Stop Being Awed and Do Your Job

Back in the day (God I feel old saying that) I remember working in local TV and covering some big stories in which the network would send a news crew to town. 

You would end up working side by side with a crew from one of the networks and in your mind, it was just one more crew to get in your way while you covered the story.

I never remember a single person from my station or the other station going all gaga because the network was in town. We had a job to do and we did the job. 

But now we live in a world of "Journalists" being supposed "celebrities" and you just HAVE to take a selfie. 

KOAT (Albuquerque) Reporter Kay Dimanche was covering a story of  5 people arrested for 11 counts of child abuse at a compound in New Mexico.

A very sad story to say the least. 

But, for Dimanche, it was good news that she was wearing her "lucky dress" because despite the fact that these kids were abused, she got to meet ABC's Gio Benitez. 

Oh Boy! 

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When I first started in TV news, I was given the advice to never be "awed by the players" and just do your job. 

In other words, whether you were interviewing Micheal Jordan or the President of the United States (back when that person was respected) you just treated it like any other story and do you job.  

And that is exactly how I handled the job and that is my advice to the Journalists coming up today. 

Do you want to swoon over Gio Benitez or work your ass off so you can replace Gio Benitez at ABC? 

Also, for those kids that were abused, I'm thinking that your dress might not have been so lucky.

Just saying...