Dilemma

[spup1122]

OK, so I produce a weekend morning show for a local TV station. We're a CBS affiliate so we get national pieces from CBS. One of my pieces for this morning has the wrong information. The reporter says Mitt Romney got third in South Carolina, which is just not true. Fred Thompson got third. Romney came in fourth.

So do I use last night's piece, that isn't necessarily dated and hasn't run yet, but is still from last night and not this morning?

 

[dragonfly]

Can you cut it, so the mistake is edited out?

 

[brettwatson]

I don't pretend to know TV but I wonder why you would think twice about running something you know to be incorrect.

 

[TheSportsPredictor]

WWJRD? (What would Janine Roth do?)

 

[fishwrapper]

If I know it's wrong... But, it may make me look good, I say go with it!!!
Current and inaccurate is better than old and wrong?

 

[spup1122]

Sometimes to my station, current and wrong is better. I went with the older piece. I'm glad it happened to me and not the weekday morning show producer, who wouldn't even have read the script because she doesn't think about things like that.

 

[markvid]

Why not just have your anchor do an on-camera after the piece saying that you'd like to correct one piece of info in the report, etc. etc.
Also, have you fired off an email to the Newspath folks to let them know?

 

[spup1122]

I did send an e-mail to Newspath. I was shocked that they didn't correct it before the morning news shows started.

It's OK. The stuff they sent late last night worked. It didn't air before my show and still had the same information, though, the correct information.

The news director won't be happy that I didn't use the newest piece, but when I tell him I paid attention and the information was incorrect, he'll back off. I just needed confirmation that I was making the right decision, despite what management would say.

 

[markvid]

You don't need our confirmation.
You know what you are doing, and you know that.

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Spup,

If it's me, I probably have the anchor retrack the morning network piece, fixing the mistake. That assumes you've got an editor with the time to edit the retrack, and on a weekend morning show that may not be the case.

Option two is I don't use a national package at all, and simply break down the information into a vo/sot and graphics. It sucks time-wise, since I'm guessing you're not exactly bursting with new content on a weekend morning.

Option three is the previous night's piece, but only if it's completely undated and doesn't feel old by the next morning.

Running the package with the error isn't an option, and if your news director doesn't get that he shouldn't be in the business.

I feel your pain - Newspath is a giant pain in the ass some days, and they've been using some second-rate reporters lately. They're getting really slow in putting the reporter pieces on the server, too. I've been doing a noon show the past few weeks, and the 11:30 updates keep rolling in at 11:55.

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

PC's advice is solid. Re-voice it -- minus the standup -- is the best idea.

Never run anything you know to be wrong. Filling the airtime with five minutes of discussion or CBS promos is better than airing the piece.

 

[spup1122]

I used option two and three. With an hour-long show, I was able to use the package the first news block and the others used our new election graphics.

PCLoadletter is right, Newspath has been **** lately. Gwen Belton has really dropped the ball lately on her packages. And don't tell me you're going to have a 5:30et pkg when it doesn't come down until 5:20 central time.

He's also right that we hurt for new news on weekend mornings especially when it's cold as balls outside and we live in a low crime area anyway.

 

[godshammgod]

I used option two and three. With an hour-long show, I was able to use the package the first news block and the others used our new election graphics.

PCLoadletter is right, Newspath has been **** lately. Gwen Belton has really dropped the ball lately on her packages. And don't tell me you're going to have a 5:30et pkg when it doesn't come down until 5:20 central time.

He's also right that we hurt for new news on weekend mornings especially when it's cold as balls outside and we live in a low crime area anyway.

Good to hear they've improved since I left my last station, which was a CBS affiliate.

I did weekend evenings there, so I had plenty of Charlie D'Agata. He was great, at least. Gwen Belton was always a disaster.

To be fair, I'm at a station that uses ABC Newsone and they're not much better. Last week they sent a package on the Iranian Boats crisis that was tracked with the OJ Simpson car chase. Thank god we actually, you know, screen packages before air.

And, let me jump on the bandwagon that Weekend mornings suck...even in big markets.

And, you obviously made the right move. Usually with election results the previous night pieces aren't dated since there's no new results info since the count stops until later the next morning. Of course, you have to hope a reporter didn't pull out a "tonight."

 

[PCLoadLetter]

Yeah, needless to say, Gwen Belton was specifically who I was thinking of.

They've had someone filling in in DC - Tara Mergener - who's quite possibly worse.

 

[spup1122]

She's horrible.

Our station does a lot of health news, so the health watch packages are used a lot. In fact I really like the health watch packages. They're usually interesting.

 

[Elliotte Friedman]

spup,

If weekend mornings are an issue for you, I ask: Have you ever tried creating a weekly feature? I'm not sure if your show is on both Saturday and Sunday, but you could have one on each day.

Just as an example, you could have a weekly consumer advocate thingy one day and, say, a weekly special interview the other. Just an idea.

 

[spup1122]

That's what we're working on. Since I've been a reporter before, our news director is sending me out to do interviews and work on stories during the week. We're in a state capital so we have a lot of new stuff from the legislative session starting.

We do other weekly features that aren't in any other shows with the anchors, but their entire purpose is to tease our weekday shows, so having other new features are going to be nice.