The Kari AnnAlysis

Posts Tagged ‘News’

There was an earthquake yesterday, in case you’ve 1. been under a rock or 2. don’t live on the east coast. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me recap.

A 5.8 magnitude earthquake hit around 1:50 p.m. near Mineral, Virginia. Yeah, I don’t know where that is either, so let me explain. It’s about 35 miles from Richmond, Virginia, and 84 miles from Washington D.C.

Here’s a picture of it on the map that I got from the USGS website:

If you don’t know where I am, go to the left of the epicenter, to Charleston. I am about an hour northwest of there, near the little boot in Ohio (on the left) of West Virginia. I am about a 6 hour drive from Mineral, Virginia.

So what was I doing when the earthquake hit? I was sitting at my desk, tapping my foot and reading a story that I was editing for our website. The guy next to me asked if I felt something. I told him no and that I was shaking my leg and that is probably what he felt. We then got into a spat about my weight and how I couldn’t shake the whole area where we were sitting.

We were interrupted by a number of people rushing to the newsroom asking if anyone else felt the rumble. So, I immediately got on the USGS website (The only reason I know to do this is because in the past few years that I have worked at WSAZ, we had an earthquake in Ohio and a few very small ones in West Virginia. The USGS automatically updates their website when an earthquake is reported.) So, I got on the website and what did I find? A huge square over the area of Virginia where we would soon find, an earthquake hit. The larger the square, the bigger the earthquake.

So, you may be asking what happens after that in the newsroom? Well, chaos ensues The phones starting ringing almost instanly and didn’t stop until about an hour later. I always wish I would count how many calls we receive during breaking news situations like this, but always lose track. I would venture to say hundreds of people, from Ohio, WV and Kentucky (our coverage area) called to let us know they all felt the earthquake. It got to the point where we were answering and saying “WSAZ, did you feel the earthquake?” We put a story up on our website and within 10 minutes, had thousands of hits. Oh, we also sent a text message to our viewers that sign up for breaking news alerts. My mom was one of those who got the text and was thrilled she knew what was going on before anyone else at her school. She felt it, but people in the row beside her did not.

Shooo, we’ve alerted the public and can relax right? Not really! Along with the phone calls, I received about 50 emails, in five minutes, people telling us they felt the earthquake. That’s awesome, along with the calls of course, because it lets us know where the damage may be. 

We also had friends and family and coworkers out in the field letting us know which buildings were being evacuated, which ones received damaged and where we should go. Most of the people were back in their offices within a half hour, and the damage was minor, but it was still the talked about story of the day.

We had crews from Huntington and Charleston all over the place, abandoning stories they had worked on all day, setting up live shots with every crew possible. Oh breaking news! We live for you!

I love getting messages from people who tell me their experience with breaking news. I got text messages from my mom, husband and cousin, all telling me they felt it. Of course, with all the work we were doing, I couldn’t have them elaborate, but you better believe I got their accounts later in the evening. I also got TONS of Twitter messages. Yay for social media.

But, I can’t lie, I’m still furious I didn’t feel anything. Many people were calling in, of all ages, saying this was the first earthquake they ever felt.

Lucky for me, I felt one a few years ago. It happened, across the river, in a different state, a few counties away. I seriously thought a truck hit my house. Nope, just an earthquake. I guess I can’t be too mad.

There is always a bittersweet feeling to breaking news. We live for the rush, love getting the story, but there’s always heartbreak that goes with it. Luckily, from everything I have read, there have been no deaths, or even major injuries in the earthquake. Fingers crossed it stays that way.

Ok, so you’ve heard my earthquake story! Tell me yours! And it doesn’t have to be from the VA earthquake.

I was on CNN.com today checking out the headlines to see if there were any stories I wanted to Tweet about or run tonight on my newscast. And for some reason, the headlines were sticking out to me. Let me share a few with you so you can see for yourself.

“Harvard prof offers jokes about arrest”- This stood out, well actually just kind of pissed me off. After all the drama that happened, it’s nice that he can joke in hindsight. NOT! You can’t cause a scene and then turn it around as a joke. I guess when you sit down with the President for a beer, that makes everything ok.

“Horrified mom sees baby for sale online”- Need I say more? Who puts a baby for sale online? And what are the chances the mother will run across it?

“Swimmer’s hand pops off in shark’s mouth” – Nothing like a scary shark story just in time for Shark Week on Discovery.

