hey everybody I'm ex TV producer jennifer moore and welcome to episode 2
of EX-TV Newsers now in the last episode we featured longtime Tampa
newsmen Brendan mcLaughlin and in this episode we have another very longtime
news reporter this is Mike Deeson and if you've ever been through Tampa or lived
in Tampa you've probably seen him he retired earlier this year as the senior
investigative reporter for WTSP the CBS station in Tampa and he has more Awards
than probably anybody I know and in fact some of them are right behind him Mike
thank you so much for doing this show and and for doing this like this is a
very early project but I really appreciate you being here
the life of me I think this is a very
and I'm so excited to have you and that's what I was thinking is after you
leave the business not a lot of people ask you about your experience or about
your opinion and particularly not the off-air people like producers or you
know photographers and those people have experienced too so I figured you know
why not give people a place to you know kind of decompress and also you're able
to speak a little bit more freely now that you're not in the business you you
can talk a little more candidly and this is hopefully a good place to do it all
right
you are never you don't seem like the kind of guy that is afraid to be
yourself and and for anyone who doesn't know a lot of people someone like mike
is very rare and the TV news business a lot of people come and go I'm sure
you've seen people come and go all your career so someone with nearly 50 years
of experience in TV news is is almost unheard of now so if you're watching
this you need to listen to this man because he knows what he's talking about
so please listen to this guy because he's done things and had experiences
that you have not yet know you're more of an expert on life than someone like
me so a lot of people might not realize that but it's it's
people like you that we should be looking to and learning from okay so
Mike you in your nearly 50-year career what jobs have you held at various TV
stations well I was actually I did some sports in Buffalo and in Saginaw
Michigan I did sports there initially gathered the business doing that
I generally Simon reporting as anybody who wants to be an investigative
reporter you don't start out to do a story and I did a lot of political
reporting which actually led me into investigative reporting because I found
lots of problems with politics and all and people lying and governmental
breakdowns which I wanted to expose and that and that led me to investigate and
for people who are not really familiar how is being an investigative reporter
different than being a general assignment reporter well first of all I
think to be an investigative reporter is the best job in the business I love
being an investigative reporter and still consider myself that we can get to
that in a bit but an investigative reporter doesn't necessarily do a story
every single day work on stories for a long period of time because of the
economies of the TV stations and they want you to be on the air as much as you
possibly can but you've got to research it and put together the information and
make sure you have everything right because usually they are accusatory
stories it's exposing wrongdoing or greed or governmental problems and so
you've got to do a lot of research to nail it down
and there's a matter of fact let me tell you about my stories but I would write a
story it would be reviewed by our investigative unit producer then our
investigative unit executive producer then our news director and then our
Washington DC attorney who would put me on the witness stand and go line by line
and say what paperwork you have to cover this
well it's intense because I was sued a lot of times because we never lost
because we had a nail but anybody can file a lawsuit usually it's when during
that hurts so mad but we never lost so I never never had any problem with with
them saying that to me and that's the egg goes to the importance of really
really digging deep and also getting your facts right and making sure that
the stuff you're reporting is is is correct and you I think you are kind of
you are very well known in the area for being sort of the watchdog and for
keeping people accountable so it's people like you that that really brought
a lot of these issues local issues to light I tried to because I got
personally offended by by people who were greedy or governmental agencies
that weren't doing the right thing I mean really really still does and so I
was more than happy yeah and for the people watching that being an
investigate reporter is is a job that not many people can do especially not as
long as you did successfully so it's it's a very it's a very difficult job
and also you you are working a lot on stories these weren't puff pieces you
were confronting people all the time that didn't really want a story to be
done on them my rule was if I was doing the story about someone they would
appear on him I would call them up and they might say I have no comment and I
would always say you have the right certainly not to comment about the story
but you did say that on camera do me and I don't call it an ambush journalism
because I would say I'll tell you where I'm gonna be and I will track you down
and find you until I get you on camera and then I always say I recommend you do
it in your office which is your kingdom rather than on the street with my finger
some advice um did not what's the longest you ever had to wait for
somebody like staking out of place whoa jeez there wasn't the longest was once
