Because I'm Lazy

I did a blog for work that I think is applicable here so I thought I'd post it and get a two-fer. One aside, at the bottom, there's a line that says "Who knows what Friday will bring." As I write you, I am sitting in a sat truck in Sherman, Texas covering a deadly bus crash.
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A lot of people ask what a typical day is like working for FOX News. For the folks in the field, there really is no typical day, or week for that matter. For my part, that’s what I really like about the job.

We have one crew in the Dallas bureau, just a photographer, correspondent (Kris Gutierrez) and me. Usually we wait for breaking news. And while we wait for breaking news in our region (Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana) we work on approved stories, generally something timely and interesting.

Here’s what this week has looked like. We came into our office in downtown Dallas early Monday morning to do a satellite interview. Kris Gutierrez was scheduled to leave in the afternoon with a freelance photographer and producer to do interviews in El Paso for live shots all day Tuesday. I was going to leave Tuesday morning to meet our staff photographer in Austin to do an interview for a second story. Since we’re a one crew bureau, we often split up to get more done.

Of course all those plans went out the window before the day was over. Tropical Storm Edouard decided to take aim at Galveston so off we went on a flight to Houston. We arrived in Galveston after nightfall, camped out in a hotel and were ready for business Tuesday morning. FOX and Friends wanted live shots at 6am EST, so that means we needed to be up and out at 4pm central time. The only problem was when we woke up the next morning, Edouard had decided to move up the coast. We were out of position. Way out of position. It wasn’t even raining! So after one live shot for Fox and Friends, we drove about an hour and half , through the storm, to High Island, where Kris Gutierrez proceeded to take a beating from wind gusts and rain during live shots the rest of the day.

On Wednesday, the storm cleared and we were on a plane from Houston to Oklahoma City. From there, we drove to General Tommy Franks’ ranch, which is about two hours outside Oklahoma City. The General was hosting forty-eight students from across the country for a leadership conference and debate camp. After four days of hard work, the students got to kick back, relax and interact with the General. General Franks has this huge magnetic personality. He’s genuine and generous with his time and wisdom. His new project, the General Tommy Franks Leadership Institute and Museum hopes to help educate the next generation. This week’s camp this is part of that. After getting video of the BBQ at the ranch, we drove back to Oklahoma City and were in bed by 10pm.

Thursday morning meant an early live shot with Judge Napolitano in Oklahoma City. The Judge is hosting the final round of a debate featuring the kids from the leadership camp. It was my first time working with the Judge- and what a pleasure. We continued doing live shots with Kris Gutierrez through the afternoon. I had a small cameo in one of them. Someone in management said—”Now I know what producers do.” I was sitting on my duff with a phone in my ear at the time. To my credit, I was actually working. During live shots, producers are required to link into a conference call so that the people in NY have direct contact with someone in the field should something go wrong.

What will Friday bring? Who knows? We’re scheduled to depart on a morning flight back to Dallas, but with TV news, it’s anyone’s best guess.