communication. community. cognition.
Where there is smoke, there is breaking news
Whether you know what it is or not.
(More from the mcarp archives… the prophetic genius and brilliance are his;
the ones/zeros, pixels, pictures and subheads and pull-quotes are mine.)
It was seven or eight minutes to air, and a thick tower of black smoke had just plumed high above the east side of the city. We could see it from a camera, installed in our transmission tower, 600 feet up.
“That’s our new lead,” the producer announced. “Just ad lib something off the top. We’ll roll the breaking news animation, and then take the tower camera live.”
“What’s burning?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” he replied.
“Is the fire department there yet?”
“I don’t know.”
“Ambulances? Anybody hurt?”
“I don’t know.”
“Has anyone here called the fire department?”
“I don’t know.”
“Police?”
“I don’t know.”
“Okay,” I replied, somewhat confused. “What am I supposed to say about it?”
He looked at me and shrugged. “We’ll just have to go with what we know.”
(originally published by Michael Carpenter, republished with permission.)
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