Recently, I've had a number of people at accidents and fire scenes asking the question, "Why is this news?"
The answer to "Why is this News?" can get complicated, but on some days, it's just that there's nothing else going on. Last Tuesday is a perfect example of this.
Before I go to last Tuesday, though, I want to do a little tangent on the news beast and the part it plays in the decision process.
An editor once told me that News is a beast that must be fed each day. The news beast doesn't care if you had news that day or not. It only knows that it must be fed. Each and every day, we have an hour and a half of news at 5 and a half hour at 11, whether something happened that day or not. The news beast must be fed...
True story: A number of years ago there was a newspaper editor named George Frye at a small paper in Indiana. George had a paper coming out and no lead story for the front page. Nothing local, no news on the wire. It was just one of those days. The deadline loomed closer... the press needed to run... the news beast needed to eat. Finally, George made the announcement to the newsroom that the next story that came down on the wire would be the lead on the front page. Then the story came across the wire... Olaf, the king of some country so small that nobody had heard of it, had died. (I don't remember the name of the country.) George had his story. It went on the page, but there was another problem. King Olaf dies wasn't a long enough headline to fill the alotted space. But the beast had to be fed. So the press ran, and for that day in Huntington, IN, the big story was Good King Olaf dies. True story!
To this day, I still refer to those days without any news as Good King Olaf days.
For Zack Ottenstein and myself, Tuesday, April 10 was a Good King Olaf day. There just wasn't anything. Every story we tried went to a dead end. Interviews we tried for fell through. Finally, we were able to contact a vetrinarian for a story about the pet food recall. There had been a few more types recalled that day. It wasn't what we were trying for, but it would work. We went and did the interview. Arriving back at the station, our producer, Rob, told us that there was a structure fire on Bigelow and that the Red Cross had been called to help the family. We arrived to find two things: our live truck already on scene, and a garage fire that had spread to the back of the house, but the fire department had managed to contain it to the garage, which was destroyed and the breezeway behind the house, which was heavily damaged. Nobody was hurt, but the family was going to be out of their house for the night. So, I shot the firefighters putting out the hotspots, Zack and I interviewed the battallion chief, I edited the video together with a short soundbite from the chief and we led the news live from in front of the house. The beast was fed.
So, was this news? To the family put out of their house for the night, certainly. For the neighborhood, probably. For all of Toledo, maybe. Was it "big news?" On that particular night... it was.
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My picture "with the boss"
My picture "with the boss"
About Me
- Chris Henderson
- TV photojournalism is a relatively new endeavor for me. In 1981, at age 14, I started shooting for The Evening Leader in my hometown, St. Marys, OH. In 1990, I graduated from Ohio University with a Bachelor Degree in Journalism. I then bounced through towns and newspapers, including Sidney, OH, and Farmington, NM, and also did some magazine frellance work. In 1996 while working at the Herald-Press in Huntington, IN, I married my wife Jenny, and in 1997, we welcomed our daughter Mallorie. In 2003, I left the Herald-Press to make the switch to television, taking a job at WANE in Ft. Wayne. In 2005, we made the move to Toledo so I could work at 13abc.
Since starting as a photojournalist at 13abc in October 2004, I have had the odd (I can’t call it bad, but it certainly wasn’t good) fortune of being present at a most of Toledo’s worst moments.
Just two weeks after starting at 13abc, I, along with Sarah Ohler, was dispatched to the Norwich Apartment fire. We were already on the road and nearby, so we were just moments behind the first in units from Toledo Fire. Seeing those children brought out of that house still haunts me today.
When the Nazi Party came to Toledo, Zack Ottenstein and I were caught in the middle of the riot that ensued. That day I recorded my own news unit being destroyed by the rioters. I’ve often summarized that day as, “I was hit by a rock, tear gassed, my Jeep was destroyed and it took the Lucas County SWAT team to get me out of North Toledo… I’ve had better days.”
In April of 2006, I moved to the overnight shift. While working this shift, I was the first newsperson on the scene when Det. Keith Dressel was killed in the line of duty. I spent the next nine hours in that neighborhood, shooting live reports as officers searched for the gunman, culminating in bringing live video as officers took Robert Jobe into custody.
My final night on the overnight shift took me to Bowling Green as I was the first newsperson on the scene of the double homicide of Alicia Castillon and John Mitchell.
In March of 2007, I moved to a new shift, which has me working Dayside one day, Nightside two days and doing the morning live shot for the weekend shows. I'm hoping to find some happier memories in these venues.
Just two weeks after starting at 13abc, I, along with Sarah Ohler, was dispatched to the Norwich Apartment fire. We were already on the road and nearby, so we were just moments behind the first in units from Toledo Fire. Seeing those children brought out of that house still haunts me today.
When the Nazi Party came to Toledo, Zack Ottenstein and I were caught in the middle of the riot that ensued. That day I recorded my own news unit being destroyed by the rioters. I’ve often summarized that day as, “I was hit by a rock, tear gassed, my Jeep was destroyed and it took the Lucas County SWAT team to get me out of North Toledo… I’ve had better days.”
In April of 2006, I moved to the overnight shift. While working this shift, I was the first newsperson on the scene when Det. Keith Dressel was killed in the line of duty. I spent the next nine hours in that neighborhood, shooting live reports as officers searched for the gunman, culminating in bringing live video as officers took Robert Jobe into custody.
My final night on the overnight shift took me to Bowling Green as I was the first newsperson on the scene of the double homicide of Alicia Castillon and John Mitchell.
In March of 2007, I moved to a new shift, which has me working Dayside one day, Nightside two days and doing the morning live shot for the weekend shows. I'm hoping to find some happier memories in these venues.
2 comments:
And then there are the moments where you're asking yourself the same question... despite your knowledge of the existence of the news beast. Thanks for inspiring me to write my own answer to this question on my blog...
Can't wait to read your take on other topics, I just hope it doesn't take away your material for when we run into each other on nonexistent fires!
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