we waited for a week this is in you know one week period where we were trying to
get a guy who had been arrested for targeting young kids he's in jail and it
was horrible and we waited all week long to get a 10 second shot of him and on
Friday I mean we've decorated the morning
stayed into late at night on Friday of that week our news director said if you
don't get him today you got a disorder without him how like I gotta get the sky
yeah we got him that Friday and then also the passenger or two I was trying
to get a state representative who I went to his house I went to his girlfriend's
house he was in a bar one night in st. Petersburg I waited outside for four
hours and he slipped out a back entrance so I then I had to go to Tallahassee and
I knew the session was started either have to sleep in his office to deal with
but so that's a several weeks I hate stakeouts I hate stakeouts I hate
sake I don't get a 10 seconds of video and then ago I love to say guys this is
the glamorous side of news publicist you are living you are living the good life
out there right like so some some people will carry Gatorade bottles I didn't
like to be bad but usually go okay we've been here for four hours he's not come
out of there she's not come out should we chance it really that's problem yes
that's crazy and that's something you don't you think about unless you're
until you're there you know all right what is the best part about working in
the news business in your opinion um I think it's the in the news business get
to see people they see things firsthand that people only like seriously and be
experience it right through there and they
external forth I've been to launches over at the Cape of the at the shuttle
I've seen executions I'm in the witness at several executions both electric
chair and lethal injection and I feel like I'm living part of history see
seeing it actually happened that means the best thing about it is an
investigative reporter exposing wrong and on the flip side what was the worst
part about working in the news business well it's it's a crazy business it's
very long hours then you know work holidays you work crazy hours there's a
lot of pressure there's a there's pressure to constantly produce
constantly right you hate to make a mistake I mean clearly what I was doing
you couldn't make the paper work you know so there's various results I
definitely imagine in your in your particular area especially that was like
right what would you like the world to know about TV news that might not be
evident to the average person to succeed in TV news it's more than just being on
TV you know it's it's hard work it is - very hard work and you've got to be
dedicated if you don't love what you're doing you're in the wrong business
because it is all-consuming all the time I would wake up at 3 o'clock in the
morning and think about a story that I was working on and it's not just looking
for on here there are so many people behind the scenes support people that
make it work and if you work with good people it works very smoothly you work
with bad people it just totally falls apart from the photographer to the
producers to the 80s that there's a lot of people that you never see on the air
that make it all happen and it's not just that a couple of minutes that you
see on the air you work for in my case sometimes weeks or months on the story
the to get it on the air it's not simple it's a great fun but it's very hard work
that is very well said now you've worked on
thousands and thousands of stories but offhand is there one in particular they
had a really big impact on you well yeah there were there were so many uh in the
past year or two I helped send a Tampa firefighter to prison because he also
worked as the treasurer for a cherry that supported orphans live in orphanage
actually and he embezzled three hundred and fifty five thousand dollars oh yeah
and one money a lot of money and nobody was doing anything about it
and finally we did a story and the US attorney saw the story in Tampa and
according to the assistant US attorney who told me after the trial he said to
them the next day what are we doing about this and he said we all sort of
looked around and said nothing he said get the FBI out there tomorrow and get
that guy and they then he finally agreed the plea and spent some time in prison
because as a personally offended me stealing from orphans how it does it
just it just bugs the hell out of me so that that was that was one that I
really really did ever recover the money or was it well he's supposed to make
restitution on that but you know he lost his job because of it and also the fire
chief don't be crazy he wouldn't fire the guy because he got an anonymous tip
like I did but the anonymous tip included the tax return the 990 all of
the nonprofit's is an investigative reporter I didn't teach other nonprofit
immediately get their tax returns for the 990 and it said in the 990 that he
had embezzled the money so he said well I can't act on anonymous IRS form you
can call the IRS like I did and then find out that this is actually true and
he left the guys stay on for a while he finally did fire on them that he was
arrested but yeah he's supposed to pay restitution whether he will or not only
be able to I don't who all right you know we got to talk about the
the elusive viral stories the viral videos I know you probably you probably
seen quite a few go viral in your time in the news attributes have you noticed
that they tend to have like how do you feel like a story goes viral I think
it's something people that touches people's emotions more than intellectual
