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Orlando journalist killed

Fair enough. There is something to be said for staking out your spot. I just don't see the purpose of a live shot 15 hours beforehand.
 
Well, two things:

1) Depends very much on the story. Is there something happening there that morning? If there is, the reporter needs to be there and it makes more sense to get there early than in the middle of the morning show. Plus, whatever the reporter is covering, they need to be *somewhere,* and in the newsroom is a terrible option -- particularly for a morning show.

2) You can call it many things, but getting to a scene, getting a live shot up, getting it lit and on the air ain't lazy. It's a big early pain in the ash.
First job in media post-university was at a small-market television station. I was the only reporter who expressed an interest to the station's chief engineer about how the live truck actually worked. Among other things, he showed me how to set the truck up.

What did station management do? It started sending me out on live shots ... by myself or, on occasion, with a clueless intern. Talk about some on-air disasters! One instance was far from the worst, but the control room once failed to run cover video and viewers got 45 seconds to a minute of me looking down reading my copy. Now that I think of it, the worst was probably when a new bridge was ready to open across a major American river. I'm set up in the middle of the bridge, the anchor throws to me as a wind gust blew the tripod and camera over.

There wasn't much I could do about it. I was in front of the camera. Live television can humble a person real fast.

RIP Mr. Lyons. Sympathies to his family and colleagues.
 
Fair enough. There is something to be said for staking out your spot. I just don't see the purpose of a live shot 15 hours beforehand.
I get where you're coming from to a certain extent. I could be wrong, but it seems more prevalent in sports coverage. Say, a live shot outside Lambeau Field the morning before a game that night.
 
I get where you're coming from to a certain extent. I could be wrong, but it seems more prevalent in sports coverage. Say, a live shot outside Lambeau Field the morning before a game that night.

That's more of what I was talking about.
 
TV stations often do something called "look live." It is taped before the newscast and can avoid being out there late, especially in a bad neighborhood.
 

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