Monday, February 25, 2013

Choreographing Zeinab

I just finished watching the latest half-hour news segment that I can receive now that BBC News is one of my options on Comcast cable. About a month ago the BBC started promoting the fact that they had moved into a new facility with studio facilities that looked more like mission control for a space shot than a television production unit. (Less has been said about the precipitously steep staircases or the cafeteria that serves potatoes hard as rocks.)

One interesting feature of the new facility is that the presenter no longer spends all of his/her time behind a desk. (Philadelphia newscaster Mort Krimm once joked about the luxury of being able to show up for work without pants.) Thus, today we were treated to Zeinab Badawi walking into an open space with a bevy of remotely-controlled cameras appearing to orbit about her. The problem is that, with so many cameras, one does not always know where to look for the little red light (which I hope is still there); and in the 11 AM segment, Zeinab was caught looking in the wrong direction (probably not at any camera). Her recovery was lightning quick, but it still looked like a recovery.

Have we now entered a new age in which news presenters will have to learn choreography before going on the air?

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