Oprah- 1, Lewis- 0

I will even the score with the Queen of All Media, I'm not sure how, but maybe one day:

So here's what happened:

I'm sure by now we've all heard that Elizabeth Taylor died. Well, as we do in TV News, we look for a local angle. How do we take the topical story of the day, the most talked about watercooler type event, and make it important to local audiences.

Ok, sometimes these stories are a stretch. BUT... in this case we actually have a legit local tie.



A guy named William Pawley was Elizabeth Taylor's first fiance. ((he's the man in the picture above)) He lives in the Jacksonville area now... is 90 years old... and has a book out about his life with Liz. But ultimately she said she wouldn't marry him, because she didn't want to move to Jacksonville.

Yikes. Heart broken.

So as I'm heading out the door to go interview this gentleman... his daughter calls and says, "Uh, we can't do the interview anymore."

Turns out Winfrey got word of this guys story and wants to have him on her show. And that's awesome... but apparently Oprah doesn't like to share, and told the little old man that they'd interview him, as long as he doesn't do any interviews with local media.

Now he's out.

I guess Oprah's millions and millions of eyeballs are more appealing to him.

But, what tha?? I mean... huh? I just lost a story to the most powerful person on the planet. How often does this ever happen? I talk to the oldest man in news (kidding) in this week's Turner Loose video:

Mike Lyons is hilarous. I'll have much more with him in future blogs, he's my desk neighbor.

Anyway this allows for a smooth transition into what I am actually working on for tonight...

Jason Sadler-
1. Lives in Ponte Vedra
2. Created his own business in 2009
3. Wears t-shirts for a living... and it seems like he makes a pretty decent living doing it...

Here's a sneak peek:

So watch at 11... there's no excuse... this guy's interesting, and you may learn something to help you make millions.

Mahalo,
LewTurner

Follow me on Twitter: http://twitter.com/LewTurner

Jet Ski > TV Camera



Just a basic mathmatical fact.

Jet ski will always trump TV camera when it comes to anything... but especially when we're talking high school career fair.

And that's our topic today... West Nassau High School Career Fair.

vs.

 Leave it to the sheriff's office to bring a daggum waverunner that they use to chase down drug dealers and turtle smugglers.

Meanwhile, my table (the one on the right) has a hodgepodge of things I use on a daily basis that is only interesting to a handful of folk. Camera, laptop bag, a pen and some duct tape.

I actually use duct tape on pretty much every story I do, I thought it would be a nice touch.

It wasn't.

The zoo brought a baby komodo iguana or something, and the army was there actually having kids doing pushups.

Meteorology isn't nearly as cool as being yelled at by a solider just before heading to Art class with the hippy teacher.

But there were a couple glimmers of hope in my day... some sophomores were nice enough to ask me some questions...

Photographic evidence:

Yes, i know I look like a dirtbag here... it was very early. I work nights. I'm never awake before 10am, this photo was taken at 8:45am.

Anyway, the point of this rant is to inject a little reality into our youth. Here's what I mean:

This is the worksheet the kids had to fill out in order to get extra credit or something.

And this is a true story:

A group of young ladies walked up to me and asked me to answer question "C".

So while I paused to think, they put pen to paper prepared to write down a verbatim answer.

"I'm not going to get specific," I told them, "But I make between $3 and 4 million a year."

Without skipping a beat, without looking up to question my answer, they wrote down "between $3 and 4 million a year" said thanks, and then walked away.

I felt terrible for telling such a lie... and they had dissappeared into the crowd before I had a chance to tell them I was totally kidding... BUT... come on now, that answer should have at least garnered an eye brow raise, or a "Really? Are you serious?" ... but no.

I was hoping they would call me a liar to my face... maybe they hadn't had their tater tots yet.

HA... that was hilarious to me. In reality, I probably won't make that much in two lifetimes... it's no secret TV folk aren't the highest paid people in the world (though, you can do really really well, and I'm holding out hope still.)

-------------

I'll be live tonight from Amelia Island where they're auctioning off some cars. Very very expensive cars. One is apparently worth $6 million, which would make most blink a couple times, maybe not those two young ladies from earlier.

Here's a link to the event.

