Jamey Tucker’s BlogSquat

I’m not going to lie to you. I lost some sleep last night after hearing I was accused of “sneaking into a private funeral service that was closed to the news media”.

Sneak? I did not. I walked in the front door with everyone else. Private? I was never told it was a private service and that they would prefer me not being there.

My guess? Some other media folks tried to get in the doors after I got in but were turned away.

I posted all the details of the story and what happened on www.faithandethics.com

But I will say this here. I spoke this morning with the church folks I sat with and who saw my story and they were fine with it. They liked that I used audio from the pulpit. They liked the tone of the story and felt it captured the faith of the family. I also talked with the family spokesperson who told me “if we were going to have anyone in the media cover the funeral service, we would have wanted it to be you.”

If I offended any member of the family. I’m sorry. If I drew any attention away from the service, I’m sorry. But in talking with these folks this morning, that was not the case. You can see the stories on our website www.wkrn.com.

Was I wrong? Did I violate the sanctity of the service?

Let me know what you think

I wish the IRS would change the April 15th tax date. It always interferes in something that keeps me awfully busy this time of year.

Tomorrow is the annual fantasy baseball draft with a league back at WHNT in Huntsville. I’ve been part of this league since 1993. There’s no money involved, just pride and braggin’ rights, (the winner also signs an old Southern League baseball which serves as a trophy).

I’ve won the league several times. Many years I win one half of the season championship only to lose the World Series after we draft players in the big series.

Last year, Amy Gunnin-George beat me in the WS after a horrible post-season draft by Tuck’s Friars.

So instead of working more on getting my tax returns together tonight, I’ll cram for the draft. The other team owners gather in the newsroom at WHNT while I phone it in. I’ll be on the phone for most of the afternoon.

Yeah, it probably sounds silly to you. My wife couldn’t agree with you more. One of my former co-anchors refused to call it “fantasy baseball” preferring “pretend baseball” instead.

It’s better than filling out a tournament bracket. And it’ll keep me occupied and interested in the game from April-October. I’ll pour over boxscores every morning and every night, looking for who’s hot and who’s not. I’ll keep statistics on my computer and talk smack with the other owners.

I can’t wait.

March is a moving month in tv news. When the February book ends (and all of the other sweeps periods too) it seems that’s the time tv stations announce big changes.

WKRN is losing an anchor. Victoria Hansen, our 10pm anchor will leave at the end of May. The other stations in Nashville have also announced some big anchor changes too. Birmingham has had one of it’s primary morning anchors leave. It’s the anchor who got the job I auditioned for not quite two years ago. (I said then she wouldn’t stay there for the length of her contract, I guess longevity isn’t all it’s cracked up to be).

I really hate to see Vic leave channel 2. Her desk is behind mine and I’ve talked with her just about every afternoon of my 2 1/2 months in town. She’s not only one of the nicest news people I’ve met, she’s also probably the best female anchor I’ve seen on local tv.

I’ll be sad to see her go.

A little boy was shot last night after answering the door and being met by a man with a gun. The 9 year old boy was killed, police don’t know why or if the boy was the intended target.

But tonight while watching coverage of the incident on another Nashville station, I was startled to hear the anchor say “the boy was shot when he answered the door and a black man wearing a mask, pointed a gun and said ‘I have a present for you.’”

It’s been a long time since I’ve heard a news report describing someone by their race, especially if it has nothing to do with the story. I know Memphis stations don’t do this and I don’t believe I’ve heard it before on a Nashville newscast.

Race did not have anything at all to do with this story. Why then is it necessary for an anchor/producer/reporter to write it in the copy?

It took nearly 3 months but I was pressed into service as a general assignment reporter today.

ADAPT, the national group representing the handicapped and physically challenged are in Nashville to persuade Governor Bredesen and other lawmakers to be more senstive and aware of issues that relate to them. Monday, after the Governor didn’t come down to hear them personally, they wheeled their chairs into the streets around the capitol and blocked traffic for a couple of hours.

We had another vj, Andy Cordan, our go-to hard news guy, taking a closer look at what the group is demanding. But suspecting they would block traffic again, producers sent me down for a 4 o’clock live shot and to be ready for a 6 in case things got out of hand again.

I had forgotten how much fun these types of things can be. There were about 200 protesters in the cold and rainy weather. At first they simply pointed their speakers at the capitol building and shouted their demands. Then they sent a few representatives up to present their demands but were turned away by state troopers.

I shot some video of state troopers walking down the capitol steps to prevent the protesters from doing what they did yesterday. Some crawled out of their wheelchairs Monday and using their arms, crawled their way up the steps before threatening to chain themselves to the building. A state trooper told me “that ain’t happening today”.

