I love politics and love the process. This has been a most exciting year and it’s turning out to be an exciting election on both sides.
Who would have thought the John McCain would be the front-runner at this point? How about Clinton lending her campaign $5 million? Amazing.
I like making political predictions and you’re going to get a few.
Yes…
Martin Luther King – August 28, 1963
I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
I’ve gotten a couple of emails wondering if I’ve gone missing or stolen a Channel 8 live truck and headed for the border…
The answer would be neither — although I’m not going to lie, I’ve thought about the live truck scheme on more than one occasion.
Truth be told, I’ve been hammering away on some new content for the site.
I think back to the night when I got the fateful “O.J.” phone call.
It was a woman on the other line calling around 11 p.m. She said O.J. had been arrested in connection with a robbery.
My response was “Comeon…”
Doing this job for a while, you’re able to filter the crazy from the legit pretty easily. She then told me who she was and how she knew and I believed her.
It took a few minutes to confirm with police and Eyewitness News ran the story in our 11 p.m. show. We were the first station to report to the world this story.
It was a lesson on never being surprised. I never thought the person on the other end of the phone would be reporting a story of international interest.
This story “has legs” as we say in the business. Whether you like it or not, you’re going to be hearing about The Juice for the next year or so.
I wonder if the caller knew how big the story was that she was reporting.
We had a great trip despite a couple of small “incidents.” I’ll get these hiccups out of the way so I don’t have to focus on them later.
First, when travelling to Peru and staying in a very nice hotel, don’t eat the pork products.
I cannot stress this enough.
On day three we woke up early to catch a flight and I enjoyed the hotel’s fantastic breakfast spread. A couple of hours later, somewhere over the Andes, I started getting sick. For the next 20 hours or so I was not feeling well (to put it lightly).
I thought I was dying. It was horrible. But I woke up the next morning feeling about 80%. So we went to the open-air market, where I can offer Peruvian travel tip #2…
If something wet hits your neck while walking through a crowded market, grab hold of your wallet.
This lesson I learned the hard way after my wallet was snatched from my front pocket. Fortunately I didn’t have anything important in it (that’s what money belts are for) and really shouldn’t have been carrying it in the first place. Force of habit I suspect.
Aside from that, the trip went well. We hopped a flight from Las Vegas to Miami on the 19th. From there, we headed south on our delayed flight from Miami to Lima, Peru.
Sorry it’s been so long. I’ve been given the boot off the Assignment Desk and dropped into the Interactive Department. That means I’m doing a lot more typing, and a lot less scanner hounding.
But it’s such a great job and department — I’m excited to get this little promotion.
That being said, I’ll still be writing this bad boy along with other little planned projects (keep an eye out for something neat on New Year’s).And as always, you can shoot me an email at sjackson@klastv.com.
On another note, I’m heading out of the country for the next week. I’m leaving the winter wonderland of Vegas and heading south of the equator to enjoy some warmer climes.
Be back in a week. I’ll take plenty of photos.
A great email just came into the Newsdesk. The subject is “Losers”.
24 pages (I kid you not) of crazy. Here are some gems…
“I was a White house representative and i was set up by Corutney Cox and Jennifer ansiton and i was shot at at night (not directly) over 76 times by the Sherrif Departmetn of SantaBarbar County. I am a professional musician, actor, moive writer and producer and i was set up on an initiation in order to date actresses..”
That’s right, shot 76 times.
“Despite my affiliations with the news, I was assaulted by a tattooed Patrolling Sherrif who not only threatened me, he threatened the State governor and White House Affiliations in Washington DC.
I’m interested… Tell me more…
“He told me that if he ever saw me again he would beat me and he would faze me on sight. He threatened me with assault and battery and he didnt respect the pentagon.
It goes on like this for ages. I love reading this stuff.
Edit - He really doesn’t like Jennifer Aniston and Cortney Cox. Here’s a little more on them:
“The two of them are sly mouth cheat a holics who lie, conive and try to control events through orchestrations of gunfire, sex and destruction. They are satanic vultures to say the least.”
Here’s one of my colleagues working the phones.
