Handing the Mic to the Grim Reaper

A Florida Attorney is dressing up as the Grim Reaper and going around to different locations to try and tell people to stay inside during the coronavirus pandemic.

On Friday he was at Ft. Walton Beach and while doing a live shot, WMBB Reporter Faith Graham handed the mic to the attorney and let him take over the liveshot.

First off, Journalism 101 says you never hand someone the microphone while going live. Surely I don’t think handing the mic to the Grim Reaper is wise.

Does the Nexstar station not have a boom mic that they could have used.

When FTVLive posted the story on Friday, we heard from a number of news people, including managers at Nexstar stations that thought this live shot was not a good look for the Reporter or the station.

But, WMBB News Director Tom Lewis was ecstatic with the live shot and all the attention his station was getting.

In fact, he sent an email out to all the other Nexstar stations about his Grim Reaper story and said that even CNN was interested in the story.

I have some news for Mr. Lewis, if you’re using CNN as the journalism bar for news, the Grim Reaper isn’t your only problem.

Here’s the internal email that Lewis sent out as an alert to the Nexstar stations:

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