Cole Camp-ing: June 10

On Wednesday, I covered Cole Camp's reaction to the triple homicide inside the home of the Luetjen family. I came into KOMU with 3 completely unrelated story ideas - I pitched the missing alligator story, the new Fulton vandalism, and a follow-up to the story I did in Glasgow over spring break. We were leaning towards the alligator story but no one offered to take the Cole Camp story, and understandably so. I figured I'd take it but I had no idea how to cover the story. Chance Seales did a good job covering it the night before when it was publicized, and he passed along several emails with shocking (yet unconfirmed by officials) details about the crime. I felt this made my job tougher - to have to get through the grisly details to get a story. By the time we (I had another shadow with me) arrived at the crime scene, we had a pretty good idea of how we wanted to cover the story - more on local reaction. There was very little new information available besides law enforcement officials calling it a triple homicide, so we had to take the humanized route and talk to a lot of Cole Camp residents.

So, when we got to the house, police tape surrounded it while a "mobile investigations unit" was set up outside the home. Several sheriff's department vehicles and Cole Camp Police cars were outside too. As we approached, an officer came up to us to get our names and who we were with. I guess they were keeping tabs on everyone who came - I don't know if that's standard procedure or not, but I found that interesting. He told us we could not go beyond the police tape, and understandably so. The house's location and surroundings were really good for video. It had some flowers out front with an American flag on it, with a church and playground across the street - providing an interesting visual paradox with the crime scene yellow tape. The officer on the scene would not comment on anything (as all other officials would do during our shift) so we really had no official source. We shot some video and left, and as we drove down the street we saw an old lady walking out to get her mail. We stopped and began talking to her - she was happy to talk to us on-camera, and she gave us some good bites. We then went to get some gas for the car, and while I gassed up I spoke with the station's owner. He said Donnie Luetjen would come into the gas station nearly every day to get gas. Next door, at the Dairy Hut, we found several interesting characters who all knew the family. One man we found was good friends with Donnie Luetjen. All the people we spoke with had their suspicions on the details of the crime - i.e. the perpetrator, but naturally we didn't want to "go there" on-camera and such. I shot a standup in the downtown area to try and show the quaint nature of Cole Camp. Otherwise there wasn't much to it. I didn't have much to show. Then we hit the road back.

We did an A-block vo/sot/vo for the 5, then an on-set A-block package for the 6. Then, a vo/sot/vo for the 10 with an update saying there would be a news conference at 10am Thursday for officials to give more details. I had a lot of help from my shadow, KOMU alum Holly (not Edgell...not sure what her last name is) whose experience at KFVS in Cape Girardeau was really helpful for my writing. She was also helped me out a lot with synthesizing the information and making our trip into a good package. Overall, while it was a sad/disturbing story, I thought I did a pretty good job. I also did a much better job of time management, making sure I was back to the station by about 1:50pm, so I wasn't pressed for time. I thought my on-set went very well - no complaints about it, and the mic worked this time, so it felt like a rousing success. But, apparently I have no idea how to put on makeup. I need help with that. I'd love to get one of those professional makeup stylists to do my makeup before a show to save me the trouble...oh well...Not something I take too seriously, I guess, haha.

Tuberculosis comes through in the clutch

So yesterday, Monday, I pitched the story of a kid in Camdenton who won a car as a reward for his excellent attendance at Lake Career Technical Center. We decided to go with this story, so I called the LCTC and spoke with a woman who said she would pass along my info to the supervisor of the place, who apparently would be available mid-morning. She also said she would give my information to the instructor at LCTC who refurbished the spiffy 2007 Pontiac G6 as part of a mechanic training class. So, I left KOMU for the hour and 40 minute drive with the understanding I would be getting a phone call. I did not receive one, and when I pulled into the LCTC I called the number again. The same woman answered and told me very matter-of-factly that the supervisor would be "unavailable", the mechanic instructor at home, and no one else in the building because of summer hours. Needless to say, I was not pleased. With no chance to contact the kid who won the car, and the unhelpful secretary denying any opportunity to speak with an official, I was pretty much SOL. I knew the "escaped" alligator in Versailles was a possibility as a backup story, but the producers didn't want to do it, so I headed back to Columbia.

