THE STATE OF YOUR NEWSCAST

BY DAN MILLER
(originally posted February 3, 2005)

Today, a brief glimpse behind the scenes at the "decision making process" concerning our newscast presentation.

This week, there was discussion in our newsroom about what graphics and words would be used during an important story..... specifically, what we should "call" a particular event.

It was Monday, the day Governor Bredesen delivered his State of the State speech before the legislature.

Our newsroom bosses, who obviously throw considerable weight on what you see and hear everyday, decided that it would be nice to refer to the State of the State address as the "State of YOUR State" address. It would sort of personalize it, they figured.

Others in the newsroom (including me) strongly disagreed, and suggested we shouldn't just go and change the name of that particular speech, simply to make it more personal and appealing to the ears and eyes of our audience.

When news time arrived, here's what we did. The graphics (writing) on the screen during our 5 & 6 PM newscasts read "State of YOUR State"..... while in our spoken introductions, and in the stories, Demetria and I said "State of THE State", the traditional way.

We figured there are lots of people watching in Kentucky and Alabama..... and from other places outside of Tennessee.
Besides that, the traditional, long-standing and accepted title for this particular speech is, in fact, "State of the State."

And by the way, I didn't hear anyone refer to the president's State of the Union address Wednesday night as the "State of Your Union"...... did you?

But that whole discussion is over, at least until next year.

So for now, I'll just relax and watch a good old classic movie....
perhaps tonight I'll watch "Gone With Your Wind".

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