abilities it's something that really gets to their heart the couple didn't
really come to mind quickly for me was we broke a story how many five six seven
years ago about a quadriplegic who was arrested and the jail didn't
believe he was a quad and they dumped him from ever met I remember that video
ah that went that went viral I was great what was crazy about the story though
was he called me I mean being on the air as long as I was I got a lot of tips and
so we get the call and we go out there and now it's his word he's saying this
happened because we didn't realize at that time that there was a taping system
in the jail and then he said all of a sudden you know it's all on tape that's
unless cameras all over the place it was sort of like probably before your time
when Alexander Butterfield revealed that Nixon had taped everything in the White
House nobody new uses and the Watergate hearings I mean I said oh yeah it's all
I say we tape everything in the in the Oval eyes same thing with this guy so I
made a public records request for the videotape and I didn't know if I had a
story or not until I saw the tape and they said we'll try to get into you the
guy who makes the tape leaves at four o'clock so I tell the station you got to
leave Oh a huge hole in the newscast like a three a half minute hole and I
think I have a story but I'm not sure so I wasn't sure until four o'clock we got
the DVD they didn't even look at it I put it in my computer and and now see me
arrested I mean rolling into the jail and all and then I see him dump it and
dump him I know we've got a story then I had to go to the sheriff's office their
headquarters was away from the jail and show it to them because they had no idea
so they'd be connections for so people just freaked out
about that do you do you like this whole environment now where now there's
cameras everywhere everyone has a cell phone do you think that's a good thing
or do you think that's sort of a negative
I use a double-edged sword I think it's good in some respect look what has
happened in terms of the police shootings and the police violence so I
think in that way because sometimes in the past people say I didn't do that I
didn't do that well right here on video so obviously you did do that another way
our society has become so full of it's almost like Big Brother looking at you
everywhere you go everything so it's a double-edged sword but if I had a vote
one way or the other I probably vote for you let's let's yeah and you were
telling me yesterday when you started out you had to develop your own film
four stories is that right we shot we shot on film my first TV job was in 1968
in Columbia Missouri of balaam new TV the station was all black and white
Coleco TV was coming in but we were black and white and we shot it at that
time they wind up Bell & Howell three twirlin silent camera you get a 45
second narration but he was happy you shot your film you would have to have it
process and then even as I moved through other TV stations um we still shot film
until about 1980 or so and and we would get in from your from your story each
day and the film would go we called it into the soup into the
processor so you had to wait for that and then it would come that's why news
didn't happen after three o'clock because it had a be be processed and
then we would splice it together when I started with with glue pots but then we
eventually want to see what scotch tape and you're like you must feel like it's
a breeze now well yeah I shoot a little little SD cards right now so it's pretty
it's pretty amazing it's really crazy the changes you you must have gone
through yeah well the videotape I mean that was
that was a huge thing because we could then
yet you know we could run it into the station and be closer to deadlines and
then we got live it but I you know I visited a friend when I was still I
worked in Norfolk Virginia for ten years and I we were still shooting film about
1980s my friend was in st. Louis at the CBS oh no it was AMX and they didn't
switch to videotape and I went there I went we're not in the same business like
who is Star Wars compared to what we were doing but then eventually everybody
and that is great that is crazy to think about what you but you had to do to get
a story on the air when you first started that's yeah
what's it what's called nonlinear editing if you lay down a shot you
couldn't go back and insert all right so you've probably had over the years a lot
of media relations or PR people approach you or talk to you about story ideas so
for people who are watching that might work in those businesses if you were to
come up with some sort of guide on you know maybe best practices for people who
are in that line of work you know a lot of people watching this channel might be
what kind of things would you tell them what kind of stuff would you include a
guide like that well first thing is personal relationships that's I mean as
a reporter I would try to have coffee or go into somebody's office even when I
didn't have a story just to establish a personal relationship so I would try to
establish personal relationships with not only reporters but also assignment
editors and and and maybe producers because what happens typically is that
stories are pitched in a meeting even with the investigative unit we met every
Monday with our whole unit and we would pitch stories and they'd say ya know ya
know so you gotta have somebody if you really want the story out there someone
who is pitching your story for you and you've got to get them excited about it
