…because sometimes, the jokes just write themselves.

BCS hires former White House press secretary’s PR firm to boost image (ESPN)

There is confetti and other types of paper crap on the pitch at Qwest Field in the middle of the frickin’ League championship between the L.A. Galaxy and Real Salt Lake.*

This would not stand in a Premiership, La Liga, or Champions League match. Or maybe the camera angles for those are so far away we can’t see it. Either way, the debris looks tacky.

(*I also can’t take it seriously because the fact that a team is called Real [pronounced the Spanish way] Salt Lake without any sort of awareness of the cognitive dissonance about Salt Lake’s demographics or what real actually means — essentially royal approval in a country where we have no kings. I presume the MLS honchos thought it just sounded cool and footy-related. Real Los Angeles, on the other hand, would have made some sense from a cultural standpoint.)

Edit: I am rooting, as much as I can, for the Galaxy here on the simple basis that no team that finishes below .500 on the regular season like RSL should win a championship, much less be in the league playoffs, but we’ll leave that to the league’s icky parity, which is much worse than the NFL’s brand of it.

jbowesmusic:

thethirdshift:

(assorted ish from two entries prior about my job, removed for length - ed)

The type of job I wouldn’t mind doing. I don’t mind the hours of my current job, I mind the bullshit nature of my work. Lugging cases of beer, wine, and liquor up and down stairs? Anyone can do that. Creating interesting television and making mundane stories seem important? That’s a hell of a gig.

The hours are terrible and the stress can do awful things to you mentally and physically. Can’t see myself doing anything else for quite a while, though. I think I may have been married to broadcast news for awhile and just not been aware of it. Lots of work, bits of anguish, uncertainty, and anger, made worth it by the moments of complete bliss. Yep, I got hitched and I don’t even remember proposing, never mind the ceremony or honeymoon!

I cussed quite loudly when the writer called in sick for a reason. It wasn’t that she called in sick (we have sick days for a reason and given how many stories all of us in media are running about H1N1, we should take our own advice about staying home when ill these days) or because it left me to do all the writing myself and I wasn’t up to that. In smaller markets, you don’t get the privilege of writers to assign stories to. I’ve written 90 minute and 2-hour morning shows by myself many a time.

A writer is a luxury I’ve become accustomed to because it means a second set of eyes and news judgment. There’s a high enough trust level I have with the writer I work with on weekends that allows these things to happen:

• she will tell me if she thinks a story I assigned is crap and I need to find something better.
• I don’t have to be terribly descriptive about how I want a script written. She’ll have a quality script so long as I leave information and necessary video sources. (Rule: if you need to leave more than two or three short sentences describing what you want in a story to a writer, you are likely better off writing that one yourself. Also: if a writer asks you for clarification and it takes you longer than 30 seconds to really explain what’s newsworthy or interesting, you’re better off writing it yourself or throwing the story out.)
• A certain telepathy and similar work habits. We’re both fairly quiet and only talk when necessary during the writing and assembly process. All side conversation happens after I’ve written my last tease, for the most part.

If you’re in my particular situation w/r/t being on overnights and weekends, the writer you work with is also a necessary companion of sorts, the other human that keeps you sane in both temperament and news judgment. The editors are too far away in their booths and the directors come in way too late. So, I can obviously do the two hours by myself if necessary, but I’d much rather not.

9:45 pm - arrive at work, get bearings together, fix first pot of coffee. Informed by desk person that anchor is sick, sub will be in. The sub and I are cool. She’s a weekday morning reporter and we get along like gangbusters.

10 pm - punch in, start reading the 11 pm show. Cuss only having a half hour worth of local material to pull from b/c of college football knocking out early shows. Scan wires, local papers online, watch competition, process out a running order in my head and begin re-writing scripts. Request stand-up tag from reporter.

11 pm - watch bits and pieces of our newscast. Continue massive re-writing and assembly process. Crank police and fire scanner volume.

11 pm - 12:30 am - assemble first hour, assign between 1/4 and 1/2 the content to writer, begin writing my share of fresh stories, re-tooled intros, and packages cut down to VSV form.

12:30 am - hell begins busting loose with winds b/c every bit of scanner traffic is a general “wires down” call. Sigh, keep track on note-paid, begin beat calls to various dispatches.

12:45 - Writer calls in sick. Cuss to myself, be grateful that I’ve sketched out some of the content on Thursday and Friday and written some of the teases for it. Find folders w/ people’s birthdays, search our weekend calendar online for good events, and fill out those respective graphics. Write questions for talkback interview with network host of Sunday morning news show.

1:30 - First editor arrives. Inform her that she and second editor will be running prompter today, take phone calls from stringers, keep writing. Fortunately, no major injuries from any of the power lines down, although outages are likely. Keep writing stories at a decent clip, aiming to finish first hour by no later than 3:30.

3:15 - Finish first hour. Stringer headed to house fire after picking up fallen tree video. Inquire after dispatch about tree falling incidents, place calls to utility PIOs for any updates. Fortunately, the first pot of coffee is still warm.

4:00 - Second editor comes in, bringing newspapers with him, which I would normally read, but I”m too busy this morning. Start recording Good Morning America’s feed for story on food carts that featured carts from Portland and Seattle. (Wrote story on it yesterday, and need to follow up with who won.) Weather guy arrives. Inform him of placement earlier in show b/c of winds, describe what we’re hoping for coverage-wise. He’s all over it.

4:05 - Re-arrange certain parts of second hour for variety and separation, copy edit as necessary.

4:15 - Get door for guests who are doing a live interview from our company’s sat uplink.

4:30 - Still copy-editing and writing second hour teases when directors arrive. Still waiting on video for house fire and trees on the ground. Re-arrange top stories segments with new stuff. Get outage info and begin putting in graphics and scripts for that by monitoring sites online.

4:45 - Anchor arrives. Stringer comes in with video soon after.

5:00 - Directors start coding and assigning stuff.

5:15 - write last bit of copy. Take half hour break, drink more coffee.

5:45 - Clock back in. Answer director questions, begin updating numbers for power outages again.

6:00 - Watch competition for anything I might have missed. Breathe easily when I haven’t. More copy-editing, pronouncing certain names for anchor, etc.

6:35 - print scripts for anchor and weather guy, who also is a good news reader.

6:45 - get set up in booth with headset, set up prompter for editors, check video, update scripts until last minute while directors get camera shots down.

7:00-9:00 - showtime!

9:00 - write discrepancy report, clock out, talk with 5pm producer, decompress slightly, walk home with Bill Withers in my ears.

9:30 - turn on TV to football coverage. veg. drink lots of water.

Chris Simms as an NFL starting quarterback.

And then Orton comes off the bench and leads a drive only to see Knowshon Moreno fumbling it in the end zone.

Not really so much notable except for it being AWESOME.

I didn’t think it was humanly possible for me to ever be sick of listening to Muse.

Now I’ve heard “Uprising” so many times in advertising and bumpers for sports that I’m ready to retch.

THIS ISN’T FAIR AND I DIDN’T ASK FOR THIS.