Raw, but c*nsored blabbing and blogging of a young journalista
and local news producer in Southern New England.
email topstorylive % at # gmail + dot = com

Saturday, April 30, 2005

Eyewitness Account

This was just a little before two in the morning on 95 southbound; a stretch of the highway just below the Providence Public Safety Complex, between exits 19 and 20.

At first I smelled smoke and thought there was a fire going on. I looked ahead of me and saw in the air an enormous cloud of haze. Suddenly I realized that there was something below the hazy cloud, and that's when I saw it at first.

A dark bluish-colored Ford or Mercury station wagon was straddling the two right lanes. From the car a figure in all black dashed like lightning -- leaping -- towards the median between the two halves of the highway, darting between cars. By that point I was pulling up in front of the disabled wagon and noticed a human on the ground next to it, on the right side of the car.

This man turned out to be a black man, about 5'8" or 5'9", perhaps 175 pounds. Though my windows were closed and I was still several meters away I could hear him screaming for help as he lay on the tiny bits of shattered glass.

One, then two, then three, maybe four cars stopped next to me, pulled properly off to the right side of the road. Young women in their 20s immediately got out and tried to help the man. A car or two of a man dressed in a suit but without a tie, and a young man and another older woman all stopped after the disabled car and were among those assisting.

I sat in my car and just stood there watching for several minutes. I turned on my blinkers and decided I had, or I could, just stay there and block traffic. Hoping, of course, that I didn't get hit in my own right, idiot.

I called 911. It took several rings to answer. I said to myself why is it taking so long? Of course I wasn't the only one who would be calling about this. When a call taker picked up I was asked if it was a fire, police or medical emergency. "Medical, I guess," I said. "I'm on 95 southbound in Providence, Rhode Island," not knowing if my 617 area coded cell phone would go to another state even in these enlightened times, "and I'm between exit 19 and 20..."

I was told that crews were on the way there and we both rang off.

Then I called the station of course. As I was describing it I could hear in the background the scanners talking about it. The producer on the desk said she had heard of a rollover at the Thurbers Avenue curve, but this couldn't be it, I said.

Stringers were out and would be on scene shooting within minutes. I tried to do a "memory dump" down the phone and describe the scene but it didn't quite work. I said goodbye and hung up.

Before me the random eyewitnesses had inquired of the man's health and figured out they needed to move him out of the road. In a group they picked him up and moved him off into the breakdown lane. I said to myself, half to them, "I wouldn't move him! He might have broken bones....!"

After a minute fire trucks started coming down the highway behind me. I pulled off a little ways but continued to stay in a position where I would be blocking the scene in front of me.

Firefighters started to get out of the trucks and survey the damage. Soon after an ambulance pulled up and EMTs came out and started working on the man.

I looked at the people surrounding the man, and looked at my car in the position it was in -- unscathed -- and worried I might be looked at as a potential witness -- or perpetrator. I couldn't just pull off and leave! I'd better get out and do something.

I turned off the engine, but then turned it back on again, and then realized I needed to turn the car off and leave it there. I don't even know if I locked the car.

I walked up to try to be helpful, but what do you do? I wasn't responsible. I didn't do anything to be helpful. All I could do was just kind of walk up, and look, and watch, and wait for someone to ask me a question.

That, of course, wasn't happening. Tall firefighters of every shape, size, experience, were milling about.

The victim, himself, was at least talking. Likely in shock. Delirious? "Miss, miss," he said, tugging at the pant leg of a woman who had been close to him, trying to help, one of the first responders -- or rather, eyewitnesses.

I asked one firefighter if it was a hit and run. He said they didn't know what happened. My guess is the victim could answer that question once he's in a position to.

The car itself was practically totalled. The whine of the car's horn had been resounding while the man screamed before me as I first pulled closer to the wagon and the one man flew across lanes of traffic. Now it was quieted. The rear driver's side wheel was totally off the car; if there ever was a tire on it, it was no longer there. The passenger side airbag deployed. Perhaps the impact was on the passenger's side of the front end.

Some firefighters had opened pails of some powdery material and were tossing it out on the gasoline and other fluids spilled over the highway.

Perhaps it was about this time that the EMTs picked the man up and put him on a backboard. I winced visibly; I could feel the unknown pain.

