How was your day? Mine stunk.
Go Deeper.
Create an account or log in to save stories.
Like this?
Thanks for liking this story! We have added it to a list of your favorite stories.
Did you ever have one of those days where nothing goes right? That was my day today. There was a mixup in scheduling so we didn't have a reporter staffing Governor Pawlenty. Sometimes that's not a big deal because he gives a typical policy speech. Well, this time it was a big deal. He announced that he wants to provide health insurance coverage to every Minnesota child.
D'oh. No one from MPR was there to record his comments. So.. I call the governor's office. They try to record all of the governor's speeches and we've helped them in the past when they screwed up.
Well, guess what? They had problems recording the governor's audio as well. I then call the Minnesota News Network. We sometimes share audio and there was no way that MPR, the governor's office and MNN all missed or botched the recording. Well, they didn't staff it.
So, I had to do something that always makes me nervous. I had to ask a competitor for the audio. Eric Eskola with WCCO-AM went to the speech and he recorded it. Despite a little bit of ribbing, he loaned me the tape and didn't seem to mind.
Turn Up Your Support
MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all.
That's the weird thing about this business. It can be cut-throat and yet folks are willing to help out other reporters when they're knee deep in trouble. Someone (maybe it was Eric) once said "The Capitol beat is hard enough to cover. Sometimes we need to help each other out." I'm happy Eric decided to do that and I thank him for it.
But my day gets better, well, actually worse (I think I should have wrote that the story gets better because my day gets worse). I start writing my story for Morning Edition since there's no way I can make my All Things Considered deadline. I interview some folks over the phone and then...
My computer freezes up.
Two of my interviews (GOP Representative Steve Smith of Mound and DFL Representative Paul Thissen of Minneapolis) are gone. Kaput. They are vaporized and don't make it into the story. My apologies to the both of them. They took the time to talk with me and their comments will never make our airwaves. If anyone sees a Smith or Thissen interview floating in the ether, could you grab it for me?
Well, I ended up getting my story on the air (with Pawlenty tape loaned to me from a competitor and without the comments from two lawmakers).
I'm now headed home but I'm not taking the interstate and I'll be driving way below the speed limit. I hope your day was better than mine....
