What To Talk About When You’re Covering A High Speed Car Chase

car chaseIn L.A., the high-speed car chase is about as common as Botox on a Real Housewife. There’s nothing better to break up the monotony of the day than to see The View suddenly interrupted for the breaking news of yet another idiot who thinks they can outrun the LAPD. Spoiler alert: You can’t.

What adds to the entertainment is watching the local news anchors’ live coverage of the chase. They stay with it until it’s over, which can take hours, and sometimes they have trouble finding things to talk about to fill the time as you watch a car driving for what seems like forever on the freeway.

During the high speed chase that occurred today, one of the news anchors—after struggling for something to say—came up with this gem: “We know there is at least one person in the car.” This was especially important to point out in case you were thinking the car was pulling a Herbie or a ghost or dog was driving.

The local news should consider doing something else to pass the time until the chase meets its inevitable end instead of forcing their poor anchors to make awkward chit chat. “We’re going to stick with this story live but instead of us making mindless commentary, we’re going to play Dark Side of the Moon and see if it syncs up.”

Now that would be damn fine television.

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6 thoughts on “What To Talk About When You’re Covering A High Speed Car Chase”

  1. I want to be on the committee that makes up the playlist. It’s important that all genres are represented, or we could have another news story on our hands. You are on to something here Mario!

  2. Ha, great ear catching the “one guy in car” comment. How about instant viewer voting feedback where you could vote up or down on the maneuvers the driver pulls?

  3. I like your suggestion and I bet the newspeople would do. There could be a betting pool on how quickly it syncs up and which song it syncs up to. Or you can bring in live bands to compose music on the spot for the chase. It could be a contest.

  4. It’s a lot more stressful to be in the dispatch center when that’s gong on … although at least we don’t have to worry about filling air time.

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