Thursday night, by the assumed power of a "press release", I was sent to cover an "event". I don't know what the desk was thinking after hopefully reading said release, but they thought it was some kind of seminar, freeing people of financial burdens. "Leveling the playing field and getting rid of financial illiteracy, " was the mantra in the release and the female in charge of the seminar. And she said that exact phrase six times in the 20 minutes I spent there. The desk assumed it would be a well-attended event. It wasn't.
My plan was to arrive 15 minutes early so I could get my sound bite, then shoot the seminar and leave when I have my 40 seconds of video. There were four people with this group, and only one person showed up to see what it was about. It was to get people to pay these people to have a "personal concierge" at their beck and call, 24/7. If one had questions of any kind, all they have to do is call their personal assistant and they would do the digging and get back to you in minutes. It was a get rich quick scheme for the person who wrote the "release". So there I was in a conference room with these four people watching this one person look at a video presentation on a laptop. Feeling like a cheap whore, I started walking out. The leader stopped me at the door and wanted my personal cell number. Nice try, but HELL NO.
In this small TV market, with VERY little to feed a hungry news machine, our desk will take just about anything at face value. So yes, there are actually two problems here. But, there are fleas that some dogs just can't shake.
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