London, UK --Since the inception of TV news other than a switch to color, the use and abuse of the green screen technology and live on scene live broadcasting not much has changed over five decades.  Suddenly we have the Internet, cheap quality video cameras and big changes are rocking the world of video news delivery.  Television news management miscreants often took great delight in making their talent that left or were jettisoned just disappear. No goodbyes, no thank you, just nothing.   That left viewers to wonder where about the fate of those once familiar faces. Now thanks to Facebook and Twitter that vile practice has ended for good.  That along those bogus non-compete contracts preventing reporter from moving to nearby stations are gone.   However sadly the shrinking TV news audience has cost countless jobs and made reporters in too many markets eligible for food stamps. Making a living as a television journalist seems more challenging tha...

Washington, DC --The FAA finally came out with a proposed rule for commercial drone use.  They were far less draconian and created a somewhat reasonable approach to regulation than expected by most observers.  The “ FAA Guidelines for Model Aircraft ” for non-commercial hobbyist fights will remain unchanged.  The new rule would make Electronic Drone News Gathering possible in most situations. The period of public comment must pass and after some tweaking the final rule will be established.  This could take up to three years.  By then the technology will change for the better and this will be liberalized somewhat.   Below is the UAS (drone) Commercial Use Press Release for the Rule the FAA is sending out for public comment. HIGHLIGHTS: The FAA will require a minimal pilot UAS ground license testing requirement with recertification every two years. No drone night flights. No flying drones over the heads of people unless they are part ...

Phoenix, AZ —My spies at the FAA insist that they will very quickly authorize the commercial use of multi-rotor, mini-drones weighing in at less than three pounds for among other things, newsgathering. Any TV station news department that has not made plans for this new technology will be left in the dirt.  The very day the drones are authorized is when the promotions departments should be heralding their new newsdronie correspondents. They all should be up and running with two or three of these prime time ready “newsdronies” to cover routine accidents, crimes and fires.  Sending a helicopter to a school lockdown for example is foolish when you can use a drone and only pony up a fraction of the price.   That FAA weight constraint will limit the size of the cameras that of the GoPro types.  But they can really capture epic and stunning imagery. What that means is the local television markets can dispatch a drone pilot that’s able to operate the device, cam...

Los Angeles, CA —The redundancy of reported drone news fables claiming privacy invasion and endangerment are getting very tiresome.   Okay, I agree that these stories are still somewhat novel and interesting.   Claims that the little camera drones are nearly colliding with conventional helicopter and other aircraft are nearly always patently bogus.   Careful examination by a journalist would expose the reality from fantasy. Police and news helicopter pilots see their career days being numbered by the threat of drones eliminating their jobs.   Helicopters cost $1,500 to $2,500 per hour to keep in the air.   The drones cost nearly nothing! Are the motives of helicopter pilots really pure when they disparage, denounce or otherwise criticize camera drones and their operators?    Can a little camera drone bring down a helicopter or airplane?   I won’t say it’s impossible but it is incredibly unlikely.   There are thousands of collision...

Tom Zebra, Citizen Journalist/provocateur Los Angeles, CA —If you’re a cop in or near the City of Angels,  Tom Zebra may just get in your face and under your skin.   In the age of the cell phone camera explosion came body cams and the ever-popular GoPros.   With the new technology police have been placed under the intrusive and unblinking eyes of millions of cameras.   A large percentage of them are in the hands of genuine antagonists like Zebra .   The next generation of police monitoring devices is here in the form of multi-rotor camera drones.   They can be quietly deployed over any police action.   They can record video of anything taking place in plain view under the skies.     Cops have been understandably hostile to these cameras and nationwide thousands of bogus arrests have been made of people recording them.   Cops have confiscated cell phones, cameras and their media storage cards.   Cops felt...

Los Angeles, CA —The latest technology tool for newsgathering is taking a propaganda beating from the media.   As incredible as it seems the media is promoting ignorance about camera drones rather than enlightening their audience!   The little drones are indeed amazing.   They can take sophisticated yet tiny cameras to incredible heights to get inexpensive video and still images in near absolute safety!    They are definitely a novelty and local police have zero training about these devices.  They have not been around long  enough for police and procedures to be developed.  The obvious best policy is to simply leave the drone operators alone.  Cops seem to want to make arrests for drone use because they know right now they will get substantial news coverage.   However t hose highly publicized recent arrests of drone pilots have turned out to be absolutely bogus. Two police helicopter pilots in New York spotted a lit...