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Thursday, October 23, 2014

When you’re reporting & you have no idea what you are about to say

We use a teleprompter in television, everyone knows that. That doesn't mean we don’t pre-read our copy ahead of time. It’s helpful to know which words to stress and make sure you give the story the proper ‘read.’


Last night I was casually walking into the studio 10 minutes before I needed to be there. Suddenly, the floor crew was ushering me up to our big monitor to be live reading a short tease of my upcoming story. (Teases are written by the show producer, not usually by the reporter.)

I'd never read the copy. As I started reading the tease live on TV, I had no idea what words were going to be across the teleprompter. Granted I didn't have to read much and I knew the topic, but it was still a bit uncomfortable.

You can see where I didn't quite stress "over budget" the right way. That's because I didn't see the word coming early enough to realize that.

Some viewers have told me they enjoy hearing what happens behind the scenes so I thought I'd share this. It was, in the end, not a big deal. Many people have tougher jobs and I love mine. I'm not complaining, just sharing what I hope people at home didn't realize.

You can watch the actual story here: http://www.click2houston.com/news/investigates/more-contractors-say-they-havent-been-paid-for-huge-government-project/29288032