and understand why it's a good story and why it appeals to the viewer not to your
client because nobody cares about how it feels to your client so if you can
establish a relation with reporters the best time to
establish that relationship is prior to meeting them to help pitch the story
same with assignment editors who the assignment editor for those who don't
know their people list some stories going on what's happening in the area
and it have to keep their ears to the radio and make contact it's a very tough
job they only hear from management when
something screws up they never get congratulated when they do something
right the only time you Simonetta they're here some someone is when they
miss something so so it's a very tough job but so you can establish a
relationship with an assignment out of there
on the desk find out who it is station find a cup of coffee one morning and
then producers it's a people-to-people business and that's how you you have to
have to do it and then again keep in mind that there's pressure for a story
that gets on the air to appeal to the audience or you have to say when you
talk to the person that you now establish the relationship with this is
why it will appeal to your audience because that's exactly and we've gotten
so many pitches that don't have those qualities in there we can't we couldn't
do them no no all right so there's a lot of you a lot of youtubers out there and
some of them might be trying to work with media outlets or try to get media
attention what would you tell them like what would be your advice to a youtuber
to try to get noticed by traditional media outlets well you know there's a
lot of YouTube it's played on mainstream TV stations there's a lot of YouTube it
gets more views than mainstream TV stations but again it's the same type of
thing you need to establish that relationship with somebody and say you
know your video might appeal to your audience
that's what it's the same thing as if you're a PR person it's it's it's
appealing for the audience again and through a personal relationship exactly
alright so there are a lot of young people who might be considering a career
in broadcast journalism in fact I just talked to somebody today he wanted to be
a reporter and was asking me what they should do
what kind of advice would you give them right now if they're trying to break
into it okay get a broad educational background if you haven't already done
that it's not you gotta have something journalism but you also need to know
about economics need to know about this you need to know about current events I
was here I used to do the tray of Anton's covered up where I eat a lot of
wildlife but you got to know what's going on in the world
and and and that's locally to know who your police chief is know who your state
attorney is know at least one or two members of your City Council and County
Commission that's where stories happen and understand that it's hard work and
then that if you want success business there is no substitute for hard work
well a lot of smart people that fail in this businesses they don't want to work
hard and I know a lot of people like me that maybe are the smartest people in
the world but work hard and succeed in you just you just outwork everybody else
that's you recent earlier this year you decided to retire after your nearly
50-year career can you kind of walk people through why you decided to leave
the business well yeah the business was changing our station was was was
changing and I didn't like the direction they go and there were some things they
wanted me to do I didn't it so we want to do and there were other things I
wanted to do in life I had written a book then I wanted to finish
concurrently with an Avenue because it's a 703 pages one hundred fifty five
thousand seven hundred and fifty forwards which is way too much so but I
wanted to I wanted to get that done and I was completely handed in the book so I
couldn't publish that while I was there I wanted to do documentaries which I'm
doing that with a little free documentaries right now and I wanted to
do commentary and so I'm and I'm doing commentary now I'm like none of those
could I do while I was still in TV station
I was in a financial position to be able to do that I have been very
fortunate in that and it just it just seemed like the right time and a lot of
people don't understand that people on air at TV stations you are a little bit
restricted as to things you can do in your outside life and people don't I
don't think they understand that that's right like you couldn't have had a news
YouTube channel while working at channel 10 no because because I call people out
but now I can actually say you know this is a boneheaded move or I can do things
about politics and why this is good or why why this is bad I could not get done
that no and I'm very curious to know what is your favorite social media
platform right now well um I like YouTube to be able to use
YouTube but still at all Facebook is the 800-pound gorilla I mean it's it's still
and I have some problems the way they manipulate things I mean they're much
more manipulative than any other social media platform but if you want to reach
the masses unfortunately it seems like Facebook and in some cases YouTube but
but not not as much you know I get a lot more hits on Facebook that I'm YouTube
well though I yeah I really think you I really think you could be huge on
YouTube like low doing doing some sort of week like weekly or daily show yeah I
mean this thing on Facebook called if I were king right where you kind of say
like if I were king I would do this if that seems to be catching on yeah I'm