“Dragon boats roar across the river” – What on Earth is a dragon boat? After you watch, it’ll make sense.

And finally, we end with a story from Careerbuilder.comabout blogging and getting a job. Check it out.

First Ed McMahon, now Farrah and Michael. So yeah, I’m just a news reporter from West Virginia, and I never met a single one of them, but my heart is still sad.

When I was on my way to work, I was talking to my parents about Farrah and started thinking, this is the first celebrity that I remember dying that I REALLY felt something. Farrah was huge and although I didn’t know a lot about her, it made me really sad. And then Michael, I’m not going to lie, I got a little teary eyed. I know that many celebrities have died in the past 22 years, but I just feel like this is the first round that I’ve been old enough and have had any connection with to feel anything for it.

And tonight on my way home, I realized my job has made this day bittersweet. As soon as I walked in today, we started talking about Farrah. Some people still hadn’t heard so we broke the news. Then we talked about Carrie Cline’s recent interview with Ryan O’Neal.

Just when things started to get calm, my News Director came out and told me to check TMZthat Michael had been transported to the hospital in cardiac arrest. I immediately opened it and put it in my show. I kept clicking the refresh and nearly every time I did, there was an update. First it told us when the 911 call came in, then said he’s in really bad shape, then a message from his dad saying he wasn’t doing well.  When I updated at 5:20, that’s when it hit “Michael Jackson Dies.” I remember yelling it and immediately calling the 5pm producer and telling him. At that time, no one else was reporting his death, but TMZ is a show on myZ and yes, it’s not CNN, NBC or FOX, but it’s one of the most credible entertainment sites out there. We immediately aired it, with credit to TMZ.

At that time, other stations were just starting to report that he was taken to the hospital and that he was in a coma. We got a number of nasty calls and comments on our web story because people said we were jumping the gun. It wasn’t until 6:25 that NBC officialy reported Michael’s death. If people don’t give TMZ credit, they should now. They had the information confirmed and reported an hour before the major media outlets picked it up.

The rest of the night was a blur. We were trying to find a national story about Michael’s life and death to run in the 10. We were also trying to find a live shot or two of California to pull up during our show. All the while, we had CNN (I think) cranked to hear their updates. We turned those down when the NBC special came on. It was all Michael and Farrah all the time.

Shortly after my News Director left tonight, he called me and told me that some websites were reporting that actor Jeff Goldblum fell from a cliff and died today while on set for a movie. Those rumors turned out to be false.

The reason I say today was bittersweet: The bitter is obvious. Farrah has been an icon for women for 40 years. She’s a woman I’ve admired for her beauty and she was just so down-to-earth everywhere she went. The last couple of years, I’ve really admired her for being a fighter. Michael Jackson has been a part of my life since I exited the womb. My mom told me today she considered Michael Jackson the Elvis of her era. So that may show you where I get my love for him. The bitter continues though with my job. Working in the news business, there’s no way to push the news aside. No matter if you want to hear more, you are going to.

But that also leads me to the sweet: I want to know news now. I don’t know if this is something you feel when you see the news, or if it’s just me being a news nerd. But when things happen, I want to be the first to know. The business I am in definitely fills that need. I can’t describe the feelings I had when I read the headline that Michael Jackson had died. But I can tell you that after an hour of us reporting it and having it up on our web page, it was a sigh of relief when everyone else picked it up. The more I write this, the more I feel like I am sounding insensitive. I am sorry if you take it that way. In every business, there is a goal for you to be number 1. In ours, it’s being first and being accurate. And despite all of the harsh comments about premature reporting, we did both of those tonight.

In any sense, Ed, Farrah and Michael will all be missed tremendously.

I am sure MANY websites now have full coverage of Michael Jackson’s death, but I encourage you to check out the TMZ site. They have 3 pages of posts, everything Michael. From pictures of his family, quotes from loved ones and the original post that we broke the news from.

I am not going to add the picture, but here is a link to the Entertainment Tonightsite. They have a picture taken from the ambulance as Michael was transported to the hospital. He has a breathing tube in his mouth and they are trying to resuscitate him. Very, very sad photo.

And finally, my favorite Michael song is “Man in the Mirror.” One of my fellow Tweeters sent me this link tonight. This is Chris Cendana. Born and raise in Beckley and a Marshall University Grad. Love it!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xA8lFK88KkM]