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I just finished writing a heartbreaking story.  On Monday morning, 22 year-old Dustin Estepp of Duffield, Virginia, stopped to help an accident victim along Interstate 81 in Smyth County.  As he was trying to help, a passing truck forced him to jump over what he thought was a guardrail.  It was not a guardrail.  Instead it was a 50 foot bridge.  Although the accident victim escaped with just minor injuries, Estepp died.

His death forced Photojournalist Shawn Davis and I to approach this story differently tonight.  Often times, we don’t second guess standing on the shoulder of a busy highway to shoot video.  Tonight, we didn’t take any chances.  There’s always the thought that something bad could happen, but Estepp’s death is a reminder that you never can expect anything.

I wonder if his story forces others to change their ways too.

Posted by Nate Morabito

News Channel 11’s news manager muses about viewer phone calls

From the News Director’s desk:

It’s been a long day, one in which the small voice of a woman I’ve spoken with several times has interrupted projects and thought processes.  I want to know that she’s ok, to know she didn’t do what she threatened to, and to know she’ll one day realize I’m not the horrible person she’s convinced I am.

She is connected to a story we aired some time ago – details of who did what and when aren’t important to the overall point of this rambling.  What matters is that she believes our story ruined her life.  And she wants me to know it.

This woman calls every few months, asking if I remember her and wanting to talk about the story again.  For the record, she’s upset we reported on the criminal actions of one of her relatives and the effect the arrest and prosecution ultimately had on her.

She asked last time if I could sleep at night and challenged me to answer whether I go to church on Sunday.  She’s convinced where I’ll spend eternity and knows I must be an evil soul.  I can tell she’s hurting and still reeling from the events in her life over the past year or so.  I’m not given the opportunity to answer her questions – to attempt to do so only makes her more angry. 

It’s tough to be the person on the other line when someone’s convinced we’re the big bad media… even tougher to hear her wonder out loud if it’s worth even trying anymore.  Trouble is, we do think about how stories we cover affect people.  We talk out loud about whether our reports are fair and minimize harm.  I hate that she’s suffering the impact of someone else’s arrest.  And I wish I could convince her that we didn’t create the criminal activity that led to the arrest, which to me seems like the real root of the issue.

That said, I know she wants to be heard and to blame someone other than the relative she loves.  I know it brings her some peace to convince herself we only reported the facts to ruin lives. I listen to keep her talking, hoping to turn the conversation to more positive things.  I allow her to call me names because it just might be the only way she can get through this.

By the end of the 30 minute conversation, she’s calmed down again and promises she’ll go on despite what we’ve done.  Before she hangs up she asks me to think about her sometimes, and promises I’ll hear from her again.

Tomorrow I’ll probably wonder if she’s ok again.  I’ll tell her in my head what I couldn’t tell her on the phone – that I try to do this job with integrity and compassion every day.  Her phone calls only remind me how important that mission is day in and day out.
Tomorrow, I’ll think about her again.

( Christine Riser is the News Director at News Channel 11, the manager responsible for oversight of news, weather and sports. )

Posted by Nik Brown

For my first blog, I thought I’d share the life of a nightside reporter after turning back the clocks.  Monday through Friday I work on stories for News Channel 11 Nightside.  So, it only makes sense that often times it is dark when I am gathering video and interviews.  However, for some stories, darkness makes the job difficult.

Here we are two days after Daylight Savings Time ended and photojournalist Shawn Davis and I are working on a story about a road project that is almost complete.  By Friday, Johnson City expects to re-open Knob Creek Road, more than a year after closing it for construction.  To put together a good story on this subject, we must show the viewers how the road looks now and talk with people about the improvements.

With us starting to film around 3:30 pm today, we only had two hours of daylight to shoot the story.  Today we raced the sun and won.  Consider us lucky.  If the sun had won, finding people to talk to would have been difficult, since most people are inside when it’s dark out.  Plus, at night, there’s not much to see.

So, as the sun sets and the moon rises over the next few months, keep an eye on our video during News Channel 11 Nightside.  Was it shot during the day or at night?  What you see should give you a good idea of just how efficient we were that night.

So far so good, Us 1, Mother Nature 0.

Posted by Nate Morabito