TV in the newsroom

I'm going to print out the replies to this thread and put them on my publisher's desk.
Not really, but you can imagine what it would be like if I did.

 

One TV, which news does not bother to turn on during the day and which we keep on whatever game at night.
Features editor complained we were abusing it. Yeah, ok.

 

On deadline, I can't write when they're on and unmuted.

 

Sorry, but this is one of my biggest peeves. It's a newsroom, not a classroom. If you can't write with all hell breaking loose around you, then you really shouldn't be in this profession. I get really pissed off when a writer complains about the noise on deadline because ... "waaah, I can't concentrate." Spare me. :

 

Agree. I sometimes get annoyed by an abundance of noise in a press box, but that's what headphones and jazz on my iTunes are for.

If I can't concentrate, it usually has more to do with me than it does what's going on around me.

 

We have one: A plasma hanging in the sports department.

 

That seems to describe the Decatur (Ala.) Daily newsroom when I was there in 1999-2001 ... at least the part about no TVs in the newsroom and a dress code that had (male) copy editors in ties at 6 a.m. weekdays. There was plenty of worrying about making the product better, but a certain amount of energy squandered on the dress code thing and worries about employees adjusting the thermostat without permission. I got called in the ME's office and lightly chided one winter day for wearing an expensive (for me) L.L. Bean turtleneck.

Silly.

This was also the newsroom where a manager asked, with a straight face, "Why would the copy desk need the Internet?"

I guess 9/11 answered the TV and Internet questions. I dunno about the dress code.

 

What do you do when writing live from a press box?

 

No TVs and probably because Uncle Moneybags Publisher doesnt want to pay for the TV or monthly cable bill. I can only imagine what Sept. 11, Oklahoma City, etc was like at this place.

 

We have three in our department, and they're muted at all times. But they all have games on that people pay attention to for various reasons/amounts of time.

 

I don't mind turning the volume up for a key part of a big game, but I can't stand people who turn it up like the newsroom is some sort of sports bar.

 

We've got two in the sports dept. Pretty much always muted unless something big's happening.