[Scan-DC] Ask the Editor -- Breaking news never sleeps

[Alan Henney]

The Frederick News-Post (Maryland)

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News

October 31, 2009 Saturday

Ask the Editor -- Breaking news never sleeps

BYLINE: Sam Yu, The Frederick News-Post, Md.

SECTION: STATE AND REGIONAL NEWS

LENGTH: 684 words

Oct. 31--I've been asked by police and fire and rescue personnel from time to time whether I ever sleep.

That's because they'll see me on the scene of a news event late at night or early in the morning, such as a recent stabbing incident I went to in Middletown at 2:30 a.m.

Some people have made comments to the effect that they believe police and emergency response agencies routinely call me when something big happens. I can tell you this is not true. 

For many years I have kept a fire and police radio scanner by my bedside that is on all the time. I've learned to sleep lightly enough most of the time to react to keywords like "stabbing," "shots fired," "priority 4," which means a fatality, "fully involved," which means something is being completely consumed by fire and "second or third alarm," which means more equipment and emergency personnel are needed because the incident is quite serious. With multiple alarms, scanner traffic with dispatches and responding units really increases the chance that I'll take notice.

I can also tell you that some prankster on the Frederick County dispatching system periodically plays a few bars from the theme from the television show "Mr. Ed" when I'd rather be sleeping. His shift, however, must have changed since I haven't heard about Mr. Ed recently.

Unfortunately, sometimes things happen when I'm in a deep sleep and I'll miss it. For example, an arson destroyed a historic barn on the Zimmerman farm on Ballenger Creek Pike in May 2008. I slept through it and didn't find out about it until I went to work.

I should explain that I'm one of a staff of five photographers in the photo department at The Frederick News-Post. We all work 40-hour workweeks with a rotating schedule with four shifts. Our earliest shift starts at 8 a.m., and our latest shift ends at 10:30 p.m.

So we did get photos of the aftermath of the barn fire -- but I would have liked to have gotten photos of our first responders on the job trying to save the barn and nearby buildings.

I also should mention that some of our other staff photographers listen to a scanner during "off" hours, just maybe not all night.

Staff photographer Bill Green thought he heard something about a helicopter crash on the scanner and called me late on a Thursday night in July. We both listened more closely, and Green headed out to try to find the crash site while I looked at a map on the Internet to try to get a better location for him of the crash on I-70.

Once I get to the scene I will generally call City Editor Rob Walters if it looks like it's going to be a big story. I can tell you he's pretty groggy when you first wake him up. Walters then decides whether it's important enough to wake a reporter.

With late-night or early morning incidents I usually end up acting as photographer and reporter. After getting the photos I'll try to gather as much information as possible. I'll try to talk with emergency personnel and witnesses if any. If it's an ongoing incident, then emergency personnel will be rightly occupied, and information may initially be sketchy.

At some point I'll leave the scene and go home to my News-Post laptop computer to process the photos, write a short story and update our website.

We only report what we are confident is true, which is usually from being on the scene, which is why there might be few details at first. Even so, you may see the word "apparent" or "apparently" in early reports to indicate that an official report or news release later from an "official" agency may differ from initial information.

At that point our reporters will update information when possible. And if I'm not needed anymore ,then I'll head back to bed.

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