getting a lot of response I mean someone sometimes I get more
response on that viewership when we were talking yesterday and by the way if you
I actually just met like literally yesterday we worked with the same people
and we worked in the same market but we didn't really know each other until one
day ago I already feel like you're an old friend which is awesome but the one
thing I really that really strikes me about you is how willing you are to
embrace and love technology rather than shy away for it from it or be resistant
to change so like what do you think
makes you like that because there aren't a lot of people that are so so into it
well I realized you know sending with film and see how everything changed if
you don't keep up with honey when we went to video in Virginia and all some
of the photographers in chat film all their wives just they couldn't cope with
it they couldn't understand it the audio and video were on different tracks all
that so that was one thing so I realized you had to do that also I write music
and all the music is digital and you have to you have to be able to work with
computers and digital I've got a digital studio at home for my music so I had to
do do both and so even though as I said you know I'm an old guy I try to keep up
with technology now so fascinating and what do I have to tell you my daughter I
gave her five weeks ago to our second grandchild and I was holding them a
couple of days ago thinking what is his life just in my lifetime are so
fantastic so that's that's amazing I do think I think you should seriously lean
into YouTube because I really think YouTube could use somebody like you
there please please okay all right so let me we'll talk after the show we'll
we'll talk more and and get you more into the YouTube there's and that's the
thing I've noticed about YouTube is that there's a lot of younger people that are
interested in news but they don't want to watch TV
they they want to get it from someone they trust and they seem to have a
distrust of the media right exactly so you you and you seem to understand that
no can you tell people so you've been working on this book and you've been
working on the documentaries where I'm sure there's a lot of people that will
be interested in reading the book and watching them where can they do that
well we'll be out sometimes probably in the spring it'll be on Amazon you know
in some other places but Amazon will be probably the prime place it's called a
bad news for you is good news which is kind of your life and a nut
really sums up your career it does documentaries the first one is
on the economic impact of climate change in Florida I am I was hired you that I'm
not producing that I was just the hired journalist from the interviewer and
writer and talent but that the guy who's producing it thinks he can get it on
Netflix I hope that can't because it'll help me with my others the others I'm
just in the middle of shooting right now we're almost done with the climate
change documentary so if that works I'm also working I wonder I am producing
about autonomous vehicles something your grandson will have when he's a car
really oh yeah all being all be able to drive themselves
that's right they'll be able to drive themselves so I'm hoping that if the
climate change one gets onto Netflix that this will then be able to follow it
I'll have an entree under that and I'm working on one about problems with
teaching kids to read the school system is doing a terrible job and most of the
text that they use they have data that shows if that doesn't work but the
companies that own these products also make millions of dollars in campaign
contributions to some legislators and and people who make the decisions so I'm
trying to exactly people have this misconception that because you've
retired from channel 10 you're like laying on a beach somewhere and that
couldn't be further from the truth
you work your you are not stopping and you're still a journalist you're just
doing it in a different way I don't think in 5-10 years I might be wrong
that there will be let the you know we have four stations doing news I don't
think there will be four stations doing news thank you so what do you what do
you think is gonna happen to the news business well I think it's a good time
because there are so many platforms but I think it's going to be on a home
computer or fall technology we're not even sure there's
still always be a need with someone who can shoot right into these stories so
I'm still high on the business the TV business is in a bit of an interesting
place right now what do you think TV stations can do to remain relevant and
to really survive well that's really tough I if I were in charge if I were to
he became of a TV station I would do a newscast for older people because
they're the ones that are watching TV and and I would I would say we're the
adult station we are we are not gonna tell you who Britney Spears and
Christina Aguilera are battling it out for and on all that and that's what the
TV stations are doing I think they make a huge mistake my kids and their friends
rain rains from 2627 it's almost 40 and none of them none of them watch TV news
if they would ever comment when I was working to the station about one of my
stories it's because they saw it on Facebook or YouTube so the TV stations
are making an endless battle to get the younger demographics that are not there
where older people people my age who have a ton of disposable income and are
interested in the news watch the newscasts so that's what I would do but
