’t “OMG! Virus!” but “We’re doing this because everyone who can, should—this means you, too.”
It also demonstrates that a lot of the on-air people at your local news station are not necessary.
Why do you need a reporter to stand in front of the closed courthouse at 11:00 pm to tell you what happened when the jury reached a verdict at 9:00 am? They could just as easily tell you from the comfort of their living room. Or the studio anchor could just read it off a script.
I have seen the sports anchor doing the weekend sports cast from what was obviously their home studio in a small market years before this all happened. Then he retired and the weekend news anchors just starting reading the sports script.
I think they are setting a good example by working from home. But they are also showing how unnecessary many of their jobs are.
Viewers are looking for personality and engagement. If they expect a particular level of reporter interaction and reporting on location brings in and keeps those viewers then, by definition, that job is necessary.
