Saturday, November 01, 2008

The Obama Rally might kill me


Look, I don't mean to be a baby or anything, but I will be so glad when this election is over.

Though I'm thrilled (seriously!) that a presidential candidate thinks highly enough of Springfield to visit three days before the election, I'm pooped.

Tonight's rally will be terrifying for TV newsrooms all across the Ozarks. Why? Because he's speaking at Parkview High School tonight at 9 p.m. 9 p.m.!!

Terrible for news, really. Fox, for example, has a 9 o'clock newscast. That will be annoying for them. By the time they hit the air, Obama will likely be arriving late, as most candidates do, so you'll probably see a live report from someone at the top of the newscast who is clearly giving the "The-crowd-is-excited-Obama-is-late" liveshot. And at some point, the producer will want to go back out live to the speech when it starts. It's a killer for every producer because they have to watch the time to make sure the show ends on time.

And, it really doesn't get any better for the stations with a 10 p.m. newscast. Like I just said, Obama will probably be late. He'll probably speak around 9:15 or something...the reporters out in the field will be scrambling to feed something back. In KSPR's case, our reporter would have to drive something back because we can't edit in our trucks. However, I will be the one watching the entire feed from the station and then scrambling to cut something from our studio so that our reporter can stay out in the field to do the liveshot. And even then, there will be little time for a reporter out in the field to actually "report". How can someone? They'll have enough time to listen to parts of Obama's speech and then regurgitate some of it for the news.

It's rough.

I know things could be worse, and I'm not really complaining. Besides, some people thrive off of this stuff.

Me? I just get a lot of anxious feelings, headaches, and gas.

I'm just wishing this election was over already. Doesn't it feel like we've been going at this for years? Our election process is getting way too long.

Anyway, that's my issue with tonight, and just for the record, I talked with three people from different stations across the Ozarks and the state, and they agree with me. Hmph.

5 comments:

Jason said...

Wait...you have gas?

I thought women didn't get gas!

Brad said...

AMEN sister! AMEN!

Anonymous said...

just wait till next week when we have limited live shots, no commercials to fill our breaks and nothing but black friday coverage to keep us on our toes...
ks

Aaron said...

Yeah, get ready to scrounge to find some boring human "interest" stories.

I can understand, though, Michelle. Local election night was a nightmare when I worked for a newspaper. Our weekly publication came out on Wednesday morning, and the elections were always Tuesday, so we were always sitting and waiting for more results to come in until our presses had to roll out to "meet" deadline.

Your predicament is a lot worse, though, than mine was at the newspaper office. Maybe when you transition to 999 W. Sunshine, there will be some additional features for the station that you'll be able to enjoy on such a night as yesterday.

I took some pics/video, just in case you're interested (yay, more election stuff!) to see one person's perspective: http://aaronmcgrath.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Gas michelle??? Quick get the girl some GasX!

Trust me this election has suffocated me like a cloud too.