Broadcast Paradox

Sense and Sensibility

Being an electrical engineering school dropout rather than a J-school graduate, I developed my news chops by observing some of the best men in the business. (And yes, they were all men back then.) These guys had standards and their pearls became the policy book.

Why Live?
So I don't understand why, even in todays competitive environment, why anyone would want to show the landing of a disabled plane (or a high speed highway chase for that matter,) live without adding a few seconds of delay. If one of these jets (and there have been at least four nationally televised incidents since September 22nd,) were to explode live, I'd call it pornography, not breaking news. In todays server environment, it's so easy to add a delay.*

Perhaps it's only me that thinks that the post-WWII advances in the quality of journalism were permanent. I guess everyone in the control room and in the executive suite are yellow. (See Wikipedia.)

"This instrument, television, it can entertain, it can inform, yes, and it can even inspire. But it all depends on the will of the humans who operate it. Otherwise it is just lights and wires in a box." - Edward R. Murrow

UPDATE: 12/27/05 - Incident Number 5 - Enough Already ! Today it was only a cargo plane.

(*Note: Yes, it's much easier to just take the remote live. But as someone who strung two inch videotape from one VTR to another for a seven second delay - things are so much easier today.)