News Guy

I’ve written a couple of times about my past experience as a TV news cameraman. I spent over ten years in that profession, working at three different TV stations in three different states. It’s been almost ten years since I shot my last news story, but I still have friends who are in the business or were in the business at some point and have moved on to other things.

Recently I had the occasion to hire a videographer to tape a two-day company event. We wanted to capture some key presentations on video to share with people who were not able to attend the event in person. I turned to a friend who was in the TV news business, on the same news staff that I was, who now has his own successful independent video production company. He taped our presentations and did a fantastic job, just as I knew he would.

As the second day of the event wrapped up, I helped my friend, whom I’ll call Jack, pack up his video gear. We got to reminiscing about our days in the TV news business and many of our mutual friends, most of whom Jack has done far better in keeping in touch with. After getting brought up to speed on the status and whereabouts of many friends, he said to me, “Did you hear what happened to ‘News Guy?’”

“No,” I said, with a sense of foreboding, “What happened?”

For the sake of this story I will use the term News Guy to describe a particular on-air reporter whose story Jack told.

News Guy was a very likeable, consistent, reliable TV news reporter. He had been in the market for many years and was reasonably well known. He was handsome, not in the sense of a Stone Phillips, but a good looking guy. He wasn’t News Anchorman material, but he’d fill in occasionally on the weekends. He was in his early forties and known as a good, solid TV News reporter. Not flashy, not too full of himself, just a dependable reporter who could deliver the goods on camera.

As an aside, after ten years in the business it’s my belief that (at least in local TV news) there are basically two types of reporters. One type is the reporter who believes he or she is God’s Gift to Journalism, believes that it’s not a story unless they cover it, and expect to get the lead story every evening and the face time that goes with it. They believe that their personal ‘star power’ is what drives the ratings. In effect, they believe they are more important that the story.

The other type of reporter cares less about how much exposure they get and cares far more about telling the story in a fair, accurate way. They are journalists who happen to work in TV instead of prima donnas who happen to do news. It’s been my good fortune, over the course of my career, to work with more of this type of reporter than the former. News Guy was this kind of reporter. A good guy who liked to cover and report a good story, not make a name of himself.

News guy married young, so by the time this story takes place he had four kids ranging in age from late teens to just under ten years old. By all accounts he had a good marriage. When he went on the road to cover a story he was never the type to mess around or take the opportunity to go out to a strip club in a place he wouldn’t be ‘recognized.’

Now it happened one day that the TV station News Guy worked for was sponsoring some type of modeling/talent show or pageant. Jack wasn’t sure of the details, but News Guy was asked by his station to host the event. During the course of the event News Guy struck up a conversation with one of the contestants, a very beautiful young woman. She was, as Jack described her, awed by News Guy – his presence, his demeanor, and the fact that he was not the Prima Donna type of reporter. News Guy was just trying to be nice to this young woman who had dreams of becoming an actress or model. It didn’t seem as though he had ulterior motives.

You can guess where this is going, can’t you?

The young woman did not win the contest or pageant, whatever it was, but at some point after that she called News Guy at the TV station, apparently to see if he could help her in some way to advance her dreams of acting or modeling. Jack was not sure what happened, but News Guy must have agreed to try to help her, because at some point they got together, probably to discuss her options.

From there the relationship between News Guy and the young woman developed into a full blown affair.

This was made more complicated by the fact that the young woman was all of seventeen years old, and still living at home with her parents.

The affair continued for some period of time, perhaps a few months. At some point the young woman’s parents find out about this, and they call News Guy to confront him. Being the stand-up guy that he is, he goes over to their house and sits down to talk with them. He admits to the affair, acknowledges his mistake, apologizes to the parents, says and does all the right things. Apparently satisfied, the parents express no intention of making this public and jeopardizing News Guy’s career.

Now completely ashamed and wracked with guilt, he needs to tell someone. Apparently he was not yet willing or able to tell his wife, so instead he tells one of his friends.

The friend listens to News Guy’s story, gives him some support, perhaps some advice. But at some level the friend must have been morally offended or outraged by News Guy’s behavior, because he does a little digging into the penal code of the state and discovers that, while the age of consent for sexual relations in their state is sixteen, it is a felony for an adult to have sex, even consensual sex, with a minor under the age of eighteen if the adult is more than ten years older than the minor.

Unknowingly, News Guy has committed a felony.

What do you think happened?

News Guy’s buddy calls the police and turns him in.

The next thing News Guy knows, the police show up at his door, cuff him in front of his family and haul him down to the station. His wife, who had absolutely no clue about his affair, is in complete shock. Of course it becomes a huge news story and is all over the TV, radio and newspapers, made all the more delicious to the media because News Guy is a local celebrity – one of their own.

After all is said and done News Guy winds up doing 60 days in jail. Of course he loses his job. His wife files for divorce. Now a convicted felon, when he gets out of jail he’s basically untouchable. Clearly his broadcast career is over – the only career he’s ever had.

What’s my point in telling this story?

Some time ago I wrote a post where I talked about being an adult and having to make considered, responsible decisions. I may not have expressed myself as clearly as I would have liked, based on some of the comments from that post. I didn’t want to give the impression that being an adult means you cannot continue to have childlike curiosity, you cannot laugh or have fun, that you have to be Mr. or Ms. Serious all the time.

But being an adult does mean you have to occasionally think through the possible consequences of your decisions.

The stakes for poor decisions are higher as an adult.

I’m not here today telling this story to make a value judgment on News Guy. I’m not personally condemning or condoning what he did from a moral or ethical perspective – you can reach your own conclusion on that. For all I know there may have been something going on in News Guys life that Jack, News Guy’s buddy or anyone else for that matter did not know about, something so troubling to News Guy that it led him to seek some form of solace in the arms of this young woman. We’ll never know, so I’m certainly not prepared to pass judgment on him.

But I do think he made a poor decision. Actually, more than one. Collectively, a series of poor decisions that ultimately cost him his family and his career.

I’m sure he didn’t know he was committing a felony by engaging in this relationship. Who would have known? That is an extremely obscure statute in the legal code. I didn’t know about it, and I’ll bet 90% of the people in this state don’t know about it.

Despite that, you have to think about entering a relationship of that nature a bit more carefully than you would, say, deciding whether or not to buy a new pair of shoes.

I asked Jack what ultimately happened to News Guy. Where did he go? Did he get a job in the business in another market? What happened to his family?

Jack didn’t know. He said that nobody he knows has seen or heard from News Guy in a long time.

We each only get one life to live. We each want to cram into that life as many fun, exciting, interesting experiences as we can into whatever time we have available. Sometimes those opportunities come at the wrong time, and we have to make a choice. Do I do this now? Or do I pass, wishing ruefully the same opportunity had come along some time earlier in my life?

Considered decisions. Sometimes very difficult to make.

The price, and privilege, of adulthood.

It’s great to be The Family Man.