SACRAMENTO—
Thousands of people from California and around the world tuned in to FOX40.com to listen to a speech prepared by Sarah Palin Friday evening from the campus of California State University, Stanislaus. During that stream, other reporters in the media overflow room were heard on our microphone, due to the unusual circumstances of how we managed to bring the live feed.First, FOX40 News was the only station streaming a live signal from CSU Stanislaus during Sarah Palin's presentation. Friday, we were told by officials organizing the speech that we were not permitted to beam a live signal direct from the dining hall where Sarah Palin was presenting. Instead, we were offered the opportunity to aim a FOX40 camera at a projection screen inside a room for assembled media several hundred feet from where Sarah Palin was speaking. They would not allow us to get a direct feed of audio, so we had to hold a mic up to their speakers. Our choice was either to not carry a speech of local and national interest due to the low-quality video and audio options, or to provide a signal by any means necessary. It was with the public interest in mind that we opted for the latter.
While our cameras pointed at the CSU screen, showing the CSU camera, several reporters for other stations walked in front of our camera. Also, again, since CSU did not offer us a direct audio feed, we had to put a microphone in front of their sound system. Other reporters were overheard on that, despite several warnings that we had a hot mic, and several thousand people watching.
Following Sarah Palin's address from CSU Stanislaus, several reporters were again heard making comments about the speech that some viewers considered inappropriate and unprofessional.
The comments overheard were made by reporters assembled from other newspaper and television outlets, and at no time was the voice of our photographer or our reporter heard on the stream. It's very likely that those reporters and photographers were unaware, or simply forgot, that there was one television station with an open microphone broadcasting to the world. If you did not hear their comments, you can watch a portion of them here, captured by a viewer who was watching the FOX40.com live stream.
Additionally, it should be noted that FOX40 reporter, Andria Borba was not in the room where our signal was broadcast. She was across a courtyard, inside the actual event with Governor Palin. The voices heard delivering commentary after the speech were male.
Our photographer was also not in the room at the end of the speech. There was no cell phone service in the room, so he had to temporarily leave his camera on a tripod to walk outside and call our news director to ask how long to leave the feed up.
Also, during an earlier problem in the feed, you may have seen CSU techs trying to restart a projector that was providing the TV feed for our live feed, and for the rest of the media in the overflow room. They also do not work for us. Their camera inside, and their projector were out of our control. We merely chose to live-stream what they were showing the media.
Unfortunately, there's no way to immediately identify the photographers and reporters making commentary following Sarah Palin's speech, and it would be inappropriate for FOX40 News and FOX40.com to apologize on behalf of those reporters and their organizations.
As always, our phone lines and e-mail inboxes are always open to comments and criticism. Our news director Brandon Mercer can be reached at Brandon.Mercer@FOX40.com, our acting general manager Mike Armstrong can be reached at Mike.Armstrong@FOX40.com and our online news producer can be reached at Matthew.Keys@FOX40.com.
