Monday, September 05, 2005
Don't Finish - It's My Turn
The story on the Gulf coast will go on for a long time. It is very tragic, educational and sad. There is a lot to be learned, not only from the event itself, but on how it was handled.
CNN has done a fantastic job reporting all sides of this terrible act of nature. Their people attend every emergency almost immediately, often right in the middle of the action. We now take that for granted.
There is one thing though that irks me. I am not sure whether it is the producer’s fault, the on air personality themselves or the result of difficult communications. But it happens on every event by numerous members of the crew.
They often interview people at the scene, or have ‘experts’ who they ask for their comments, or perhaps political figures. They ask a question, and before the individual is finished with their answer, the announcer is talking over the top of them asking some different question.
Those of you that understand remote communications will know that it is very difficult to listen to an ear-piece and talk at the same time, especially if communications is less than ideal.
So ‘personalities’, you are doing a wonderful job – but at least wait until your guests pause in their verbal response before you ‘butt’ in. For the most professional station in the world, it is most unprofessional to talk over the top of someone – even when you have time restraints of the broadcast world.
However, thanks CNN, I will still look to you for the instant on scene reporting.
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
CNN has done a fantastic job reporting all sides of this terrible act of nature. Their people attend every emergency almost immediately, often right in the middle of the action. We now take that for granted.
There is one thing though that irks me. I am not sure whether it is the producer’s fault, the on air personality themselves or the result of difficult communications. But it happens on every event by numerous members of the crew.
They often interview people at the scene, or have ‘experts’ who they ask for their comments, or perhaps political figures. They ask a question, and before the individual is finished with their answer, the announcer is talking over the top of them asking some different question.
Those of you that understand remote communications will know that it is very difficult to listen to an ear-piece and talk at the same time, especially if communications is less than ideal.
So ‘personalities’, you are doing a wonderful job – but at least wait until your guests pause in their verbal response before you ‘butt’ in. For the most professional station in the world, it is most unprofessional to talk over the top of someone – even when you have time restraints of the broadcast world.
However, thanks CNN, I will still look to you for the instant on scene reporting.
This work by NSCAVE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License
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