THERE, BUT FOR THE GRACE OF GOD...

There are times when I miss the news industry, and other times when I don't. Consider the case of the following story from Cleveland then join me below...



This link was forwarded to me with the hopes I could use my news expertise to determine if this was a real story or some sort of parody. After careful inspection, I'm sad to report that this story is almost certainly the genuine article.

In this reporter's defense, he was given an almost impossible task. He's working in a visual medium and he has to do a story about a bear. But there aren't any pictures of a bear. This creates all sorts of problems if you're a television news reporter.

But the solution to this problem may well be worse than the problem itself. Prancing across the woods holding a cardboard cutout of a bear? Really? And that rabbit head is wrong no matter what story you're covering... even if it's a story about rabbit costumes.

Working under deadline pressure, a reporter can say and do a lot of things that may be regretted later. Heaven knows I turned in a couple of stories that will hopefully never find their way onto YouTube. That's one of the hazards of the job, everyone gets to see you fail.

Whoever posted this story to YouTube included a note that said some disparaging things about the story, and not without reason. But the post of this video online looks like an inside job. The version posted above isn't exactly what you'd see on TV. You'll notice there was a long silence at the beginning and 15 seconds of what's called "pad" at the end. There also weren't any graphics in the story. The CGs are added during the live broadcast to keep the video in the story pristine if you have to use it another day. (Click here to see what the story looked like when it actually aired.)

The version posted here is what the story looks like when it's turned in by the reporter. That means the video was likely posted to YouTube by someone who worked at the station where this story aired. That's cold.

I'm glad the people I used to work with would never do a thing like that. Right?