Then I looked up above the highway. As I stood feet from the group of crew members treating the man, unable or unwilling to get seriously involved, I saw the stringers: Mark Parsons facing Pawtucket and his cohorts; David Dicarlo and his ponytail next to his professional-looking camera on a tripod, and another figure. Looking, for some intents and purposes, like the Three Wise Men. But in reality far from it of course.

"Oh, God," I said out loud, dreadfully.

Only now did I make the connection.

At first I thought the car had been hit by another. But eventually I started wondering if it was a rollover somehow -- coming down from a street above? Or, now that I think about it, could it simply have been a violent turn in the middle of the highway that brought it on?

I asked one of the young women if she or anyone else had seen the figure running across the highway. Apparently, according to her, he had been connected or assisted or something like that. I suppose he filed a report, perhaps?

One firefighter with a handlebar mustache asked the young woman if she was involved in the accident. "No," she said, "we all just stopped once we saw it."

This same young woman had been treated at the scene for what might have been a minor cut from lifting the man. Or possibly just exposure to his blood. I saw a medical technician pouring some kind of liquid from a bottle onto her hand -- perhaps to simply wash it or sterilize it. Rubbing alcohol?

"You don't need to stay," said the firefighter with the handlebar mustache, trying to make her feel better.

By now the man on the backboard was on a stretcher and being loaded into the ambulance. Firefighters expecting more continued to mill about looking at debris in the road, the car's hood up, what was underneath the hood, how it had been affected.

Two other young women were now trying to figure out whose car was whose from their far-away vantage point. Well, if that's your car, maybe I can drive out by the edge, and that sort of thing.

"I'm in the green car," I volunteered. Finally a place where I could do something -- LEAVE!

Three or four of us moved back to our cars. Two firefighters came with us to stop traffic and let us in.

"Are you all set?" one man in the protective pants and blue shirt said through my closed window.

I think I nodded.

He and another fireman, who was also wearing the protective coat, put up their hands to the coming cars. I wanted to offer him my flashlight to use as a beacon. But I didn't. It was a cheap thing I could replace. It was also something that if they needed it they'd probably have it.

We moved back into traffic and slowly returned to the flow down the highway. I wasn't even sure I wanted to drive over the tiny flecks of broken glass for fear of killing my own tires.

I feel so guilty and scared, even though I didn't do anything; I had nothing to do with it.

It crossed my mind, I think, and maybe I said it out loud too: Why does this sort of thing always happen in Providence?

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/30/2005 03:20:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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1 DAY TO HITCH

The Hitchhiker's movie opens tomorrow. Got my towel ready.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/28/2005 01:59:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Wires on the web

DenverPost.com - BUSINESS:

The Associated Press will begin charging newspapers and broadcasters to post its stories, photos and other content online, a pricing shift that reflects the growing power of the Internet to lure audiences and advertisers from more established media.

Tom Curley, AP president and chief executive, announced the change Monday at the annual meeting of the news cooperative.

Most of the 15,000 news outlets that buy AP's news, sports, business and entertainment coverage have been allowed to "repurpose" the same material online at no extra cost since 1995. The new pricing policy, effective Jan. 1, begins to shift some of the funding of AP to the growing online market.

So what does this mean if you use AP wire copy as the basis for your on-air story but re-write it? Can you then post the on-air story on the Web?

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/22/2005 10:14:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Lying leaders and the desperate housewives journalists that follow them

Village Voice's Sydney H. Schanberg: "The press is now looking squarely at a perversion of government. The administration of George W. Bush has raised secrecy and information control to a level never before seen in Washington.

The falsehoods about weapons of mass destruction that gave the White House the public support to wage war in Iraq may be the most vivid example of the perversion, but the practice permeates all corners of the Bush government. "

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/22/2005 10:03:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Sponge Song

The sponge no longer means only the guy in the square pants.

New York Newsday: The sponge contraceptive is coming back, made famous at its removal from the market by "Seinfeld."

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/22/2005 08:23:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Balance sheet

After many varied confusing and slightly frustrating conditions, let's try linking to the long-awaited Northern New England Road Trip scorecard.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/20/2005 11:53:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Names on the radio

BostonHerald.com - Business: It's time to tune up radio's name game

So does this mean there is no more "Star 93.7"? Does that mean Coast 93.3 can take the name?... not that they would want to at this stage of the game.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/20/2005 06:02:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Pape, Papa, Popa, Pope, Father, Son and Great Caesar's Holy Ghost

Yeah, so they picked the new pope. Cardinal Ratzinger becomes Pope Benedict the 16th. Not hearing a lot of "Oh I like him" but not hearing a lot of "Oh, I hate him" either... Hopefully the gay bois and girls out there will start the loud wailing and gnashing of teeth so the rest of us can hear it....