I was standing next to the organizer of the protest, a wheelchair bound older man who had come to Nashville from out of town. He’s a professional at organizing these protests and I’d seen him a few years earlier when ADAPT came to Memphis.
He was on the phone and obviously did not want me to hear his conversation. I rolled tape when I heard him ask the person on the other end of the phone “so do you want to move into the streets?”. He turned his back to me. I moved around. He turned again. I moved again. Then he hit the “go” button on his electric wheelchair to get away from me. A few minutes later I was rolling as he crossed the street, gave the signal and led the protesters into the middle of the street.

Metro police warned them they would be arrested and unlike yesterday (when they were issued citations) today they would have to go before a judge and post bond before being released.

We hit our live shot at 4 and then again at 4:30 when police started picking them up and hauling them off. We hit again at 6 with a vo/sot and another sot.

Yeah, it wasn’t religion or ethics and I wouldn’t want to do this everyday, but it was exciting to be chasing news again. When we get relocated and I have my full arsenal of technology, I’ll have my handy digital still camera to post pics on this blog. Today would have been a good one for that.

I have a lot of time to think while driving back and forth to Nashville every week. For some reason today, I thought of the night our news chopper went down just before the 10pm newscast.

It was Huntsville, WHNT-TV19 in 1994 or ‘95. To the best of my recollection, our helicopter was brand new. It was a Friday night, the first night of high school football season. We had planned to use the chopper to cover as many games as possible but mainly we wanted to show off the first news chopper in the market.

I was anchoring the 10pm show then. Sometime around 9 o’clock we got a frantic phone call that our new helicopter had crashed. On board were the pilot, our Shoals bureau reporter Kevin Yodjas and Shoals photographer Matt Greene. When the call came in I remember the hush that went around the newsroom. There weren’t many of us inside then. The producer, myself and my co-anchor and the executive producer who was running the desk.

We found out pretty quickly that everybody was okay, in fact it may have been Kevin or Matt who first called us. The chopper was flying above downtown Sheffield or Florence (I think) and was above some of the buildings when Kevin and Matt first heard the sound and the pilot saying “Uh Oh”.

The pilot was skilled enough to put it down on top of a retirement or nursing home. Had they not been above a building, I’m told the helicopter would have just dropped from the sky. They lost one of the skids on the bottom of the chopper but everybody got out unhurt.

What I remember most about the night though, was how we covered it. The news director called the shots telling us to drop whatever lead story we had and go with the chopper story. As often as possible.

We couldn’t get a live shot via a microwave, not that Kevin or Matt were in any shape to do it themselves. Florence is at least an hour and a half away and I don’t think we had a live truck by that time anyway. We led with a phone interview with Kevin who told the story of how they had just passed over his house when he called his son to look up and see his daddy flying in the chopper. That’s when the pilot heard the sound.

After the first live phoner, we read a few other stories and then went back to Matt. And then to Kevin. And then to the pilot (I think I remember that right). We must have spent 15 minutes of the 35 minute newscast on our own chopper story. I also remember after we had thought we had covered it all, the news director calling and telling us to hit them again.

We thought it was overkill. But it was a story that only we had. Besides, what tv station would have covered it anyway? Back then, every newsteam in town totally ignored the others. There was never a mention on any of the other channels about the crash landing.

Matt and Kevin did a whale of a job that night. They were obviously shaken and the longer we talked about it the more they realized what a close call it was.

And you know, as bad as it was and as bad as it could have been, it was one of the things that got people to pay attention to us. At the time, 19 was still in second place in the market behind the historically strong WAAY. Interestingly enough, it was a bigger tragedy that helped push 31 to the top of the ratings. The tornado of 1989 which killed more than 2 dozen people in downtown Huntsville, was a factor in viewers making a habit of watching 31. At that time, 31 was the only station in town to stay on the air thanks to a brilliant plan to deal with such a tragedy. They had generators that kept them on the air and thus, was the only station anyone could turn to in the days immediately following the tornado.

Those were great days in the ratings wars of Huntsville television. There was a battle over who would be first with a satellite truck and helicopter. There were battles on the street every day over which station would get the interview or the story. The newsteams took great pride in their station and there was a definite feeling of ownership for all of us. I remember the day 19 first took first place. My news director met me in the parking lot with a cigar and a handshake of congratulations. We even had champagne in the newsroom!

Those are some of my favorite memories of my career in news. Great people who genuinely cared about beating the competition day in and day out and getting the story right. Our management team was terrific, our reporters and photographers and producers did their best day after day. And viewers tuned in.

And it all started with a near tragedy and the words “Our chopper is down!”

I know many of the people who read this remember that night better than I do.

So I must be driving back to Nashville. Of the 9 weeks I’ve been commuting I’ve driven in two snows, about a half-dozen showers or thunderstorms and have had to divert off the interstate for a bridge implosion and an accident.

