"TV news is like living in New York City, every day is either the greatest or worst day of your life, there is no in between."

Reporter Stephanie Hawco said that to my side kick Todd Hauer and me today as we were getting ready to head out on a story that we all knew was not going to happen. Dick, James and Susan is this true?

I have never been to New York, but looking over the past few months, I have to believe she is right. The travels and tribulations of today really were not worth taking up internet bandwidth. I just wanted to share that quote with you. It brought a lot of heavy thinking to Todd and I as we drove all over North Carolina tonight. I promised I would tell you about Special Olympics World Games, I have not forgotten, it is going to be a long, well crafted journal and the space bar on my keyboard at home is dying, so I am having to type at work.

Right now, I have eight hours of driving to Washington DC and back over the next two days to finish it in my head. Til then, here is another of my favorite quotes I got from the National Press Photographer's Association internet discussion list that fits how TV news works all too often: "We are throwing away the bread and butter in search of devil's chocolate."

Lynn French
< lefrench@interpath.com >
Photojournalist
WRAL-TV Raleigh, North Carolina
Other journals by Lynn French
357 April 1, 2000 Hard Blue Filter One
344 February 14 , 2000 Stories That Remain Untold
304 July 19, 1999 TV news is like living in New York City, every day is either the greatest or worst day of your life, there is no in between
295 July 6, 1999 Ahh the smell of it
279 May 8, 1999 Slump
252 March 19 1999 Tell Me A Story...
251 March 17, 1999 I often question if my inner world is bigger than my outer world
244 March 10, 1999 Dean Dome Doom and Chocolate City Redemption
226 February 14, 1999 I Miss My Dad
221 February 11, 1999 On The Cutting Edge and Teetering
205

January 26, 1999		 Moonshine and Cow Boogers
199 January 8, 1999 There are days in the news business when you could not show up for work and no one would notice except for your empty parking space, which they would park in and not tell anyone.
197 January 7, 1999 Hello 1999
189 December 20, 1998 Photographers get sick. We shoot in 100 degree heat, then the reporter blasts the air conditioner in the car. We shoot in driving snow and wind until we can't feel our lower half then sit in a sweltering edit bay for a few hours. We forget to eat dinner because we needed to finish editing a story. We put our bodies through a lot of extremes all while lugging around 50 to 80 pounds of gear. And we love it, but our bodies fight back.
184 December 7, 1998 Looking Through My Viewfinder At a Covergirl
181 November 30, 1998 Okay, it does not rhyme, we are in North Carolina and it is 70 degrees, there is no snow. But one of the longest standing Christmas traditions for me is the post Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas shopping stories. You have seen them hundreds of them through the years. They all fall along three basic story lines: How much are people spending? Shoplifting and mall safety, and what are this year's "hot" gifts?
179 October, 1998 A WHOLE LOTTA I-40 (posted November 26, 1998)
 
Contributor since 1998
  
   


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