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/19/2005 09:57:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Providence's latest huge, national story

Eyewitness News - Detective killed inside police headquarters shot by his own gun: "A Providence police detective killed early Sunday at police headquarters was shot with his own service weapon as he questioned a suspect, Police Chief Dean Esserman said.
James Allen, a 27-year veteran, was shot in the detective conference room early Sunday morning while questioning Esteban Caprio, 26, a possible suspect in a stabbing, Esserman said."

As news director Rick Blaine of Casablanca's KCAS-TV, "Americain News," might say, round up the usual resources. But in breaking news, nothing is usual, right?

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/17/2005 10:43:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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Developing Now in Providence

TopStoryLive operatives have observed marked police activity overnight in Providence.

-- Your local news outlets will have details in the morning on an incident that brought seemingly every Providence police officer on the streets back to the Public Safety Complex with all speed around midnight. It sounds like something happened inside the cop shop.

-- Later, about 1:00 in the morning, a TopStoryLive operative saw Providence's famed artist space/band venue AS220 cleared out.
A bystander told TopStoryLive, "Nobody.... really... knows what's going on."
It appeared that police had ordered everybody out of the venue, some 20 people.
TopStoryLive could see a police officer and club employee working at a cash register near the window, then the officer moving quickly to the sink and the club employee madly grabbing napkins, while another bystander exclaimed "He [the police officer]'s washing his hands!" and another said parts of the scene reminded him of the CBS show C.S.I.
Providence Police cars lined the block of Empire Street where AS220 is.
A Rhode Island State Police cruiser appeared to be assisting.
UPSHOT: It's unclear if this is a hazardous materials situation.

-- Another TopStoryLive operative saw about the same time the street shut down on Washington in the area a block away from The Strand nightclub, away from the center of town. Police officers were combing the scene, and had an SUV stopped in the middle of an intersection, its hatchback open, crime scene tape across Washington, blocking both directions, and extending up the street towards the club. Nobody was able to offer any information, but one officer in the middle of the scene, near the SUV yelled to his colleagues, "We're almost done! About five minutes more!"
UPSHOT: It's unclear if this was a bust or arrest.

Also watch later this morning for a story in Fall River.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/17/2005 02:37:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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Read my lips

A few weeks old, but still interesting: NY Daily News: ABC's 'Desperate' Measures

This will probably delay the DVD release. Reminds me of the Monty Python cartoon "The Black Spot" where somebody very crudely dubbed over the word "cancer" with "gangrene."

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/15/2005 02:24:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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My Profit Margin

NPR : Perception and Reality: The Business of Media by NPR's David Folkenflik:

...former Sinclair Washington bureau chief Jon Leiberman recently had to return $1,000 in unemployment benefits to the state of Maryland. ...

Sinclair then held Leiberman to contractual language that blocked him from seeking a job at any television stations in the 39 markets where it has operations.

Out of work, and hampered from finding work elsewhere, Leiberman accordingly applied for unemployment benefits. And he got it -- until Sinclair challenged his right to get them. The company's challenge was successful, and Leiberman had to return the benefits he'd received.

Sinclair gave Broadcasting and Cable a report by the Maryland Department of Labor. The agency found the reporter's conduct "was either a deliberate and willful disregard of the standards of behavior which the employer has the right to expect" or "a series of repeated violations of employment rules" with a "wanton disregard' of his obligations to Sinclair.

Folkenflik also talks about CNN Newsource's practices of selling bandwidth to VNR clients.

Later, he notes that print media has typically a 20 to 30 percent profit margin. Knowing what I do about my business and my shop, I am DYING to know what the stations' profit margin is... on one newscast, on a year of broadcasting, whatever. Perhaps I should calculate my own personal profit margin.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/15/2005 01:44:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Developing News: You No Longer Is My Man, Law-Wise

AP/KATU: (Thursday) Court Voids Same-Sex Marriage Licenses from Multnomah County (which John DeLuca pronounced MULT-UH-NOM-UH... that's an extra syllable, there, cowboy.)

AP/KATU: (Friday) Legislature Next Arena for Gay Marriage Fight

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/15/2005 12:47:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Mountain Go Boom

Why do we like things that blow up? Why does it make us feel better about laughing when we hear laughter?

