Los Angeles, CA —Before I share my thoughts I want you to see what a seemingly thoughtful journalist, Matt Waite has to say about the use of drones for Electronic News Gathering or ENG .  It’s important that you first watch his video presentation. My response is below the video. Okay, Waite made a really melodramatic example of anecdote from his reporting past to make a point.  It was a really unfair and simplistic overstatement of a highly unusual situation he once encountered.  Waite’s dramatic example is one we all can resolve by simply keeping enough distance between the drone and the grieving woman that Waite described. Only the most soulless bastard would dare to bring a buzzing drone into that poor woman’s face!  Additionally, Waite unleashed his little drone inside the theater where he’s speaking and the natural acoustics there exaggerated the multi-rotor drone’s noise substantially.    At 40 or 50 feet outdoors that noise is barely n...

Phoenix, AZ —A while back when I was doing a great deal of investigative TV news producing there was this KPHO-TV general assignment reporter I was working with, Eileen Faxas .  Faxas was not your typical cookie cutter reporter.  She stood out with her wild red hair and statuesque showgirl figure from all the rest.  You’ve seen a lot of her in the 1990s on CBS5 news reports. Faxas was dedicated and disciplined but was too often assigned to less exciting news stories perhaps because she found ways to make them interesting.  She managed to pick up a few Emmy Awards along the way.  Faxas was a stickler for using proper English and I soon was surprised to learn she was a Cuban commanding two languages!  One day Faxes moved on. Frankly this lady did not really belong in TV news but had a higher and more demanding calling. Faxas showed up in Miami, FL and put herself out for theater, commercials and as a singer.  I never envisioned her as a sin...

Phoenix, AZ—Josef Goebbels said it well, “If you tell a lie often enough it becomes the truth.” This was one of several translated and paraphrased versions of the famous quote. It speaks volumes and reveals the propaganda expertise of a broadcasting genius employed specifically to handle public relations of the Nazi Regime of 1933-1945 . The truth is that although their power is rapidly waning too many broadcasters tell their audience what they want them to believe. To broadcast or publish commentary and opinion as they express a sacred First Amendment righ t is certainly reasonable and constitutionally protected. To bundle opinion inside of slanted news story shaping it for convincing others is not news but simply propaganda. Yes, that’s protected too. Reporters and producers have immense power and Goebbels perfected its use to denounce Jews as criminals and parasites. They constantly warned the German population that the Jews were out to steal everything. That massive g...