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Yesterday, FTVLive told you how still green WFMY Reporter Arielle Cadet was quitting the business after less than 4 years.
She wrote in a social media post as to why she was quitting TV news, “The hours are long and hard, people can be unkind and the stories can take a toll on your mental health.”
FTVLive gave our thoughts and a number of you guys also weighed in. We thought we would share a couple.
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Scott,
Not sure how I feel about this transition of Arielle Cadet, but I agree with you that she should have known the news business is not all about making life long friendships (cause you don't) and rainbows.
I got my start in 1988 when it was still considered a great time in the business. Salaries were big, newscasts were few and the work/life balance was in check. In fact you wanted to be at work so you wouldn't miss a beat.
Even back then while I was at school I was told by professors early on I would have to work all holidays, weekends, nights, early mornings. Basically the shifts no one wants to work today. Our station is having a real tough time finding younger talent both on and off camera willing to work those shifts.
Then while I was interning at my first station reporters and anchors would tell me to run in the other direction and forget about the business, telling me the sacrifice was too much. Of course I didn't listen to them. I was already in the business and I saw what I was in for. I worked long days, weekends and holidays and eventually came out on the other side with a decent work life balance.
I'm not buying she had no idea what would go into a career in broadcasting. Yes, people aren't kind, you have to knock on a lot of doors not knowing what's on the other side, but that's what it is. We don't need YouTube "stars" or influencers stepping up to the plate.
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Scott,
I agree with you 100% on Mizzou. The school has really gone downhill in the last decade.
Also, I don’t know if you remember, but it was Mizzou that gave us Austin Walker.
Enough said.
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Schooling can only teach so much. Many new “journalists” feel they are deserving without the experience to back it up. A positive attitude, a desire to grow and ambition are traits that many of the newer reporters don’t have. It’s disheartening to witness.
Email:
I worked with many "fine" Mizzou grads and also bumped into a number of them at several conventions. I'm sure there are some good eggs out there but many of those I encountered were gems.
When working with the Mizzou grads - usually it was "oh, where did you work before?" or "what stories did you do in the past?" etc etc - and even at the network level the response was always "well, I went to Mizzou."
Okay,,,,and???
Needless to say, when Mizzou hires came my way, it took months to bring them up to speed while many *interns* caught on from day one.
And one time I worked with an anchor fresh out of Mizzou - filled in as a producer for her when the usual newscast producer fell ill in the midst of a show. The directions were simple - "hey, out of traffic we come to you on a two shot and we toss to weather."
So, coming out of traffic which was a mess because of a torrential downpour - we come to the 2 shot and the anchor freezes and the other one had to jump in after an awkward silence.
She said she didn't know how to toss to weather because she wasn't told what to say.
Gosh, I dunno, but if there's some guy doing the weather who is 6 ft 5 inches tall and built like a linebacker who has been talking about heavy rain for the past 3 hours standing directly to my right - I've no idea what i would say to the guy either, in a top 25 market.
And at the conventions, it always appeared the Mizzou crowd liked to just be a clique and let everyone know they were a clique. They were there to be seen and that's about it - you never saw them participate in any of the panel discussions or the sessions - but they were certainly visible anytime food and drink were served, even in greater numbers when it was free - telling you just how awesome they all are with little to no credence to back it up.
So it shocked me not when you made your first posting on FTVLive about Austin Walker's "look at me" online posts and I looked up to find that sure enough, he was a Mizzou grad.
