Scoops

Today's episode of Little Miss Know-it-All: I'm reporting live! No, I'M reporting live! Get out of my way!

Well, the election's over, and the only thing left for Little Miss Know-it-All to do is analyse the media coverage. I'm going to be nice, for the most part: reporting on elections is hard. Well, it's really easy in one sense. Election stories are easy to tell, because there's a clear winner and a clear loser. Someone always comes from behind and surprises everyone, and someone always is overconfident and goes down hard. Great stuff. But it's live TV and everyone's stressed and emotional. It goes late into the night, and everyone's tired. Plus, there are a ton of annoying people from Toronto who descend on your sleepy little studio and insist on taking over because they know SO MUCH MORE ABOUT JOURNALISM, and they always screw up royally. Wait, maybe that's just the way things work here.

I love, love, love watching elections. The Newfoundland election's coming up in a few days and I'll be ordering pizza so I can stay in front of the TV. (Go, Danny!) I watch CBC and have my computer nearby so I can refresh the latest poll results. Yes, I am a loser.

There was a bit of a snafu during our election when it was announced that one person had won a riding by eight votes before all of the results were in. The chief electoral officer rushed to clear up the error, and reporters were all over her. Television and radio were both reporting live at the time, so we were watching on TV as the host "threw" to the reporter a few feet away. And listening. Also listening. We were listening to the TV reporter argue with someone about needing to interview the chief electoral officer right away, in just a few seconds. The camera angle changed and the reporter introduced his victim -- I mean interviewee. Over his shoulder, we could see who he was arguing with: another reporter, who was seizing the opportunity to ask the first question! That scoundrel!

Both reporters were determined to get the very first live interview. They asked their questions at the same time and pushed their microphones in the woman's face at the same time. This video's worth a look. Neither was willing to wait the sixty seconds it would have taken for the other to finish. Both were desperate to be first. Remember, they both work for the same corporation, but in different media -- they were not competing with each other in any real sense of the word.

Does it always have to be about being first?