ABC-7 Viewpoint: Getting Audio And Video Is Sometimes A Struggle
It?s tough enough being a TV journalist without having governmental bureaucracies make it even more difficult to do our job.
ABC-7 focuses much attention on education stories. I recently noticed that reporter Gaby Loria?s El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) school board reports were borderline unwatchable.
Gaby?s ability to write and summarize complex material isn?t the problem. The issue is that the district has roped off the front of the room prohibiting TV access near the board and speakers.
We?re left to shoot the back of speaker?s heads or shoot video off a grainy TV displaying of video supplied by the district?s audio-visual department. The audio is pretty much unusable. We have to record sound off speakers placed in the ceilings.
I?d like to hand it to my Westside board member David Dodge and EPISD Communications Specialist Renee de Santos.
After I personally brought the issue to their attention, the district sprang into action. I?m told that Superintendent Terri Jordan and Board President Isela Castaon-Williams are working with staff to determine the technology and related cost to allow broadcast media to tap into the sound and video system.
In the meantime, the district has designated an area for media to set up cameras near the front of the boardroom that will give photographers better access to covering speakers at the podium and board member interaction.
EPISD is easy compared to the horrors Gaby has faced attempting to report the bizarre happenings at the Tornillo school board meetings. Superintendent Paul Vranish is under investigation for allegedly mishandling district funds for personal gain. The six-member board is split down the middle in its support of Vranish.
Neither side can agree on who to appoint as the necessary seventh board member who would break the stalemate.
The superintendent refuses to speak with us. The board members supporting him won?t talk to us, either. The district has no public information officer. Gaby and the KVIA photographer are not allowed to set up a camera or microphone anywhere near the board members.
Thus, it?s next to impossible to record audio of anything that anybody is saying. The first row is reserved for district employees. After the meeting starts, Gaby is allowed to move up if there?s an empty seat.
Regardless where she?s seated, she?s left in an uncomfortable and awkward position extending a boom microphone forward because they won?t let her put the microphone on a table or chair nearby.
If Gaby ends up filing a worker?s comp claim for tendinitis, I?m sending it to the Tornillo district to pay.