I spoke with Stacey while driving back and he said he found an AP release on the "economic stress index", a measure of economic output in every county in the U.S. When I got back to the station I began to prowl around iNews for a link to the graphic/interactive map, but I couldn't find it. So, I spent about 45 minutes calling several AP numbers to figure it out, and finally a customer service rep emailed me the link - but by that point, we received a fax in the newsroom about a press conference at University Hospital with very vague wording - to the point that Randy thought something serious was going on, and to an extent, he was right. With a feeling it could be Swine Flu/H1N1, we (I had a shadow with me all day) immediately went up to the Hospital. We hung out in the conference room for a little while (as once again KMIZ showed up last) and every MU J-School affiliate was well represented. KBIA, KOMU, and the Missourian all were there about a half hour before the presser began! It began and we were given folders with the official writeup of what had happened - a hospital worker contracted "active" tuberculosis and had apparently been in contact with patients and other employees while carrying the disease. I immediately Tweeted the news to KOMU and sent a similar text to Meredith Miller - the only producer I had in my phone. She sent me back a few questions she wanted to know as a producer, which was excellent. I liked being on the same page at the same time we were in the presser. The other journalists in the room were on the same page, as they asked very similar questions to what Meredith wanted to know. There was basically no video at all to get besides the geezers talking in the press conference, so we booked it back to KOMU as the presser ended.

Once we got back, it was really easy to write a reader/gfx for the 5, a vo/sot/gfx for the 6, and a vo/sot for the 10. I had a lot of help from the producers, so it went well. Overall it was a crazy shift but it ended up going well, and I'm happy I had a lot of help to make it work. All 3 aired in the A blocks.

"you're not saving anybody's life"

In our B3 meeting/lecture/roundtable yesterday (I call it that because it's technically a lecture, but it's so informal that it feels more like a meeting/roundtable) we discussed and viewed good/bad/ugly live shots. I may be on my own in this, but I think "going live for the sake of going live" is a good thing. Having reported in live shots, and set up live shots as the truck operator, I think it provides an important link in a newscast. Yeah, it might be completely worthless standing in the dark as a "floating head", but to me, that means you need to be more creative. Show me something worth flipping to from the studio - even if it's a sign or some sort of "scenic" backdrop (i.e. field, stadium, building, traffic). It can sometimes appear cheesy, but I like the aspect of "Hey, we ARE out in the community paying attention to things that are going on." As a reporter, I enjoy them because it gives me a lot of face time and a chance to show either my personality, or show something related to the story in more detail than I would be able to in the studio. Does the fact I enjoy it for face time detract from the journalistic quality? Perhaps.

I can see the argument both ways. With our training, I feel we're pretty apt to not let our personalities overshadow a story. The challenge comes for inexperienced live reporters who get nervous and stick strictly to a script, or get nervous from "YOU'RE ON LIVE TV. GO!!!" For me, that nervousness doesn't happen. Yes, the adrenalin kicks in, but I love that.

I attribute the fun of it to a line I heard several years ago (circa 2005) from Mike Quick, the high school sports producer, reporter, and anchor from MSG Network in New York. He taught the "advanced" section of the "Bruce Beck and Ian Eagle Sports Broadcasting Camp" in NJ. To this day, there are VERY few people who scare the living bejeezus out of me, and he is one of them. He's probably 6'5", 250 pounds, and as intense as Tom Coughlin. Anyway, we were doing on-camera exercises as a group. One person messed up, and Quick had him do it again. His advice? He spoke slowly, staring each one of us in the eye: "Calm down. It's just TV. You're not saving anybody's life here. You're not a surgeon, a doctor, a soldier, or a cop. It's JUST TV."

And that's how I look at it. Live shots help me, as a reporter, keep perspective on our jobs.

A jarring crime

Someone in the Sedalia area thought it would be cool to steal a donation jar from a convenience store, the Cork'N Bottle. The jar was meant for the family of Diana Bryce, an employee of the Cork'N Bottle who passed away suddenly a few days before. Security camera video showed the man enter the store, ask the clerk for minnows (live bait), and as the clerk had her back turned, he grabs the jar and runs out the door. I heard about this on the Sedalia Democrat's website after noticing it was one of the most-viewed/emailed/commented articles on its site. I figured it'd be a good story since no one in Columbia had covered it, and it would be a definite gawker/"Oh my God, how terrible" story. Of course, I considered finding the family of the woman, but I felt that might be too sensationalistic or intrusive for a sensitive time. But, we were able to make the story work with an interview with a woman from the Cork'N Bottle and a Sedalia Police Detective. When I met the detective, she told me she'd be able to give me a copy of the security camera video, which was fantastic for the story because it showed how dastardly and despicable the man could be - his body language when stealing the jar demonstrated he clearly wanted it and had every intention of spending the money from the jar. It also seemed like he knew he was doing something wrong by running out of the store. In retrospect, I'm shocked at how dumb this guy was too - the security cameras are quite visible within the store, and he's a moron for stealing it in plain sight of the cameras. I think it was fair on our part to call it a "cowardly" crime - unless there are extreme extenuating circumstances, everyone agrees that it's not right to steal a donation jar. This was a really easy story to write, and with a long ride back from Sedalia I had plenty of time to think of what I wanted to use.

