How was your day? Mine stunk.

Posted at 7:59 PM on November 14, 2006 by Tom Scheck (3 Comments)

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.

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....

Comments (3)

These days happen to everyone, Tom. I think the Pawlenty speach surprised a lot of people. I see in the PiPress that he also cited a statewide smoking ban in his comments. He's said he would sign one when asked, this is the first time he seems to be actively calling for one.

We'll be following up on this for sure. BTW, tomorrow is the 30th anniversary of the Great American Smokeout, which began in MN. We got something going with the "Body Worlds" exhibit at Science Museum.

Later.

Posted by Bob from ALAMN | November 15, 2006 7:06 AM

Tom, after all the times you have helped my reporters out at KFAI, it's high time someone paid you the favor. What goes around comes around...this is good karma!

Ann Alquist
News Director
KFAI Radio

Posted by Ann Alquist | November 15, 2006 11:31 AM

Look at it this way: any ONE of those things would have ruined whatever day they occured in. Instead, they all happened on the same day. This is much more efficient ruinantion, and leaves you free to have a better day tomorrow.

And remember: computers were invented to make our lives easier. Really. I saw it in a filmstrip when I was a kid.

Posted by Albatross | November 15, 2006 2:17 PM

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