When Things Go Wrong
Don’t the viewers love it. There’s nothing more likely to grab the attention of the audience than a foul-up on air, and it’s always funny in a newsroom as well–so long as it happens to someone else. The natural disasters of television news include computer systems breaking down, and then the editor or presenter wants to know if anyone in the room can use a manual typewriter. Satellite links that worked perfectly in the technical line-up develop mysterious faults while on air. A report might have sound but no pictures, or pictures but no sound, or the right pictures and the wrong sound, or vice versa. Then, of course, there is the electronic prompting device for the news presenter … which is why they have hard copies of the ...
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