I had no idea when I got back to the station that I was supposed to do an on-set. It didn't go well because my mic was not cued in the booth. It cut into time I would have liked to use to write/cut/voice my package. But altogether I was happy with my shift. The 5 and 6 story aired in the A block, while the 10 vo/sot aired in the B block.

Wi-fi jobs

On Monday, I reported on the Wi-Fi Sensors Inc. company's announcement that it will buy a plant in Kirksville to begin manufacturing, you guessed it, wi-fi sensors. It's big news for an area that has been hit hard lately by unemployment. While Adair County's unemployment rate is lower than Missouri's average, it has shot up in recent months, so the prospect of about 100 new jobs meant a busy day at the Missouri Career Center in Kirksville. I pitched the idea and Stacey liked it - and I had no problem making the drive to Kirksville. Even if it's not quite within our viewing area, it's still news for people in Moberly, Macon, or other towns within commuting distance to Kirksville.

I must have made about 25 phone calls while on the way to Kirksville. I was surprised to lose cell phone service several times on 63 between Columbia and the Sturgeon exit - to the point I lost a call - but I was able to gather a lot of information about the best place to go for the story. While at the station, one source I spoke with mentioned the company selling the building, Hollister, was very weird about media coverage. He said the plant manager skipped town once it was announced Wi-Fi Sensors would buy the building, and they've been "unavailable" for comment all weekend. So my plan was to go to the Missouri Career Center and see if people were applying for the jobs to try and humanize the story that way. Since the Hollister building is on 63 right as you come into Kirksville, I got a wide shot and some sign shots from the outer edge of its property. We (I had a shadow with me) drove into their parking lot and I went inside to try and find someone to talk to, but no one from either Wi-Fi or Hollister answered my calls.

So, we hit the road to the Career Center on Normal St. When we arrived, I was shocked to see how many people were inside waiting to fill out applications. But, Wi-Fi had not given the Career Center applications, so all it could do is have interested people leave their names and contact information, and they'd be contacted once the applications came in. So we walked in and pretty much found a CCC immediately - a guy who was looking for a new job and who claimed to be very passionate about electronics. He mentioned that he had taken apart an iPod, a TV, computers, and several other things, so I pretty much knew he'd make for a great CCC and humanizer. I also interviewed several other people - the supervisor of the Career Center, who talked about how busy the day was, and 2 older women who wanted to apply. The 2 women didn't say anything very poignant or interesting - I'm guessing they were nervous about the camera because they gave very short answers even though I really tried to ask easy, open-ended questions. Eventually we left the Career Center and headed back towards Columbia. I shot a standup on the sidewalk across from the Hollister building because I didn't want to be on their property without permission. I didn't want to get in trouble for trespassing when it was obvious the company, for whatever reason, didn't want attention or coverage. And since I had already gotten a few shots from its property, I didn't want to risk any more.

After that, we headed back to Columbia. Everything was pretty routine once back at the station. I was the "new at 6" and just had to do a package for it, and a vo/sot for the 10. I was very happy with how the shift went. For a story that was somewhat odd in that I had no one from the companies involved on camera, I was able to humanize it enough to make it a lot more interesting than it would have been if I had some talking head from Wi-Fi or Hollister. Both aired in the A block.

May 27 - Rummaging for a Story

I had a few interesting story ideas, but we couldn't find a way to spin them into a story, so I began looking at something Jen suggested, which was a story on how a Boonville health clinic received an $80,000 grant from the Missouri Foundation for Health while its doctor was supposedly on probation with the State Health board (I could not confirm this - we received this in a tip from a viewer, so I had no way of verifying it in time to turn the story in a day). The doctor also received notoriety in October 2008 throughout Mid-MO for losing her license to prescribe controlled substances like Oxycodone. So naturally, it brings up questions for us to see a doctor with this kind of a record receiving grant money. A call to the Missouri Foundation for Health resulted in me leaving a long voicemail for their spokesperson, and a few hours later receiving a long voicemail explaining that the organization is "investigating" how the grant was given to the doctor's clinic (Dancing Horizons) while issuing a "no comment" on the other aspects of the story. Jen and I agreed it would be better to do this story as an HFR, since it's clearly interesting but it needs more time to seek out. There's also no true "today" angle to it since the clinic received the grant in early May. So, the best we could find was the Rummage sale coming up on Saturday.

