All Blog Posts from Public Eye

“Breaking News” is broken.

When exactly did it happen? For me, it was back during the case of the DC Sniper Story. We’d had a number of murders around the beltway, and the story was a mainstay of the cable networks. Gripping drama, particularly for those of us for whom a trip to the gas station had become a stressful occasion. (The sniper liked to gun down people at filling stations, near highway ramps for quick getaways.)

One rainy morning during the drama, a cable network announced they were about to report “Breaking News” on the sniper story. I pinwheeled in my desk and stared at the TV screen. Had they caught him? Had another person been shot?

The news? The sniper had made a phone call from a pay phone off I-95. Police were running to the scene to investigate the phone. Cameras were sent, reporters did stand-ups in front of the phone. Breathless speculation filled the airwaves about ‘the meaning of the call.’

The “Breaking News” was a pay phone in Fredericksburg, Virginia. (No word on whether Larry King’s producers sought an interview with it.)

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Martin Gill, the senior assignment editor for the National Desk based in New York City, has been in news for 40 years. That means he’s got plenty of stories to tell. As our “10 Plus 1" subject this week, Martin tells us about what it’s like working with breaking news all the time – and why he thinks that phrase might be slightly overused.

What do you do at CBS News?

I am the Senior Assignment Editor for the National Desk. I keep an eye on the "news of the day”: if something breaks I make sure the proper bureau is aware of the story and help dispatch crews and equipment as needed. We also look forward toward news events and possible stories for future coverage. Prior to this, I was the CBS South Editor managing our bureaus in Miami, Atlanta and Dallas. We covered everything from Hurricane Katrina to shuttle launches and crashes to Elian Gonzalez. Before joining the news desk, I was with the CBS Special Events Bulletin Center in New York working on everything from Special Coverage on a few wars and President Clinton's impeachment to presidential news conferences.

In Detroit for CBS, I was the News and Program Director for the award-winning news team at Newsradio 950 WWJ and the Regional Feed Producer and Field producer for CBS Newspath. During my 40 year career, I was a producer/assignment editor at ABC's Midwest Bureau in Chicago, a local newscast producer and an assignment manager in my hometown of Philadelphia at KYW TV, where I won five news Emmys. I also worked at KPIX in San Francisco, WDIV and WWJ TV in Detroit and WNJT in Trenton, N.J. I started my broadcast news career as a newscaster, reporter and disc jockey at WBCB Radio in Levittown, Penn.

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“Does all weather have to be severe?” Is breaking news either breaking or news a day later? These are questions local TV News executives faced at a recent panel discussion in Pittsburgh earlier this month, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (hat tip, Lost Remote). But it could just as well describe media as a whole, and cable news in particular, which in many cases hypes car chases, missing person cases and sensational crimes in order to grab people’s attentions.

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