News Station Facebook pages...

are hilarious. For some reason, people think since they are on the computer and typing to some invisible electric socket that they can write whatever they want without consequence.

((fyi- I'm three deep on the coffee.))

So a pretty nice Thursday shaping up. I'm going to give you a couple examples and perhaps attempt a video commentary... I don't know, I don't know if I'll have enough time.

Ok, the question is simple enough. And the idea behind it is ok too:

 "Hey, let's generate a little conversation and be cool and hip with the viewers."

I'm neat... I'm hip... I enjoy Facebook... so does my elderly and infirm Uncle Dempsy, who is hip too (actually he needs a hip).

((ed. note -- I don't have an Uncle Dempsy... just making a bad point with worse comedy, but I digress))

--Ok, so other than the very first comment, these viewer posts seem pretty reasonable and tame.

Otherwise known as: "BORING!!!!"

Come on, where are the filthy, off-color posts that make you wonder about human decency?????? 

Oh, wait... ((play video))

[that video just made the blog 23% better]

Here's what I'm after... posts like this:

HA... i wonder if they know the news is actually looking at this and may actually use it on the news. ((the news is a TV broadcast that, despite some tough times, still draws 100,000 viewers a night)).

Kim may be missing the point... I'm pretty sure booty calls are frowned upon in most religion, perhaps giving that up doesn't count?

Or maybe it does... I'm only a United States Coast Guard licensed Captain (well, I was... the license expired in 2006)

The point here isn't a debate on religion, it's more a look into what some folks think is great to put out there for the world to see.

And don't miss-read this post, I'm not complaining... I LOVE IT! It makes my job as a reporter easier, it's posts like this one:

...that give me decent story ideas. So, Mr. Dan Lowe, if you'll respond to an email and be willing to go on camera for an interview about how you plan on doing this for 40 days, we've got some TV magic on our hands at 11:00pm.

So there's my day in a nut.

Thanks for reading, Coach Howard truely appreciates it.

Mahalo,
Lewis


((Lewis' Note: 2:22pm UPDATE: Mr. Dan Lowe and I spoke via Facebook message. He's all on board, but can't do it until tomorrow. So we'll do the story then. In the mean time, I'll continue my hunt for tonight's 11pm B Block foolishness.))

((Lewis' Note: 4:29pm UPDATE: I'm contemplating a story idea right now that will require a good bit of doing... but motivation is lacking. I need a muffin.))

((Lewis' Note: 4:31pm UPDATE: Muffins aren't just laying around anywhere, so that's not happening. Just finished meeting with consultant, i get double dipped on those things since I'm news and weather.))

I don't usually drink Coke...

But I just pounded one like the kid who's only allowed one Coke a week.

So I'll be wired later.

Anyway, it seems I've got some serious 'splainin to do about a story I did Tuesday. It seems I've aggrivated a few of the normals out there and that's usually the first   last thing I want to do.

You can click here to read the story... video should work below as well.



There are a few shots in there that may pop right out at you as being a "bad idea" or in "poor taste" or perhaps "foolish" or maybe "cockimamy" even "bassackwards" might work (but that one's probably a stretch.

Viewer comments on our website can be very helpful... sometimes they can be very upsetting or just plain stupid, but here are a couple comments that showed up on this story at http://www.firstcoastnews.com/ that actually make sense:

 Ok... Dremwolf, you've got me on several points here... I do make a bad habit of wearing my shoulder belt under my armpit. My mother has lectured me many times on this as well and it hasn't stuck yet, though I do try my best to put it over the shoulder as much as possible. In fact, it's something I'll probably never forget again.

As for the phone call... No, i shouldn't have been talking and driving. That was stupid to show on TV... but (NO EXCUSES HERE) I was in the parking lot of EverBank Field for this experiment. While I was talking into the camera, or on the phone, or getting 99% of the shots... I was acutally just burning fuel in a loop around the stadium where there was no traffic, or in the parking lot of First Coast News (I apologize in advance to my co-workers for the dents)

I should have said that on camera in the story... but I didn't.

--Lewis Note: My bosses did not ask me to write this... this is not some lame forced apology. In fact, this is my own indy blog, and the opinions here are my OWN. Not anyone else's.