A Note From Inside the Newsroom

Over the week, FTVLive has gotten a lot of emails from you guys, just sharing your thoughts on what we are all going through.

I want to start sharing some of these emails because you might be thinking the same way, or maybe it will get you to see this differently.

This is the first one of what I will be calling “The Inbox.”

“I’ve been thinking a lot about what you wrote a few days ago “we are writing the first draft of history”. We are.

But I’m watching and reading many of my colleagues complaining nonstop.

Yes. This is dangerous. Yes. Precautions have to be taken. But I honestly think everyone is doing the best they can.

I can’t help but think about the correspondents in the Vietnam war and what they went through to write that first draft of history. Maybe you can post a picture of one to remind everyone.

This attitude of “there’s not enough Purell in the editing bay” needs some perspective.

Perhaps this moment in journalism will separate the journalists from the “I just thought it would be cool to work in tv or be on tv” crowd. The ones who take selfies at crime scenes.

Maybe we will be left with true journalists after that. I think my managers are doing the best they can. This is new for them too. I don’t need a memo from corporate to tell me to wash my hands.

When there’s info I need to know I’m sure they’ll tell me

What I need to focus on is how I can help write this story and help our audience. Remember when that was important?

By the way, I’m 29 years old and I’m going to leave my station in the next few months. Not because of how they’ve handled this but because it’s a Tegna station and they abandoned journalism long before this happened.

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