The MMJ Life...
/
Former Cleveland Anchor Neeha Curtis asked for MMJ’s to share some of their experiences in the field for a podcast that she was producing.
She took many of the responses and put that in a blog post.
Here are some of those:
“I once had to knock on a pedophile’s door for an interview on the charges as an MMJ in my first market. Totally alone. No thought given from management on how bad that was. How many of us have stories just like that?”
“I got sent to knock on the door of a woman who was CLEARLY in a mental health crisis who had FORTIFIED her basement and built an arsenal — she had convinced herself and her teenage son that they were government agents.And they also sent me to meet with someone who was arrested for making terroristic threats for making a video threatening people and showing off his automatic rifles. “
“I was in my first market in Nebraska working evenings as an MMJ and weekend producing. After our 10 o’clock show I was working on my web script getting ready to leave when my evening producer sent me to a weather related accident on the highway. A semi jackknifed and rolled over because of the icy roads. The driver was in critical condition. The producer asked me to go get VO.
I drove as safely as possible to the wreck and grabbed some b-roll on the side of the highway.
When I got back in the car and merged back on to the highway my car spun out of control on the icy road, fortunately missing other cars and I slid on to the embankment.
I was panicked, upset, crying when I got back to our station. I was so angry that I was put at risk for a morning VO.
I told my producer don’t you EVER again send me to a weather related accident by myself again. And he never did.”
“One month into working at a new station in a new state, I was sent alone to a wildfire 90 min away in a city I’d never been. When I got there, I was asked to go live immediately. Next thing I know, flames are on all sides of me and firefighters told me to get out of there. Smoke was coming from the wheels of the station vehicle I had parked. Fire crews gave me a mask and hat to prevent embers from landing in my hair. I reported live for 8 hours and had to drive back home around 6 am, at which I point I was nearly falling asleep at the wheel.”
“I was given permission to go on a shoot that was way out of area for us, but the story was relevant to our DMA. I really wanted to do it because I had pitched it, but they wouldn’t allow me to stay overnight before driving back because it was too expensive. I had started my day around 7 am and didn’t get home until well after midnight. I fell asleep at the wheel several times. I’m lucky I didn’t wreck. I’m not sure I was given OT either.”
