Comments:

February Sweeping me off my Feet

Working in news, February means more than chalky abbreviated hearts and bouquets of roses.  It means sweeps, and not the good kind that this title would lead you to believe.  Today is the beginning of our ratings period, which for us reporters translates into longer workdays, more investigative stories, and a vast amount of time consumed by tediously scanning documents into pdf form and posting them to the web.

But, I can’t argue because for me, this sweeps month means lots of time spent on the beautiful beaches!  That’s because I’m tearing into the issue of who owns the beaches; asking questions like, “are they public or private property?” and, “where do you draw the line?” Almost every reporter has a special assignment during this time, so basically any time during any given week of February you can scan the newsroom and notice at least one person sifting through documents, making countless phone calls, ripping their hair out, or they’re just plain bald from doing so the week before.  In the end, you can look back at a finished product that goes more in depth that the usual 1 and a half minute special, and walk away knowing you dug deeper and left the viewers with hopefully, a thorough understanding of the issues. 

Maybe after this month I’ll know beach property like the back of my hand.

<< Back to main