Loitering in the newsroom.
That's what I'm doing now.
The lady of the manor decided out of nowhere to radically restructure her servants -- too many part time people costing her too much money. All the maids and cooks and the gardener -- that's me (or was) -- were basically let go with zero notice. She's hired a brother/sister who don't speak a word of English to work full time -- the brother outside, the sister inside. I'll still go back for plantings but I wonder how he's gonna do at maintaining the garden. Not my problem, now, and that's a blessing.
Charles has pulled me to work at Sissy's. I *way* prefer it. She's a lady. A *real* lady. My biggest worry with her is that I'm painfully un-fashion-conscious; but I get the impression that as long as I deal straight with her, she'll deal straight with me. Her garden is a labour of love on Charles' part, and she loves *being* in it. I *much* prefer working there. It just *feels* different.
Recorded David Barsamian giving a lecture on Iran last night. Good speech, but a cursed event. The PA system wasn't working. And good god, some of the people in the crowd! The normal crowd from the Peace and Justice Center and protests and such were there, but it's not them I'm talking about. (They were wonderful, as always.) There was a heckler who must have been some sort of Trostkyite, judging from what he was spouting. From his behaviour, I would not be surprised to hear he was smoking crack. Very disruptive. David was critical of the press, including NPR, of course. None of which I have the slightest problem with. (He's *doing* something to make radio *better*.) But with that crowd there were a bunch of people who I *never* see who obviously just crawled out of their holes for this single event. The kinds that *don't* see me covering all the events around town, who don't know who I am, who don't recognize my voice because they don't listen to the local news. The kinds of people who just see a mic and think "enemy".
I know. I've done that *once*. At one of the police riots in LA there was a guy from some AM station. We talked for a few minutes and I told him I had problems with the press. He said a lot of people did. He took the time to talk with me though, and I learned a lot. I stood *transfixed* as he called a live feed accurately describing the scene, which was fast spiralling into total chaos, in exactly 59 seconds. I told him I don't know what I would have done differently and we went our separate ways. I thought to myself, "now there's something I'd like to be able to do", and I'm working on getting there, still.
"When is this going to be broadcast?" is something I get asked all the time, and the answer is almost always "I don't know". Sometimes if it's an issue someone's involved in, they'll ask me to contact them before it airs and I am glad to try to do so, but my first priority is *always* to meet the deadline and get the actual piece on air. Sometimes I won't know until two minutes to air. And with something like this I need to discuss it with several people before a decision is made. A radio station's not just one person with a live mic saying anything they feel like saying any time of day. A couple of people last night were just plain downright rude when I told them I didn't know, and didn't want to hear why I did not. People who don't know how a radio station works, and don't understand that I can't take over the control room at gunpoint to rebroadcast a 98-minute lecture unedited.
Then there were the people who come up to you and say things like "you guys need to do a better job of covering issue X". Fair enough -- this kind of person wants something and can usually be made to tell us what they want us to do better. But sometimes not. Last night it was "not". Sometimes you have to just let people vent. Wouldn't help to ask questions that would just devolve into an argument. "So you mean the six-minute commentary we did day before yesterday, the ongoing coverage of it with stories that run about once a week, and the in-depth feature of it that we did six weeks ago to introduce the issue to listeners isn't enough? Do you even *listen* to the radio? Or do you just come out of nowhere with your issues and accuse the press of not covering it without knowing what you're talking about? Or *do* you in fact listen to the radio and just believe your pet issue is the *only* newsworthy thing on earth?"
When I casually mentioned "editing" in regards to the evening's lecture, one woman jumped on me as though she *knew* that I'd editing specifically to distort David's meaning. I tried to explain that the people he himself records for Alternative Radio (*great* show, btw) probably *don't* always just happen to talk for precisely 55 minutes, and that he himself *has to* edit. It's inherent to the medium. Useless. In some people's minds, the fact that we carry *any* NPR programming makes us -- everyone at the station, apparently, "the enemy".
Then there's the guy who was campaigning for Jason Call, who's planning to run in the Democratic Primary against Martin Heinrich for the CD 1 seat (currently held by Republican Heather Wilson). I'd spoken with Call himself at the Bush demonstration, and used a clip of him in my story. Was there a "thank you" from his minor functionary at last nighyt's event? No. Not that I expected one. But he started in on Call's platform, talking about nationalizing the oil companies. Fine. I said something to the effect that "that's a good issue to raise, a conversation that needs to happen", trying to give him an opening. He came at me like a bat out of hell: "It's not a CONVERSATION that needs to happen! WE NEED TO NATIONALIZE THE OIL COMPANIES! NOW!" All right. This conversation is *over*. As in, *now*. I'm serious, he started shouting in my face. I can talk to Mr. Call about it directly, but talking with this guy is useless. He's just a "true believer". Does he *really* think that even *if* Mr. Call wins the primary and then the CD 1 seat that as *one* person in the 435-member US Congress that his precious nationalization will just magically *happen*? Apparently he does.
This goes with the territory. I'll get used to it. But in the meantime I am *desperate* to get a *story*. Not just a "report" on what a visiting lecturer *said*.
Of course we may still use the Barsamian lecture. There was some really good stuff in it. But I don't know when, or how, and *won't* until I've talked with several people. And it *will* be edited. Get used to it. If you don't like it, volunteer at the station and make it better.