I went out to shoot some video and interview people there. I found several people who could speak on camera and they said some good stuff - worthy of making a package out of it. Upon returning to KOMU, the producers and I discussed going live at 5 and 6 - which sounded cool to me, so I was all for it. I cut a SOT for the 5 and 6, scripted a reader, and headed up to Memorial Stadium for the live shot. Since I'd already done a live shot before (speeding ticket story), it didn't feel too wild or crazy. I think my 6 shot went better than the 5 because I had it planned out better. Instead of grabbing something next to me to show on-camera, I simply held what I considered a good pair of shoes and showed how much they were for sale when the shot came to me. I was glad that we had SOMETHING to show - so our live shot was not worthless. I'd say I learned on-the-fly that keeping it simple for a live shot, and being able to show SOMETHING, are really important to a successful shot.

Upon getting back to the station I cut a package, which was pretty easy. It was shorter than the 1:10 I was given (about :53), but I think it's always easier for the anchors and producers to finish light than finish heavy. Plus, sports or weather always want extra time, so for a pretty weak story I was happy to have squeezed this much out of it. It felt very applicable to how Jack Nicholson quotes John Lennon in The Departed, "I'm an artist [or journalist, in my case]. You give me a f!@#$%^ tuba [pronounced 'toober'], I'll getcha somethin' out of it."

The 5 and 6 versions aired in the A block, with a live headline for each at the beginning of the show. The package for the 10 was in the B block.

I really need to find some good story ideas for next week.

Reflection on 5/25 shift

What began for me as a slow news day ended as an interesting but very emotionally tough shift. In the story meeting, I wasn't sure what I could really do besides Memorial Day events, and an MU Baseball NCAA tournament selection show watch party. I went with the watch party idea, but upon arriving there, we found Chris Gervino was already there and had plans to cover it, so we had to go with something else. I ended up going to cover the arrival of the "Missing in America Project" motorcycle riders in Kingdom City. I thought it was a pretty cool event and story - a different way to pay tribute to fallen veterans on Memorial Day. Basically, the group finds deceased veterans who never received a formal military burial. They were transporting 3 cremains from California to Arlington National Cemetery in Northern Virginia, and stopped in Kingdom City to refuel and grab a bite to eat. I felt I shot some good video and interviewed some interesting people, so I was pleased with what I had going back to the station. It was very easy to write a vo/sot for the 5, a package for the 6, and another vo/sot for the 10 because I felt I had plenty of good video and enough of a story to tell with what I found. I'd say the biggest thing I learned on Monday was to ALWAYS PUT THE PROPER GRAPHIC TIMES IN iNEWS!!!! I got chewed out in the post-newscast meeting, and rightfully so because my times were about 8-9 seconds off. There's no excuse for that out of me, and I was frustrated. I had cut that amount of video out of the original sequence after I voiced it, and never went back to change the times even after printing a copy for the director. Naturally, I was pretty annoyed with myself for not properly scripting it. Also, I used "Hwy" instead of "Highway" in the 5's vo/sot locator - something I specifically checked for and confirmed as correct in the iNews script tips and during the Tiger Chair check, but apparently we got it wrong. This was also very frustrating for me, because I felt I did all the right things as a reporter to check, double-check, and check with someone else before it aired, but I (not anyone else, these mistakes are totally on me at the end of the day) still got it wrong.

As I wrote above I found it to be an emotionally trying shift. I felt fine all the way up until when I sat down and began to write my web story when I was able to reflect on the day. Since it was Memorial Day, and we aired an incredibly moving Honor Flight story, the magnitude of what I covered started to hit home. I found the notion that hundreds of motorcyclists were riding across the country in convoy to transport 3 honored, but forgotten soldiers' cremains to be really touching. Combine that with the Honor Flight story, and the faucets began running, so to speak, in my eyes. I found this link on the "Missing in America Project" blog, and I really lost it. So many people have died serving their country yet no one knows their stories, their families, their sacrifices and heroism, and it's my role as a journalist to seek out those people. That's what was tough for me - the incredible, sometimes unfulfillable burden we have to convey this realm to people. I felt my story, and the Honor Flight story, were a valiant attempt at seeking that grain of truth. It took me a few hours and a long phone conversation with my Mom to really accept and acknowledge this.

All 3 stories aired in the A blocks of the 5 (A-10), 6 (A-10), and 10 (A-18). http://www.komu.com/satellite/SatelliteRender/KOMU.com/ba8a4513-c0a8-2f11-0063-9bd94c70b769/79fcf367-80ce-0971-0125-0bcc01ff7598