If it bleeds, It leads...

Ahhh the wonderful month of November. Football, the crisp air, Thanksgiving, ski resorts opening, what a great month. But there is a dark side to November -- sweeps. For those of you who aren't down with the whole TV industry, let me explain. Sweeps are month-long periods during which the advertising rates are set for TV stations and networks. There are sweeps in February, May, July and November. For this reason, stations and networks roll out their best programming during this time, trying to get people to watch. The upside to this is all the great extra programming put on by the networks--like the cool "24 - redemption" that aired this week.

The downside is the ridiculous, fear-mongering, investigative reports put on by the local news stations. When you see stories like -- "20 ways your kitchen can kill you" and "Dangerous Energy drinks" (thanks Fox) you know it's sweeps-- especially with tag lines like "something every parent should see". I have actually heard about stories such as "Is your dog gay?" and "How every time you flush your toilet, your toothbrush is blasted with microscopic bits of poo" and "Mean Girls" (they're gonna beat you up and take your lunch $$! noooo!) in other markets. Or how about "Is your mattress killing you softly?" Oh, and don't forget the "dirty" stories -- dirty hotel rooms, dirty hospital rooms, dirty school cafeterias, anything to make you afraid--and to make you watch.

The one-up-manship and stupitidy of these reports is so annoying--does anyone else get irritated when they hear "part 79 of out series on the dangers of myspace"?

So whenever you see a story like one of these, my friends--just roll your eyes, and say "well duh" and change the channel. Maybe one day news directors will get it.

Just so you know....

Totally.

Dandelion Break

I'm not sure it it's me, but is the news much more depressing lately? I consider myself to be a pretty hardcore news junkie. In a given day, I skim 2 newspapers, usually catch some TV news, I read CNN.com, the Drudge Report, FARK, and a few others. I thought I was desensitized to the sensationalism and fear-mongering. But lately, the news seems to be depressing me a bit more. whether it's the protests outside LDS temples, the impending "Great Depression 2 -- Electric Boogaloo", soldiers dying, the never-ending-din of the bickering between the political right and the left, it's really been getting to me lately. Sometimes, I just want to shut it all out and hold my new daughter. I call it my dandelion break.

Anyone care to join me?

Reading is FUNdamental

Yesterday I was surprised and saddened to learn that Michael Crichton has died after a battle with cancer, since I didn't even know he was sick. Jurassic Park was one of the first "adult" (not that "adult", you sicko) novels that I ever read. Jurassic Park helped cement my love of novels. I think I read it three or four times, and then I proceeded to devour the rest of his books. Most of his books were made into films, most which did not do the books justice. But what A List! : The Terminal Man, Congo, Eaters of the Dead, Sphere, Rising Sun, Airframe, Timeline, the list goes on. Most of them had a science or medical premise, albeit a fantastical one, and they were always well researched. His imagination was incredible, and he wasn't scared of any subject. He wrote abouteverything from reverse sexual discrimination (Disclosure), to time travel (Timeline), to global warming (State of Fear), to nanotechnology (Prey) (especially creepy). I always looked forward to his next book. I will miss the new and frightening tales that he dreams up. If you're looking for an engrossing read, pick up one of one of his books.

Separating the wheat from the chaff (the chaff being me)

Sup peeps. I am resurrecting this blog once again. I have been posting a little on the Dibble family blog, but we mostly use that for updates about the kids and such (more like an online baby book). So it didn't seem like the place for my little rants and brilliant observations. :p So stay tuned and be sure to add it to your reader. In other words, standby for dibblazo!

When The Cat's Away...

So The Station Manager in San Fransisco for the week. That would explain some interesting behavior that is going on here at Park City television. A few of my coworkers have disappeared during the day, mumbling something about "having a meeting', or "shooting an interview". When quizzed further about their "assignments", my coworkers try to keep a straight face when they tell me they were interviewing "ski patrol on mount Jupiter" which really means they were out enjoying the greatest snow on earth. As today is the last powder day of the season, I am thinking about joining them. Park City received about 7 inches overnight, which is quite rare for the end of march. Endless winter indeed. Today I should be editing an interview i did with Anberlin Last week, but Something has come up. I now have a "meeting" with a mister "jupiter". :-p

Can You Handle The Pressure?

On Saturday Feb 10th, I Shadowed an Elvis (instant replay) Operator at the Utah Jazz game at the Energy Solutions arena (used to be the delta center) I have always wanted to watch from behind the scenes, and I finally got my chance. It was an eye-opening experience. My head was spinning with all of the information I was trying to absorb. It was quite a trip. I don't think I will ever be able to watch a Jazz came the same way ever again. It was amazing to watch the Director, Travis Henderson. He was cool under fire and has such passion for the game. Even with everything that was going on, he still had time to say "Wow!" or "Oh Man!" when Memo hit a big shot or someone had a hard foul. If I can be half that good in my career, I will be happy. It was kind of depressing to come back to my control room with my 3 interns and see just how much I still have to learn. I hope to go back soon and learn more about Directing live television.

Sensationalsim At It's Finest

Seeing as it's been almost a year since I started this blog, I thought I might try this whole thing again. I guess it takes a state/national tragedy to spur me into writing more. What will prolly be known as the "Trolley Square Shootings" happened last night, and Brandi and I had just sat down to watch "Heroes". What happened has awful, but working in television I immediately began following the networks to see how each of the 4 were framing the story.It was interesting to see who of the big 4 stations decided to preempt their programming. Fox Did not Preempt "24" but everyone else broke into their shows to give us live shots of the news orgy that was Trolley square that night. Gosh it was insane. KSL alone had 4 crews there, and yet they only devoted their block A of the 10:oo news to the story. I think KUTV devoted almost their Entire newscast to it. I thought KTVX was particularly sensationalistic in their interviewing the witnesses. What bothered me the most was that none of the media outlets had a clue about what was going on, and virtually all of them ran wild with speculation. "I hate to speculate but.." "I certainly have no evidence to back this up, but..." It was ridiculous. In spite of the horror of what happened, I still had to laugh when Sandra Yi (Reporter for KSL) Walked right into the shot of some KUTV videographer, who did his best to get her out of the shot. I wonder how many reporters ended up inadvertently in another networks shot in the chaos. Anyway, It's A fine line between giving a story the coverage it deserves and crossing that line into sensationalism, and I think some of the networks crossed that line that night.

Joining the digital Revolution

Wow. I finally decided to do it. Start My own blog. I doubt anyone would want to listen to what I have to say, but I guess it would be fun. who knows why. I heard this thing on the radio the other day about poeple who ask thier friends about their life, and then thier friends would get all huffy and say "Didn't you read my blog?!!" I decided right there that i wanted to get all huffy with my friends too. J/k. I guess we all want to feel like the center of the universe. This is my way of doing it!