The NY Daily News's David Hinckley reports "The Infinite Mind" knows.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/15/2005 12:41:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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OnVac: Heading Home

Honestly, I'm getting ready to just attack these men who still have 1978 mustaches with a razor. IT'S 2005!!

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/12/2005 02:39:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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OnVac: Heading Home

Strollers need to be banned from all shopping malls, NOW.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/12/2005 02:22:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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OnVac: Heading Home

BTW, forgot to tell you I was on my way home. Full articles & balance sheet to come.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/12/2005 01:51:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Peabody, MA

(bandwidth courtesy Hampton Inn by Hilton of Peabody/Lynnfield, MA)

Apologies to regular readers of TopStoryLive who are following the Northern New England Tour. We are currently experiencing a break in transmission due to circumstances beyond our control and operating difficulties with Producer Bill's vacation. We hope to resume transmission soon.

Please stand by.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/11/2005 09:43:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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OnVac: Ogunquit ME

Okay. I have to say something. I know it's a bar. But $3.50 for a bottle of water? And this is Poland Spring!

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/09/2005 11:10:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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OnVac: Ogunquit ME

Okay, it feels like going from 18-plus nite in Manch to Sat nite @Maine Street, skewing older--two extremes?

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/09/2005 10:54:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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OnVac: Manchester NH

To date, about $320 spent on trip. Rest of Sat, Sun & Mon still to go.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/09/2005 12:26:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Morning in Manchester (On Vac: Manchester, NH)

(entry bandwidth courtesy of Fairfield Inn by Marriott)

Okay, consider me SO GLAD to be not working this week. The Pope's funeral Friday, and then the Royal Wedding today. BLAH!

Of course, since this is Manchester, saw a bit of Today in New England this morning with Phil Lipof and Juli Auclair. But they had an Operating Difficulty that was right out of my shop's playbook.

End of the A-block at 9:00. Supposed to throw to a Pope Funeral Wrap package from Jeff Glor on assignment at the Vatican with a "Funeral for the Father" open. However, a "map animation" rolled late.

And then stayed on screen. For an interminable several seconds (interminable by 7 News standards). Anchors said nothing in VO.

And then the break was rolled.

AAAAGH!

Then of course in classic 7 News fashion they didn't make any mention of the technical problem whatsoever but came back from break with the "Funeral for the Father" open and threw to the package... which apparently had been found by now.

Any one of a number of things could have happened but I consider it a REALLY bad move to just act randomly like that, especially with no explanation.

Which of course brings me to another point that I had... for WMUR.

Last night I had the privilege to see some of their coverage of the local Arena Football team... and at one point the on-air talent mentioned that there was a problem getting the message to the referees that they were taking so-called "TV timeouts" -- and presumably the referees were continuing the game during the commercial, which you're not supposed to do.

Originally I said, what does the viewer care? And now I realize that it fits the criterion: there is only need to explain or go into detail when something is impeding the viewer from getting the information he (OR SHE, Patrick) wants.

And incidentally Camilla Parker Bowles-Windsor's hat is hideous. Two Old Gits To Get Hitched, indeed.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/09/2005 10:58:00 AM ... Email this entry ...
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OnVac: Manchester, NH

(entered after the fact because of SMS difficulties; bandwidth courtesy of Fairfield Inn by Marriott)

Merlot, Stoli Raz'n'Sprite, & Corona... Feelin' fine.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/08/2005 11:59:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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OnVac: Manchester NH

This is the cleanest, largest, most brightly lit club bathroom i've ever been in.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/08/2005 11:36:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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OnVac: Manchester NH

Yeah, it's only 10:22 and Club 313 is not even half-full. Very "off the streets" youth club feel.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/08/2005 10:24:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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OnVac: Bennington, VT

(entered after the fact, bandwidth courtesy of Fairfield Inn by Marriott, Manchester, NH)

I'm in town [Bennington] for 5 minutes and already see 2 hot gay bois--at Subway. Bennington College?

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/07/2005 11:59:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Northern New England Tour!

So finally I am getting the heck out of Dodge for this week's vacation. I decided I wanted to see some of the other New England states I hadn't seen yet.

Thursday Night: Bennington, VT
Going north to Burlington or anything more interesting would have taken way too long, so I'll go see the fort and try and look across three states: VT, MA and NY.