So at around 6, I threw in disc 3 of the Johnny Cash Unearthed Boxed set and started off. Today’s story was on Extreme Home Makeover on ABC. If you saw last night’s show (we rarely miss it) the design team chose a pastor’s family in Oklahoma. They had been living in a pastorium (the house the preacher lives in, furnished by the church) but when he died suddenly of a heart attack they had no where to go.

Anyway, some folks at Lifeway in Nashville helped with the makeover. We tried to do the story on Friday but ABC wouldn’t return our calls and give permission for the folks at Lifeway to talk. The story was pretty interesting. I’ve had the feeling watching this show that there is a dynamic of faith or spirituality going on each week. The person at Lifeway confirmed it, saying the producer told him that she’d seen some “strange things happening this week.”

The story was supposed to run at 5 but a tornado warning meant it would air some other time. I don’t know when or when it’ll make the website.

I’m working on a story on Purim tomorrow and will take the rest of the week off. The family’s driving up tomorrow night and we’ll vacation in our new town and look for houses.

I’ve been pretty critical of the Commercial Appeal in recent weeks. Not about it’s reporting or it’s staff but about it’s content.

I point again to the Sports section today. Spring training is going on in Florida and Arizona, the World Baseball Classic is being played and I dare you to find more than a foul-tip of baseball coverage in today’s edition.

But I write today on the announced departure of Wendi Thomas. The metro columnist has certainly drawn attention in the two years she’s been on the job. But like a comedian during a presidential election, the Metro Columnist in Memphis will always have plenty of good material to work with.

So Wendi’s off to Baltimore. Who will the C.A. hire to replace her?

Here’s my suggestion. Mike Hollihan of HalfBakered.

It makes sense doesn’t it? The C.A. is interested in community reporters, encouraging local readers to submit their own articles, columns and photographs. So why not hire a community blogger as it’s Metro Columnist? Who wants to see another ‘outsider’ coming in as a columnist? Reporter, fine. Reporters cover events and report. Columnists give us their opinions and thoughts. Read the archives over at Halfbakered and you’ll find some darn good stuff. Well written, insightful and interesting commentary on life in Memphis.

So come on Chris Peck. Wendi leaves before the end of the month. Give Mike a go. You thought Wendi stuck it to the people who needed sticking? Wait’ll Mike aims his pen.

I just checked out Rocketboom for Wednesday. If you’re interesting in video blogging or HD video, check out how they do what they do and the new Panasonic HD camera. If you’re reading this Thursday or later, you’ll have to go to their archives to see Wednesday’s show.

www.rocketboom.com

Well WKRN’s ratings are up. Way up in some cases. Of course we benefited during February because of the lack of interest in the Olympics but it’s still a good sign that people are taking a look at our newscasts.

Our stories from vjs have gotten much better. Our story count in the newscasts are higher than any other station I’ve ever worked for. The coolest thing for viewers is that we’re covering stories that are never covered in traditional newsrooms with 4-6 2-man crews. I think our viewers have noticed. We’ve gotten excellent reviews from the local newspapers and every day I’m out I hear from people who say they’ve changed their viewing habits to watch News 2. I can’t say that I’ve ever been more happy with a station I’ve worked for. Maybe in Huntsville when 19 started climbing from #2 or 3 to #1. Yeah, it’s like that.
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I covered a cool story today on Christian tattoos. You can see it on our website wkrn.com
That’s a story I’d never be able to do in a traditional newsroom when I’m having to chase down whatever story made page A1 in the newspaper.
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Speaking of newspapers, what the heck is with the changes with the Commercial Appeal? Last weekend I didn’t spend more than 15 minutes reading the entire paper! I actually spent more time reading the online editions of the Nashville Tennessean and Birmingham News than I did with the CA.
I counted only 4 stories in the Sports section and less than that in the pitiful Business section. My wife is even more frustrated and disappointed in it. They’ve moved all of the Community stuff into the regular part of the paper which she hates. At least with the old way we could easily find the things we were most interested in by turning to the DeSoto Appeal section. When we got to Sunday School everybody was talking about the change and nobody liked it. We’re thinking of switching our subscription to the DeSoto Times.
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I’ll be interviewed tomorrow by Air America for a show on religion. A reporter called me today to ask if I’d be interested. The segment features people talking about faith. They were intrigued at the fact that I cover religion and will feature the segment during their Sunday afternoon show.
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And I’m ready for American Idol to get interesting again. This year’s crop of contestants don’t wow me. It’s probably their song choices. Just to spice it up I’d love to hear that geeky looking kid sing “It’s Hard Out Here for a Pimp” and wouldn’t you love to hear Mandisa sing C.W McCall’s “Convoy”?

My early favorites are
Mandisa and Katharine McPhee. The guys don’t seem to have “it” this time around.