The Newspaper Advantage

Newspaper reporters have a lot of advantages over us TV folks. People will talk to a newspaper reporter, when they won't talk to us. It all boils down to the camera and the microphone.

I guess a notebook is a lot less scary than a big hunk of camera on a photographer's shoulder.

Many public and elected officials are the same. They will sometimes be much more accommodating to a newspaper reporter than they will with us. They will give them little bits of information that they suddenly won't share when our camera starts rolling.

This is a little confusing to me. When you talk on TV, your words and picture are on the screen for a few moments. Then those TV signals are gone and making their way out across space.
The newspaper on the other hand, is there for good. The reader can sit there and read over and over again the words you said. Example: In campaign commercials, the opponent always uses quotes from a newspaper to bash the other guy, seldcom television quotes.

Another example is courtrooms. Our camera (the tool we use to do our job) isn't allowed in courtrooms. But the newspaper reporter is allowed to carry his or her notebook into the courtroom. If we have to check our camera at the door, I think they should have to check their notebook at the door.

Actually, I don't believe that. My point is that there are no rules in courtrooms that prevent a newspaper reporter from doing his job to the fullest. Our jobs however are hindered. We work in a medium that lives by pictures and sound. Yet we are often times not allowed to use those tools.

Just some rambling thoughts today.