Scooped the competition

Hello friends.

I know this blog intends to give you all a glimpse into the day and the life of an assignment editor.

I have to be honest. A) My new computer is not yet configured to allow me to save these blog posts. Yes, I am working on it....just imagine if I actually knew my way around a computer! And 2) I have been off the radar while the task of working the assignment desk has been non-stop and quite grueling.

I definitely do not have time while at work to share my daily grind. That's what the middle of the overnight hours or crack of dawn are for, unless you have a bum computer!

I apologize for doing you all a disservice by not sharing the hectic, chaotic pace up here on this desk.

As you all know there has been storm after storm, wall to wall weather coverage intermixed with my amazing Cleveland Indians' baseball...daily developments with the Cuyahoga County Corruption saga as well as countdown to jury selection for the Sowell trial.

Other top of mind stories have included national stories out of Joplin, Missouri, the NBA basketball playoffs, Arnold & Maria, Congressman Weiner, and the biggest story of all, the end of Osama Bin Laden.


One story that really makes me beam from ear to ear happened back in April.

At the end of the day, I'm usually tired but pumped up by a job well done.


Breaking news back on a Friday in April completely revved everyone.


After receiving a tip about a body found in Seven Hills, it was an awesome feeling to dial up my contacts (which you make after all these years in the business) and verify within minutes what the heck may be going on out there.


I immediately sent a crew before really having verification....


My crew said, 'yep, we got a crime scene out here and it's quite extensive and there is no other media on scene.'


That said it all. It was go time.


From that moment on, everything we'd been working on flew out the window and we focused on the new breaking news, on-line and on air.


Crews stayed late....crews came in early......I stayed 3 hours past the end of my shift to monitor what was happening, update wkyc.com and brief the next producer in to the station....


Still no station had anything on their air and when I left the station 3 hours after we aired the story, still no other stations had anything on their websites --Rare in a time of Twitter, Facebook, monitoring the competition, and checking everyone's websites.


But I'll take it!


What absolutely made my week and was the so-called 'cherry on top' of the entire story is a text I received from one of my contacts who saw our story and realized no one else had it! The gist of the text told me what a great job we did.....and then congratulated me on being the only station on the story.....and went so far as to tell me that they thought I was a great news professional....


Knowing the leg work I personally put into this story.....the ethics and accuracy we exhibited ....and then receiving this message from someone I hold in high regard and have the utmost respect for put a smile on my face from cheek to cheek and made what I do so worthwhile.





It is rare to be congratulated or patted on the back on a regular basis for a job well done. When it happens, by someone you hold up on a pedestal, makes you feel that what you are doing is well worth it and just soooooo right!