The lady of the manor decided out of nowhere to radically restructure her servants -- too many part time people costing her too much money. All the maids and cooks and the gardener -- that's me (or was) -- were basically let go with zero notice. She's hired a brother/sister who don't speak a word of English to work full time -- the brother outside, the sister inside. I'll still go back for plantings but I wonder how he's gonna do at maintaining the garden. Not my problem, now, and that's a blessing.
Charles has pulled me to work at Sissy's. I *way* prefer it. She's a lady. A *real* lady. My biggest worry with her is that I'm painfully un-fashion-conscious; but I get the impression that as long as I deal straight with her, she'll deal straight with me. Her garden is a labour of love on Charles' part, and she loves *being* in it. I *much* prefer working there. It just *feels* different.
Recorded David Barsamian giving a lecture on Iran last night. Good speech, but a cursed event. The PA system wasn't working. And good god, some of the people in the crowd! The normal crowd from the Peace and Justice Center and protests and such were there, but it's not them I'm talking about. (They were wonderful, as always.) There was a heckler who must have been some sort of Trostkyite, judging from what he was spouting. From his behaviour, I would not be surprised to hear he was smoking crack. Very disruptive. David was critical of the press, including NPR, of course. None of which I have the slightest problem with. (He's *doing* something to make radio *better*.) But with that crowd there were a bunch of people who I *never* see who obviously just crawled out of their holes for this single event. The kinds that *don't* see me covering all the events around town, who don't know who I am, who don't recognize my voice because they don't listen to the local news. The kinds of people who just see a mic and think "enemy".
I know. I've done that *once*. At one of the police riots in LA there was a guy from some AM station. We talked for a few minutes and I told him I had problems with the press. He said a lot of people did. He took the time to talk with me though, and I learned a lot. I stood *transfixed* as he called a live feed accurately describing the scene, which was fast spiralling into total chaos, in exactly 59 seconds. I told him I don't know what I would have done differently and we went our separate ways. I thought to myself, "now there's something I'd like to be able to do", and I'm working on getting there, still.
"When is this going to be broadcast?" is something I get asked all the time, and the answer is almost always "I don't know". Sometimes if it's an issue someone's involved in, they'll ask me to contact them before it airs and I am glad to try to do so, but my first priority is *always* to meet the deadline and get the actual piece on air. Sometimes I won't know until two minutes to air. And with something like this I need to discuss it with several people before a decision is made. A radio station's not just one person with a live mic saying anything they feel like saying any time of day. A couple of people last night were just plain downright rude when I told them I didn't know, and didn't want to hear why I did not. People who don't know how a radio station works, and don't understand that I can't take over the control room at gunpoint to rebroadcast a 98-minute lecture unedited.
Then there were the people who come up to you and say things like "you guys need to do a better job of covering issue X". Fair enough -- this kind of person wants something and can usually be made to tell us what they want us to do better. But sometimes not. Last night it was "not". Sometimes you have to just let people vent. Wouldn't help to ask questions that would just devolve into an argument. "So you mean the six-minute commentary we did day before yesterday, the ongoing coverage of it with stories that run about once a week, and the in-depth feature of it that we did six weeks ago to introduce the issue to listeners isn't enough? Do you even *listen* to the radio? Or do you just come out of nowhere with your issues and accuse the press of not covering it without knowing what you're talking about? Or *do* you in fact listen to the radio and just believe your pet issue is the *only* newsworthy thing on earth?"
When I casually mentioned "editing" in regards to the evening's lecture, one woman jumped on me as though she *knew* that I'd editing specifically to distort David's meaning. I tried to explain that the people he himself records for Alternative Radio (*great* show, btw) probably *don't* always just happen to talk for precisely 55 minutes, and that he himself *has to* edit. It's inherent to the medium. Useless. In some people's minds, the fact that we carry *any* NPR programming makes us -- everyone at the station, apparently, "the enemy".
Then there's the guy who was campaigning for Jason Call, who's planning to run in the Democratic Primary against Martin Heinrich for the CD 1 seat (currently held by Republican Heather Wilson). I'd spoken with Call himself at the Bush demonstration, and used a clip of him in my story. Was there a "thank you" from his minor functionary at last nighyt's event? No. Not that I expected one. But he started in on Call's platform, talking about nationalizing the oil companies. Fine. I said something to the effect that "that's a good issue to raise, a conversation that needs to happen", trying to give him an opening. He came at me like a bat out of hell: "It's not a CONVERSATION that needs to happen! WE NEED TO NATIONALIZE THE OIL COMPANIES! NOW!" All right. This conversation is *over*. As in, *now*. I'm serious, he started shouting in my face. I can talk to Mr. Call about it directly, but talking with this guy is useless. He's just a "true believer". Does he *really* think that even *if* Mr. Call wins the primary and then the CD 1 seat that as *one* person in the 435-member US Congress that his precious nationalization will just magically *happen*? Apparently he does.
This goes with the territory. I'll get used to it. But in the meantime I am *desperate* to get a *story*. Not just a "report" on what a visiting lecturer *said*.
Of course we may still use the Barsamian lecture. There was some really good stuff in it. But I don't know when, or how, and *won't* until I've talked with several people. And it *will* be edited. Get used to it. If you don't like it, volunteer at the station and make it better.
posted by xeltifon at 1:43 PM
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