Perhaps you’ve read the resignation email sent this week by a photographer at West Palm Beach CBS affiliate WPEC. Vince Norman didn’t last three months on the job, informing the bosses that “I have reached the limit of what I’m willing to put up with.” My word. What did they do to him?
Here are the inhumane conditions this poor kid was subjected to, as he described in his email:
Unfortunately, talent and creativity aren’t enough to run a successful news operation, without adequate support from a technical and logistical standpoint.
AdvertisementToo often in the three weeks I’ve been in the field, WPEC has consistently failed to provide these two critical points.
Whether it was the third day of my employment, working a double with no gear, using a mostly destroyed camera to attempt (and fail) two live shots using a liveU; or simply being run all over creation due to the complete lack of situational awareness demonstrated by the assignment desk; I have reached the limit of what I’m willing to put up with.
These complaints will come as shocking to anyone who works in local television today. The desk running a photog “all over creation”, you say? The new guy getting a lousy set of gear? Two–two–failed LiveU shots? I’m surprised he was able to stick it out as long as he did.
But as I sat down to light a candle for Vince Norman, I reflected on a few other things he might have wanted to add to his letter. Perhaps you have one or two of your own:
- I worked in the field on Election Night and you guys only ordered pizza for the newsroom. How was I expected to eat that?
- On more than one occasion, the live truck was left with less than a quarter of a tank of gas by the night crew.
- Just last week, I was scheduled to work a night shift followed by a morning shift. When, pray tell, am I expected to get a decent night’s sleep? Is anyone even thinking about this?
- Not to harp on food, but when the zoo sent over those cookies for the newsroom (of which I believe I am a part) APs and even SALES PEOPLE were permitted to take cookies (I have heard an editor went back for THIRDS) while NO COOKIES WERE SET ASIDE FOR PHOTOGS WHO HAD SIX P-M LIVESHOTS.
I was given a take home vehicle, but it is not one of the newer SUVs, but rather an older, (honestly, pretty ratty inside and out) RAV4. Am I really expected to drive this in public?
- I shot lightning video from my backyard the other day and never received a thank you.
- Why does the assignment desk keep calling MY PHONE looking for the reporter I’m working with? DON’T THEY KNOW THE REPORTER’S CELL PHONE NUMBER? I mean, you make me feel like I’m the reporter’s assistant. It’s rude and I won’t tolerate it.
- Look, my schedule is dayside, 9-6. How, please explain to me, am I expected to do a liveshot in CALHOUN COUNTY at 6 o’clock if my day ends at 6? (This has happened on MORE THAN ONE occasion)
- I hate to bring it back to food again, but am I not entitled to an hour to eat lunch? Because some of these news stories are interfering with that, and I’m not sure any of the managers even care.
- I’m sure you are aware that the photogs at this station are not provided with desks. So please, for the sake of decency, if I am sitting at a desk in sports, I am not HIDING FROM YOU. I have merely chosen a place to sit that is out of the line of sight of the assignment desk.
- The job posting for my photog position read, in part: We are an NPPA member shop that thrives on creative storytelling and aggressively winning breaking news and weather coverage. So why, please explain, was my 2:40 shooter’s piece on the beach cleanup effort last Saturday cut down to a twenty second VO?