Monthly Archives: June 2016

This article from watchdog journalist Bill Lueders of the Wisconsin Center For Investigative Journalism details and documents several examples of how some members of the state legislature routinely skirt open records laws.

Posted by Tim Morrissey

Tips, from of all things, the musical “Hamilton”. Read it here on Poynter.

Posted by Tim Morrissey

The new rules will allow drones for airborne newsgathering..but, there are some things you need to know. Here’s the latest from the RTDNA.

Posted by Tim Morrissey

Probably a lot fewer than we might have thought. Here’s a short column on how Google Trends work, and how reporters should (or should not) use them.

Posted by Tim Morrissey

Is your TV News Director making a hundred grand a year? A lot of them are…and some make a lot more. How are YOU doing? Well, here’s the latest RTDNA survey.

It was a decent year for TV news pay, and a good year for radio news pay.

Posted by Tim Morrissey

Looks like mid-August; here’s a brief article from RTDNA about the rules approved this week.

Posted by Tim Morrissey

At the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Summer Conference in La Crosse, Madison attorney Bob Dreps was given an award for his long service to the WBA. If you’ve ever called the WBA Legal Hotline, you’ve talked to Bob. Bob also helped write the many sections of the WBA Newsroom site that deal with the law as it applies to broadcasters in Wisconsin.

Posted by Tim Morrissey

The action is over, sometimes hours ago, but the producer wants you to do a live stand-up from the scene. Here are some really useful tips for reporters who face this situation, which happens frequently in every TV newsroom.

Posted by Tim Morrissey

Read about the GREAT stuff happening at the WBA Summer Conference here.

Posted by Tim Morrissey

It’s one of the worst clichés imaginable, yet you hear it just about every day: fled on foot. Absolutely no one says that except newscasters,  although cops are trained by lawyers to write it that way on police reports. It’s become part of the lexicon of the language known as “journalese”, along with chestnuts like “transported to a local hospital”, “high rate of speed” (speed IS a rate, expressed usually as miles/hour), and the universal police blotter story tag, “the incident remains under investigation”.

The theory is that young reporters, who’ve never used any of these horrid clichés, hear it from the anchors and veteran reporters at their station, and think they should write that way.

Many award-winner news writers say you should, in almost every case, write like regular folks speak.  Here are a few words  on the topic, from one of those award-winning professionals.

Posted by Tim Morrissey