Spoken like a Champion

A few posts back I wrote about the many funny things that kids say and how it seems to enlighten the situation. But what about when adults say things that defy their very intelligence (or maybe exposes their lack of it)? Most of you know, I work in TV. I've had the pleasure of working with some very fine people in the past. But occasionally we get stuck with a green reporter who doesn't know when to stop talking. Sometimes we get guys whom we know are smart but for some unknown reason disengage their gray matter just long enough for us to doubt.

A couple of years ago I was working with a reporter from a network that I will leave nameless, but I will say it covers nothing but professional football. We were interviewing the father of a pro football player who earlier in his adult life was addicted to drugs and alcohol. During a drug related incident, the father was shot and subsequently was left blinded for life. It was a sad story to hear. The correspondent, obviously thinking about that coveted sports emmy, decided to ask a very serious question. "At what moment did you first realize that you were blind?" The father thought very briefly and then answered laughingly "when I couldn't see". It was all I could do to keep from rolling on the floor at the stupidity of the question. Later the correspondent told us that his train of thought was "At what moment did you first realize you were PERMENANTLY blind?" Yeah sure it was...

The cameraman with whom I work most often has told me this story several times and I love it. Previously he was a network cameraman in NY City. One day his assignment was to go with a young reporter to interview a man who had been injured by a gun shot wound to the head. He had been in a coma, but had awakened and now they were getting the "exclusive" first interview. So they get to the hospital, go to the room and set up. The very first question the reporter asked was "what was the first thing that went through your mind when you got shot"? To which the man immediately answered "A bullet!"

There's no real point to this post other than to make you laugh. And maybe to remind us all to think before you speak... unless you want to be a network correspondent!!