Los Angeles, CA —I’ve worked in TV news as an investigative freelancer for nearly 30 years.  I never sought nor obtained a formal journalism education but was drafted into TV news strictly for my investigative ability.  I was lucky to be given a, second to none, on the job journalism education by many gifted reporters, producers, media lawyers  and TV news consultants.  For the last 15 years I’ve watched the slow death of news, as we knew it.   News consumers have left broadcast and print news in droves. They’ve escaped to Internet bloggers and vloggers for their information.   Left behind are the folks that simply never learned computers or even smart phones.   Because they’re technophobes they’ve become a captive audience for television and print news.   Then there are the illiterate and poor.   Few of these folks are great targets for advertisers other than drug and reverse mortgage companies. I think print is failing as society ...

Washington, DC- -it's a painfully slow process for politicians and FAA bureaucrats to accept the need, legitimacy and relative safety of those little civilian drones.   There was the initial hysteria of passenger jets crashing, mass privacy invasion because of those little drones.     The panic reaction was bolstered with thousands mistaken or deliberately false reports of sightings claiming drone misbehavior.     Thankfully as the number of drones in civilian hands increased by leaps and bounds, the bogus reports quietly subsided considerably.  Very recently progress has been made in allowing the commercial use of drones under a somewhat loosened set of rules and guidelines.    Along with the more realistic drone rules the FAA created the Part 107 licensing exemption with a written test for commercial drone pilots.   They have allowed for considerable expansion of drone use in urban areas for news gathering, filmmakin...

Los Angeles, CA —The father of broadcast Fake News is Josef Goebbels .   As Adolf Hitler’s Minister of Enlightenment   and Propaganda, he was a pure genius.   Goebbels convinced the entire nation of Germany that what they heard on their newly acquired radios was always absolutely true.   Goebbels success was not lost on our own CIA , back then called, OSS .   The OSS learned of the amazing power of the radio and soon Franklin Roosevelt was broadcasting propaganda “Fireside Chats” that mesmerized our entire nation binding us together against Germany, Italy and Japan.   In the last 150 years we had powerful newspapers and soon followed radio and television.  I don’t give a rat’s ass who the news provider may be, they all have their own secret and vested interests that they are selling to the public as news.   Only the very richest Americans could own newspapers and broadcasting organizations.  We the people were never part of th...

Washington, DC —Suddenly, the FAA has allowed CNN  and a Las Vegas agency ArrowData to begin using and testing drones for electronic newsgathering over populated areas under a section 333-waiver application provision.   Until now the FAA has banned so-called, commercial use of drones while completely ignoring important First Amendment issues.  As of now many media companies have opted to refuse applying for section-333 waivers because the lack of FAA regulation in effect already allows drone newsgathering. The FAA just issued a curious memo saying the media can’t use the drones, but they can accept and publish drone video from third party hobbyists.  That begs the question, are the rights of hobbyists somehow greater than news publishers? Soon the FAA and media content creators may be clashing in a courtroom. The real issue and mission of the FAA is about safety in our skies. However, to date the nearly two million multi-rotor camera drones have ...

Kathmandu, Nepal —Drone video of the tragic earthquake that struck the very top of the world is beyond epic.   As soon as the quake hit television networks and camera drone operators were boarding all available means of transportation.   The drone pilots understood full well the absolute importance of rushing to the scene.   They know that drone images and video helps rescuers and engineers determine the safest ways to extract victims.   At the same time shows the rest of the world just how this desperate the situation is being handled. Drone pilots and first responders everywhere are beginning to understand that in natural disasters, search and rescue along with other emergencies analyzing the material is a genuine lifesaver.   It’s much easier for ground crews to locate survivors, evaluate hazards and determine the need for specialized equipment with the help of the new small drone technology. Helicopters are too large and their prop wash can actu...

This is an Align quadcopter with a Panasonic GH4 4K motion picture camera perfect for electronic news gathering assignments.   Atlanta, GA —All Federal Aviation Administration regulations were and are conceived and written in blood, literally!   That is, that there is a deadly aircraft accident behind every rule.   That has always been the case except when it came to drones. We all must take safety seriously and any legitimate concern deserves study and respect.   The drones are somewhat expensive and their owners simply don’t want them damaged through recklessness. For some strange bureaucratic reason the FAA has outlawed the use of a drone to make money.   As un-American as that seems, they’ve gotten away with this form of economic tyranny. The FAA has always allowed the use of drones for recreation and hobby activities with scant few restrictions.   Rather than make rules just last month they’ve finally issued a few advisory Dos and Don’ts fo...

Atlanta, GA—CNN joined Cable TV with a bang, but today it whines and whimpers.   Today CNN is on a death march to Hell because they have traded news reporting for public relations for the Democratic Party and the Obama Administration . We must face the fact that every broadcaster wants to turn their news organization into a bully pulpit with a political agenda.  No matter how subtle they try to make it, the agenda glares right through, sending half of the audience scrambling to their remote controls.  The way to keep 100% of the audience is by avoiding politicization of the news. CNN is personality driven chatter disguised as news.  To survive, CNN needs to simply try raw news for a change.   Real news reporting requires being first on the scene of every breaking story broadcasting video with interviews of newsmakers.  I’d ditch the personalities and replace them with a team of sharp assignment desk jockeys that can introduce...

Chicago, IL —At Chicago’s Tea Party CNN reporter, Susan Roesgen waded into the crowd to spin the event as anti-government. I guess she thinks anyone that wants to protect the Constitution along with its liberty and freedom must be anti-government. Roesgen also called the event anti-CNN and proclaimed it was being led by Fox News . Roesgen could not grasp the concept that excessive taxation also takes liberty. Taxation to the point of slavery is anything but freedom. There is a strong argument that today’s working Americans are slaves to corrupt politicians and their contributors. I thought we outlawed slavery long ago. The problem with Roesgen was that she did not like the answers to her questions and chose to pick fights with the demonstrators. Roesgen became emotional and unprofessional as she tried to advocate the Barack Obama talking points to demonstrators. It was lousy TV news but great TV. I imagine the public referendum results on this battle of the cable news outle...