Down at the WTVR cat corral

Managing WTVR news reporters and photographers was like herding cats.

It's really hard to control those who resist control. Journalists are an independent lot. That's one of the qualities that makes them good at their jobs.

They also question everything: "If your mother says she loves you, check it out." That old chestnut sums up what a good reporter should do. But it means that newsroom managers better have a good explanation for every management decision.

I was reminded of this today as I was looking through the too-narrowly-named WTVR News Style Guide from my tenure as news director. It covers points of English grammar and usage, but it also ranges far afield, covering topics as diverse as overtime sheets and where to buy gas for the news cars.

The Style Guide was actually a collection of memos to the newsroom staff, preserved chronologically in a Richmond Robins notebook. (The Richmond Robins was a pro ice-hockey team that made its home in Richmond from 1971 to 1976. The notebook must have been left over from the team's inaugural press kit.)

Some of the non-style topics are funny. On Aug. 6, 1974, word came down from the front office that no reporters from other TV stations should be seen in WTVR news film. None. Management also wanted us to stop shooting news film that showed other station's logos on microphones and cameras. The dictum was absurd because it's almost impossible to implement. When you're shooting news conferences or breaking news, other stations will be at the scene with their cameras and microphones. You just have to live with it. The rule was honored in the breaching of it, but time and again management would raise the issue.

There are also memos in the Style Guide about parking in the spots reserved for reporters under City Hall ("See, guys, you actually have to be covering something in City Hall to park there"), how to handle traffic tickets ("Please don't throw them in the back seat"), being on-time for work ("Being late is inexcusable, especially when you get caught"), and telephone courtesy ("Be cool when you're really hacked off at the idiot on the phone who wants to know why Bob told Nancy that his ex-wife Lisa was coming for Thanksgiving dinner on 'As the World Turns'").

I had forgotten a memo in the Style Guide about how CBS would cover terrorism. It was dated April 14, 1977, and warned that "the story should not be sensationalized beyond the actual fact of its being sensational." Spoken like a true apostle of journalism ethics.

A few memos talked about the groundbreaking ways in which TV journalism in Richmond was changing. One announced that WTVR had hired the first African-American female anchor in Richmond. Another cautioned against using courtesy titles for women. (Men were referred to by their last names, and women should be too, so we dropped the Mrs., Miss and Ms.) Still another cautioned against using "black" as the only description of a suspected criminal ("The real question is whether the story will stand without reference to color; most times it will").

And one or two of the memos read like they were addressed to two-year-olds. "When you're loading a box of paper into the teletype machine, please be sure to remove the packing material first."

"Herding cats -- don't let anybody tell you it's easy." That's what the cowboy said in that very funny Super Bowl commercial for EDS 10 years ago.

In case you've forgotten, the commercial featured real cowboys, along with about 60 cats with help from 13 cat wranglers. With the magic of computer graphics there were thousands of cats on the screen swimming across streams, winding around the legs of horses, and roughing up the cowboys.

Substitute "journalists" for "cats" and you've got a good picture of what it was like to manage a TV newsroom.