Technical Difficulties

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Dear Viewers,

For three days, I have been trying to "send" to the New York bureau — via my computer — some video I shot from the inaugural ball, Thursday night. I wanted to post the video on our blog. Needless to say, I am doing something wrong since it just is not happening (I could have walked the video to New York by now!) Monday, I burned a DVD of the video (so I thought) and hoped to have someone in the D.C. bureau help me send it. The DVD worked on my computer at home, but by the time I got to work, it was somehow not working. I was told there were "missing files." Today, I am bringing my laptop to work so that the I.T. Department can take the video and send it to New York for me so that I can post it. At this rate, you will see the video sometime around the next inaugural ball — 2009! What is now so annoying is that the video is not that great, but I have invested so much time in shooting it and editing it for the blog that I am determined to get it posted.

By the way, if you saw Monday night's show, you heard me tease Laura Ingle about multi-tasking. She is the one who shot the video of the Rocha family civil lawyer that we played on the air. (She had professional help getting it fed to New York ... so no comments about having Laura teach me.) We see and hear so much behind the scenes that never makes air — ordinarily — that I have convinced Laura to get a small handycam to carry around with her. We have now twice aired her video!

Speaking of last night's show, we had a fascinating interview with Terri Schiavo's (search) family. Click on the link in the video box above to watch it.

The point of the blog is to give you a more casual idea of what we do — and to show you things we see and which would never make air. It is a behind the scenes. Our first e-mailer below apparently expects something else:

E-mail No. 1

I'm a big fan of FNC; however, the photos hardly covered the ball itself. Only 4 pics of the 16 were of the President and First Lady and they were from the big screens. However, there were 5 of Don King and his jewelry, 1 of a little girl nobody knew, 1 of Gingrich, 1 of a couple not identified and the rest were of the FNC staff. Nice coverage of the ball!

ANSWER: I thought Don King's jewelry "unusual" and I thought you would never see it (if you wanted to see it) — so I took pics of it. Secondly, and more significantly, the ballroom was very, very dark and few pics turned out that were not taken in the close proximity of our set (with our bright lights.) A still camera's flash does not project 30 plus feet to a stage. I did the best I could under the circumstances and thought it would be fun for you to see the fancy bling-bling.

E-mail No. 2

Greta et al,
Shame on you as a journalist to not ask the proper question and to hedge with vagueness when discussing the case of the kidnapped 11-year-old boy by Fredick Fritz (sp). Why would you not ask the sheriff if the boy was molested, it's obvious to even your mass viewers with probably an 80 I.Q. that kidnapping charges would be brought — you're an attorney I thought. Why pander to the propaganda and America to not really get to the truth.
This boy was kidnapped and his mom comes on TV and acts like trailer trash and panders to your FOX camera. Is the boy safe and was her harmed is what any interviewer would ask? If it was important enough of a story to use in your program please try to get to the truth and facts as we know it or the sheriff knows it; not about why the convicted sex offender didn't register; the question is did he re-offend as we know the recidivism rates on sex and crime in general are high; it's bad law to have a convicted sex offender have the onus of registering.
Please pursue the truth and knowledge and don't bring us cardboard filler to make a full program.
Respectfully,
Shane McCleary
Newport Beach, CA

ANSWER: As for the first paragraph above, I deliberately asked the question about charges — rather than, "was the child molested?" I thought it was a more delicate and polite way to do it. I thought it reflected better manners — it both asked the question (my job) and was not crude. It was not "cardboard filler" —- you got the point of the question.

E-mail No. 3 — Monday, I posted a picture of Don King with a big smile and asked you for help in writing a caption. Below are two that came in:

Hi Greta,
The first thing that popped into my head was "Crest white strips worked for me!"
Stephanie
MN

E-mail No. 4

Greta,
Per your request the caption for the photo of Don King should be: REPUBLICRAT

E-mail No. 5

For the last year or so I've been forced to watch "On the Record" turn into "The Scott Peterson Show". I have heard more about the Modesto Murderer than I would care to know. It was shoved down my throat every night by an endless parade of lawyers, experts, and ex-girlfriends. Why is it that a murder of a young woman and her unborn child got 24 hour coverage for months on end, but an entire family was slaughtered, in what looks like an Islamic terrorist attack, and not one word has been uttered by Greta? Not one little hour has been dedicated to telling the story of the Coptic (search) family who immigrated here to escape Muslim persecution only to be slaughtered on our soil? I think it's a disgraceful double standard. The truth is, you and I are not in danger from Scott Peterson. Unfortunately, only his wife and son needed to fear him. However, we should be afraid of Islamofascist extremists who are possibly breaking into our houses and butchering us and our children. Has this not occurred to anyone at "On the Record"?
I'm sorry, but the hysteria over Peterson and Kobe Bryant is totally overblown and in comparison to the N.J. Coptic murders, is a blip on the screen. Since I am a customer, and the customer is always right, I am requesting a special on the N.J. Coptic murders. I would go so far as to ask you to cover it non-stop until we get some answers. FOX News is more fair and more balanced than the other networks, but it isn't fair or balanced enough. Fair and balanced would mean you spend as much time on the NJ murders as you did on Peterson and Bryant.
Why aren't you interested in this? I don't get it.
Sincerely,
Megan Fox
Chicago, IL

ANSWER: Megan, we DID cover this story ... so did other news shows on our network. I suggest you actually watch FOX and not just read chat boards on line.

E-mail No. 6

Hi, Greta,
My name is Jericha and I watch your show almost every night with my mom. I'm 9. How old are you? Sorry, that's rude. I like your show though. It's cool that you got to go to the inauguration! My mom's worker went. He is an 8th grade principal. Did you see him? He is tall & his name is Cy.
Gotta go. Time for bed. :(
Thanks,
Jericha
Amarillo, TX

ANSWER: Jericha, I missed Cy, but I am delighted your mother watches our show. You should know from watching the news and our show that people sometimes don't behave as they should ... and I hope when you watch our show and the topics we cover, you think to yourself, "I will never act that way ... and I want to do what I can to be a good family member and a good citizen." By the way, it would not hurt my feelings at all if you elected to watch something other than our show ... you are at that lucky and wonderful age when there are so many other things to think about than the news.

Greta

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