The Channel 3 News Anchor Blog

Remembering MaryEllen

Along with the rest of the community, I share in the deep loss we all feel today. Below are a few personal notes about my friendship with MaryEllen Locher.
We've known each other for nearly 20 years. The first time we met was covering the Kudzu Ball. We were both new to the community and felt we were kindred spirits. MaryEllen is the kind of person you get to know and like quickly. She is instantly warm and affectionate and through the years I have been blessed by our friendship.
We had a funny, simplistic way of dealing with the fact that we were friends and competitors. When ratings came out if Channel Nine was number one, we'd say it was because of her and if the tables were turrned we'd laugh and say the opposite. That way we could simply be happy for each other and not feel a sense of rivalry.
MaryEllen fought her battles against cancer with all her strength for the sake of her family. She persevered with grace and a sense of humor and never lost her deep faith in God. Even when she was in pain and having a difficult time, her voice had a lift to it. She somehow tried to comfort others and ease their concern about her.
MaryEllen has already touched many lives with her "Hats from the Heart" and "Children of Breast Cancer Foundation." She founded both organizations and carried on with their work even when her own strength waned. She used her life and battles to help others.
We have all lost a special friend and are all richer for having known her.
All of us at Channel 3 express our deep sympathy to MaryEllen's family and her family of co-workers at Channel 9. David and Alex, our prayers are with you.

Blogs on the Air

The stories we produced on Blogging air tonight on Channel 3 at 5:00 and 6:00. At 11:00 you can see the 6:00 version. I have learned so much from some great people who enjoy sharing their expertise. Josiah Roe is of course the Blog Czar for Chattablogs and Dr. Kit Rushing of UTC, an erudite communications professor helped me understand blogs. All the folks at Coptix are great. Thanks to Brent and Ron for technical help and patience.

Photographers for the pieces were Christian Bruce, Chris Holbrooks, and Jason Clouse. Ken Scott did the magic in the editing suite. He and I started chatting about blogs. He said he didn't blog, but by that he meant he didn't write blogs. Ken has been reading blogs of all kinds for years. I should have interviewed him! Other co-workers are watching tonight, because they don't yet know about blogs.

We have some great interns. Jamee Burns, a recent grad of Red Bank, helped in the crucial final hours looking for soundbites and video. We're gonna miss her. And Southern Adventist University student Sharon Adeleke from Nigeria helped locate music. And I never forget Sharon Lauman our artist who has fun with our graphic and musical introductions.

]]> I love this forum because I would never have had time during our newscast to thank these people for their hard work.

Now, as promised, here are a few links to blogs:
NOTE: I am not recommending any of these. Just finding some interesting reading out there.

Check out this list at the Washington Post. It's the Top Blogs of 2004.

Then go to hughhewitt.com. The Wall Street Journal calls him an expert on blogging. He has a book out right now. And he has some soldiers' blogs listed.

You're here on Chattablogs, so if you haven't read some of our local bloggers, now's a great time.

Josiah says Google has a great blog. Ken Scott likes buzzmachine.

Here are a few others:

creativediscoverymuseum.blog-city.com
instapundit.com
littlegreenfootballs.com
dailykos.com
romancatholicblog.com
evangelicaloutpost.com
MarkDRoberts.com
lileks.com
blogs4god.com
scrappleface.com
democrats.org/blog
blogsforbush.com

And for Bill Markham: a Nascar Blog.

And for David Carroll: a Braves blog.

Response to Joe et al

I suppose we are the first of the Chattanooga stations. But you should know we are doing this without any expertise of our own. We don't have a webmaster. Josiah walked me through this today and this is my first post "all by myself!"

We're doing an extra report on Blogging and thought the best way to illustrate it would be to build one of our own.

This could be the beginning for us. Perhaps, if nothing more it will be a good exchange of ideas.

Our Grand Experiment

Wednesday, May 25th on Channel 3 we'll introduce our viewers to the blogosphere. There's a lot to learn and we'll do it together.

The stories will be airing at 5, 6, and 11 pm.

Please write in if you're already a blogger. We'd love to hear your thoughts.