Even Worse Than We Had Hoped
    By Paul Spelman

 About The Book

Paul Spelman spent 10 years chasing a dream in TV news. His dream: to make it to TV’s “major leagues” as a reporter and work for a top station or a national network. To cover important issues, bear witness to momentous events, and chronicle history as it unfolded. His reality: a trip through the trenches of TV news and immersion in a weird world that sometimes left Paul feeling that he wasn't a real reporter, he just played one on TV.

But life in TV’s trenches can turn out to be much more interesting than the view from on high. Where else would a reporter come face-to-face with a rifle-wielding ex-judge accused of growing marijuana; work with a cameraman who, while on the way to cover breaking news, is calling in fake bets to a bookie as part of an elaborate scam; or encounter a rural medical examiner who stores corpses in his garage?

Part memoir, part examination of the TV business, Even Worse Than We Had Hoped pulls back the curtain on local TV news while recounting one reporter’s journey from a community radio station in Colorado to a one-man TV bureau in small-town North Carolina, then on to a mid-sized city in Tennessee and, finally, to a job as a reporter in Washington, D.C.  

While movies and TV shows often portray TV news as glamorous and exciting, Spelman describes the reality for many TV reporters of working in places like Whiteville, N.C., a tobacco and hog-farming community of 5,000 people:

My office was a small two-room bureau in a run-down strip mall.  Technically, I was the bureau chief, but since I was the only one there, I could leave the word ‘chief’ off of my business cards and they wouldn’t be any less accurate ….

As a one-man band reporter, I had to carry my own video camera and tape deck, along with a tripod, a microphone, and a heavy battery belt that wrapped around my waist and attached by a cable to a clunky metal light that screwed on top of the camera.  When I had everything strapped on I was so loaded down someone told me I looked like a Ghostbuster ….

Once, when my arms were full of equipment, I tried to kick open the door to the county courthouse and missed the door lever.  My foot went through the glass and large shards rained down, slicing my pants in several places. When I went in and reported this, I was bleeding so profusely that they were more concerned that I might not make it than about the fact that I had just demolished their door ….

Even Worse Than We Had Hoped is more than just one reporter’s quest to succeed.  It provides a witty, candid, and eye-opening account of TV journalism. The title comes from one anchor’s enthusiastic reaction to the devastation wrought by a possible tornado — the damage was even worse than he had hoped. The line also perfectly captures Spelman’s take on the profession to which he long aspired.

One Man BandSpelman charts his progress through this profession with self-deprecating anecdotes as he masters the art of creating news out of nothing; struggles to remember his lines and stay in the picture in front of an unmanned camera; discovers the tricks and techniques of TV staging; and learns how to give a live report from the White House while his hands are stained with motor oil.

Even as he ultimately decides to exit the TV business, Spelman writes with affection and admiration for his colleagues and with a newshound’s dark humor for the craft.

Only in a TV newsroom will one person yell out, ‘Who’s got the lawnmower accident?’ while another is reciting lines from The Godfather and a third person is calling the sheriff to ask whether a body floating in the river with arrows in its back evidences any signs of foul play. All of this while the police scanner at the assignment desk is broadcasting such impossible-to-resist scoops as ‘Caller says she popped a large boil and is now worried about blood coming from her forehead.’

As Spelman writes, “Newsrooms are entertaining places. At times frenetic, at times relaxed, and at other times absurd.” All of which makes for a funny and fascinating read. 

Even Worse Than We Had Hoped follows in the tradition of such entertaining and informative insider accounts as Kitchen Confidential and Liar’s Poker.  And much as Scott Turow’s One-L did for aspiring attorneys, Even Worse Than We Had Hoped is bound to become required reading for anyone even remotely interested in TV news as a career.