I’m going to let you in on a little secret a lot of reporters and producers in this line of work don’t want you to know:

  Sometimes we accidentally cause the main anchors to look bad.

  Sure the mains (that’s newsroom slang for the main anchors, like Jay or Karen) get all the face time and recognition.

  And sure they deserve it because they’re very good here at WSLS.

  And it’s also a sure thing that mishaps do happen.

  Tonight for example I wrote a VOSOT (newsroom slang for a short, 40 second story where the anchor reads in video, tosses to a soundbite, then finishes the story) on the Boy Scouts of America 100th anniversary.

  The local scouting council planted a tree in the honor of the anniversary.

  They also did a fund-raising campaign to sell some more trees, plant some more trees, and each contributor got a commemorative *plate* to put at the base of the tree for the occasion.

  Only in the script I wrote “commemorative plant.”

  My photographer Jeff Perzan pointed out the mistake well in advance but I forgot to change it.

  So Jay read it on air as “commemorative plant” instead of “commemorative plate.”

  A lot of viewers probably thought it sounded weird but it wasn’t his screw up it was mine.

  This has happened before by accident and it’ll probably happen again.

  Sometimes I get in too much of a hurry and typos get in scripts.

  One time I put a pronouncer in a script (that cues the anchor on how to pronounce a difficult word) only I didn’t put in the proper things I needed to so it would stay off teleprompter.  So Jay actually read it on air as “sounds like [insert word here because I can’t remember what it was].,” instead of the correct way.

  Bottom line is sometimes when the anchors mess up it’s not there fault.

  Sometimes it’s just a reporter in a hurry who forgets to make a correction after a photographer points it out.