Friday Night: Manchester, NH
I'm told by the boi who went to college in NH that Manch. is very gay-friendly.

Saturday (or Sunday) Night: Ogunquit, ME (pron. UH-GUN-KWIT according to Patches)
Supposedly another Provincetown. So why is it the Northwest has no coastal havens that have been largely invaded by the queer population?

With a quick sojourn down to Boston for an evening to see the newest faces of The Oriana Consort.

I'll try and bring you tales along the way via 10-cents-an-entry SMS. (And it sounds like I really shouldn't bother getting a BlackBerry... I should just find places to connect to the Web on the road if I want to post a lot.)

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/07/2005 01:58:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Go f*ck a dead duck!

EducationGuardian.co.uk | higher news | Necrophilia among ducks ruffles research feathers: "The strange case of the homosexual necrophiliac duck pushed out the boundaries of knowledge in a rather improbable way when it was recorded by Dutch researcher Kees Moeliker.

It may have ruffled a few feathers, but it earned him the coveted Ig Nobel prize for biology awarded for improbable research, and next week he will be recounting his findings to UK audiences on the Ig Nobel tour. "

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/07/2005 01:00:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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FOI In Trouble (Sunshine Week)

I'm still concerned about RTNDA's coming out about the need for a return to better FREEDOM OF INFORMATION in the U.S. government. So, here's another link -- this time official -- to RTNDA's Sunshine Week materials from March '05.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/04/2005 10:09:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Remember, never talk to muffin trees, kids!

The Muffin Tree

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/04/2005 08:42:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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How morning shows are different from news shows

AP wires from My Way News: "Network morning show anchors, most notably Katie Couric and Matt Lauer on NBC, have greater prominence now than ever, due largely to changing lifestyles that make them the national news source of choice for many more Americans."

I guess it's kind of sad that people are getting their news from morning shows rather than straight news shows. I mean, are they?

Patrick, whom some of my regular readers are starting to get to know in these pages, gave me a rant the other day about some boneheaded question(s) that Matt Lauer gave some interview subject and I tried to explain that morning shows (these days) are more directed towards getting a specific reaction or answer out of interview subjects. He couldn't believe a "news show" was doing some of the things he was seeing... And as always, I can understand the viewer's indignance. However, I am starting to believe there is a difference between certain things.

A newscast or "news show", to me, is a straight report of "what is happening in the world today."

But a show, or programming block, that is based primarily around live or live-to-tape interviews is something different; even though it may be a news MAKER, it's still talk show. And one seems to think that one has to produce a reason to watch to get all sorts of viewers in the tent.

So much of MSNBC, CNN, FOX NEWS CHANNEL, HEADLINE NEWS and some of the morning shows are based around live interviews, primarily because you seem to need to have something different to watch other than news stories. Just putting together shows full of VOs and packages isn't enough, apparently, for news viewers. Hmph. Why? I don't like that.

Then again, what if we just put on the raw interviews before they're edited down into the packages or other condensed materials? Would that be worth anything? Would that have any "news value"? Would it still be "news"?

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/04/2005 01:32:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Okay, you have a point, and News shows vs. live interview shows :: DELETED

[DELETED] Due to posting confusion this entry duplicated a later entry. Please see this entry at this link.

(I decided not to delete this entry outright in the interest of giving things some kind of cohesion.)

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/04/2005 12:56:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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Karol is crashing Blogger and the blogging world!

I'm convinced every blogger in the world is heading to their keyboards at this hour (3:45 PM EST Saturday 4/2/05) to blog the Pope being dead... and therefore the blogosphere is going nuts in spades.

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/02/2005 03:44:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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THE POPE IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE POPE!

Dude, we've been talking about him for so long he might as well be a king.

AOL alerted me to breaking news at approximately 3:13 PM EST.

News Affiliates are hereby advised to go to network immediately
Repeating:
News Affiliates are hereby advised to go to network immediately

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/02/2005 03:42:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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THE POPE IS DEAD! LONG LIVE THE POPE!

Dude, we've been talking about him for so long he might as well be a king.

AOL alerted me to breaking news at approximately 3:13 PM EST.

News Affiliates are hereby advised to go to network immediately
Repeating:
News Affiliates are hereby advised to go to network immediately

Labels: Originally published

... Scribbled by Bill T ... 4/02/2005 03:14:00 PM ... Email this entry ...
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