KCRA & the Safeway Meat Scandal (21)
A fairly heated exchange developed, as I tried to explain the considerations that had gone into it.
Yes, it was another statement by the farmworkers, I said, but it was a from-the-horse's-mouth confirmation of Safeway's most important countercharge. Also, Russ Ward had already played the "Safeway says" game. What had been lacking was any specificity on what union dispute was involved. My live tag filled in the necessary details--then went on to show that even the United Farmworkers acknowledged a link between the meat charges and the lettuce war.
I was unable to convince Paul that my tag would be more informative than a recapitulation of Safeway's response. After a few minutes, argument turned to management declaration: he informed the producer that the tag would be rewritten.
In my rewrite, I did not have the realistic option of including both what Safeway had said and what KCRA had confirmed. Television is a demanding medium, and unless you have lots of pictures that wiggle and dance, you can't talk about anything for too long. The tag was by definition just a "talking head" of the anchorman, and couldn't provide enough visual support to sustain both pieces of information. Following the guidance of the assistant producer, I wrote up Safeway's response, and that was all our audience heard.
