Not a clue

Kids say the darndest things.

So, sometimes, do local TV reporters.

Who, come to think of it, are often kids.

"Kids Say the Darndest Things" was the most popular segment of "Art Linkletter's House Party," which started up when I was about 10 years old. It ran every weekday afternoon on CBS TV beginning on Sept. 1, 1952. It ended up as TV's longest-running daytime variety show by the time the plug was pulled in 1969.

Linkletter would interview kids and sometimes get extremely funny -- and sometimes embarrassingly frank -- answers.

Often, the kids didn't have a clue about why the audience was laughing.

I compare some local TV reporters to kids because TV reporters in Richmond are often quite young. Richmond is just shy of being in the Top 50 TV markets in the country. Richmond is where aspiring TV reporters often come to find their first or second TV job. They hope they're on the way up, and they hope that Richmond is where they can build a résumé.

They're easy to spot. Just last week I heard novice reporters from two different stations reporting live when they didn't even know exactly where they were. One said he was on Hanover Street in Richmond's Fan District and the other said she was on Forest Hill Road.

(If they had looked at the street signs they would have known that both Forest Hill and Hanover are Avenues.)

But no matter. "Look, Mom, I'm on TV."

A couple of mornings ago, another newbie reported live from Northside that police had responded to a convenience store robbery. "They got called over here for an attempted robbery attempt."

I can't even get my mind around how somebody could attempt an attempted robbery.

The funniest moment by far recently came this past week in a local report that aired on one of Richmond's major evening newscasts. It was about a stabbing that happened during a video telephone chat.

The young reporter said the victim was "a 9-month old pregnant woman."

Close, but laughably impossible. The fact is that the victim was a grown woman who was 9 months pregnant.

The big problem for local TV news is that when these things happen, credibility flies out the window.

Kids. And local TV reporters.

Sometimes they say the darndest things.