then the problem is when people my age the baby boomers when we die off that's
when the newscast I mean a TV news business I hate to say it is almost like
being in the typewriter business you can see it coming you think things are
changing so they have to focus their efforts on line I think in on and on
mobile or on some technology that's not there but it doesn't look good the
future to me looks worse for newspapers and bad for TV so if you were trying to
get into reporting now would you kind of look to more alternative media like the
online outlets or yeah I'm the only the only reason I might go to the TV
stations is they pay more money right now but I don't think that's always
going to be the case I think there will be on
outlets are paying a decent salary and all and to get the experience of the TV
station with a bigger staff because the online outlets they expect you to do
more do your own shooting I mean for some of the one of the documentaries
there's photographers the ones I'm producing because I'm cheap I'm shooting
I'm writing I'm the talent I'm doing the music for it you know but at the TV
stations that you have a bigger bigger staff but I think it's gonna be more
self-contained as well and that's something that we you and I have been
finding out with making our own videos like I'm learning to do graphics and
there was just a lot of it there's a lot more working parts that you have to have
to get together and you've been doing your own graphics for the if I were king
stuff oh yeah yeah and at the TV station and I added a lot you know my shooting I
shot a little bit I'm shooting more now and the equipment is come down it's so
much in price you know I have all sorts of the barriers to entry if you want to
create videos they're so low it's no accessible to people so I tell people
like don't worry Anessa Sara Lee about the gear just tell the story that's
right I mean there was a reporter in Houston I think what's used to who did
all his stories on his iPhone and in quite not candidly the iPhone video is
as good as the DSLR you can tell you can sometimes the problem is when you go in
to interview someone with an iPhone they don't yeah they're like really yeah if
you set up the whole thing with the light kit the DSLR and I've got all that
and go oh this this guy really is professional through this this is just
as good quality and I use it as a third camera cos they have a GoPro and have a
couple other little things but you can shoot on an iPhone and look great and I
shot some stuff at the TV station we were doing some undercover stuff every
once in a while I would shoot it on the iPhone so we'd have extra cameras and it
looked like you say you couldn't tell the difference
no that's it's so interesting to see and in some I saw a youtuber he had a good
point he's like you know what the quality of an iPhone is better than
Spike Lee when he shot do the right thing
absolutely yeah which when you think about it that way like the quality we
have now on a phone is better than filmmakers did in like the 1980s I know
it is it is absolutely frightening well Mike I
mean I this has been such a great time talking to you and I think for people
watching hopefully you you learn something from this man because I
definitely have and I want to give you the opportunity to ask people watching
any question you want what kind of question of the day do you
for people the question I would have is what is important so important to your
life that it would make you tune in to either a webcast or a newscast every day
to find out about what's the latest with that particular event that's that I
would really like to know that you know what would you say well I've got to know
whether it's the price of Bitcoin or what what the president has done or or
what but I want to know you know what is that visceral feeling inside of you
where you got I've got to find out and if I don't tune in go to that webcast or
YouTube or TV station I don't feel like I'm missing something that's that's what
I really would like to know that is a very good question well Mike decent
thank you so much and for all of you watching thank you and if you are a
fellow X TV news err and want to be featured here hit me up on Twitter I'm
at X TV producer hit me up because I would love to talk to you as well and
Mike really best I I can't wait to see what like seriously I really don't think
you are done at all you could be like the next huge youtuber and look like
that would be that would be so awesome you know you you end up having this 50
year career in news and then you end up also blowing up somewhere else
that like that's what I would want for you well thanks that's that's wonderful
and again I congratulate you on this and which is terrific you are obviously a
people person but like Jennifer said we just met yesterday I feel like she's a
long-lost friend and I know that this will be a relationship that will
continue besides this little chat that we've had here today and my call so
where can people find you online if they want to find ya right now the decent
media on Facebook or Mike decent on Facebook I've got them both and I've got
a mic the YouTube channel and I'm also gonna
migrate some of those if I were king into an if I were king YouTube channel
you I was even thinking podcasts are really big right now to like you could
totally do like put some of that stuff in a podcast I could yeah people would
listen I would hope so we're excited to see what Mike does next thank you so
much Mike I really appreciate you doing this
thanks Jennifer have a great day all right you too
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