The Live Intro

I was told, in my live shots, I need to be more edgy. It's a self defining direction, I guess. I'm assuming it means more authority, more presence, more self importance. It's not my style, but I was prescribed this remedy as my path to network and bigger markets. If I want to move up, I need to step up. It's not really my style, it's not really a style I like, but I can kind of understand what this occupational guru is telling me. This occupational guru could be my connection to the next level, so I'm at least trying to do what she says. I have to send her some new samples of my work and she has to approve it.

So I'm mentally scanning the network reporters and anchors in my head to decide who has the most edge and who I can emulate. I scan through the big network three first. Brian Williams, he got the most authority, but not much edge; Charles Gibson just kind of blends in; Katy Couric is about as edgy as the top of Matt Lauer's balding head. Anderson Cooper, he's kind of edgy. He's keeping 'em honest. Confronting the bad guy. Going where no news reporter has gone before. But is that what makes him edgy? His show is definitely edgy, in that it's on the cutting edge of the evolution of the business, but that doesn't make him edgy. I think the edge is an extension of his personality, his physical presence.

That's not really me. I'm laid back, a little more 'everybody has a story' than 'planet in peril' (despite the fact that I mostly do crime stories). But if that's what they want, that's what I'm going to try to do. I actually already started. I thought my live shot today was fucking Ginsu Knives. So much edge it could have cut through a tab cola can.

And of course, nobody back at the station recorded the show...