Even Worse Than We Had Hoped
    By Paul Spelman

Paul Spelman was never the guy breaking the big story on "NBC Nightly News." Rather, he was the guy reporting live from the White House with oil-stained hands, courtesy of his clunker that had broken down on his way to work.

The Silver Spring resident has written a book about his wacky, weird and hilarious experiences in his 10 years as a television news reporter climbing the ranks. It is not a story about make-up, designer suits and a comfortable anchor's chair. "Even Worse Than We Had Hoped" is intended, says Spelman, to educate aspiring television journalists about what the business is really like. He feels it is also likely to change the way even non-journalists watch the news.

Spelman began his career as a radio reporter in Telluride, Colo., before moving to on-air television positions in North Carolina, Tennessee and finally, Washington, D.C.

"To be blunt," says Spelman, "most of the movies and books that depict TV news have it completely wrong. It is a whole lot harder and less glamorous than people think, but it's also a lot wilder and funnier, too."

Indeed, there is no lack of humor in Spelman's experiences, or his way of recounting them. From his on-air repeated fumbling over the Native American word "Towaoc" to his encounter with a medical examiner who stored corpses in his garage, Spelman's journalism career was filled with rich and sometimes crazy occurrences.

Spelman's reporting led to an ability to relate to nearly everyone he met.

"Oh, you're a hairdresser?" he writes. "I once did a news-you-can-use piece about the dangers of running a blow-dryer while standing in the shower with the water running. You're a firefighter? I just did a story about how fire poles are on their way out because too many oversized firefighters are breaking their ankles on the way down. You used to run a sanitation company in New Jersey and seem reluctant to talk? No kidding, I once did a story about the federal witness protection program."

Spelman has had to tape his own stories, figure out how to live on wages that fast-food restaurant workers would scoff at and avoid dying of boredom while covering meeting after meeting where nothing was accomplished.

Yet he loved learning so many new things.

"Being a reporter is like having a license to ask people questions about what they do and what they know," he says. "I got to see some really interesting things and meet some really interesting people."

Of course, there were also consequences to knowing so much.

"Perhaps only for folks working in law enforcement or TV news does nearly every neighborhood bring to mind some calamity," Spelman writes. "I can't tell you how many times someone told me where they lived, and my first reaction was, ‘Oh yeah, I know that area, I covered a murder over there,' or ‘Oh, you must live right behind that house where the gas heater blew up.' If I have never been to your neighborhood, that's a good sign."

A literary agent helped sell the book, but large publishing houses were skeptical about its marketability since Spelman wasn't a well-known network anchor. Eventually, he opted to self-publish.

Although he never became an anchor for "Nightline" or "Today," his stories did appear on more than 40 television stations around the country.

"I guess you could say I reached a level in TV news where there were still plenty of reporters above me, but I was high enough where I could at least run into them every now and then," Spelman writes. "They looked like they were having a good time."

In 2004, he decided to leave the business and go to law school. He now works as an attorney. His decision had less to do with the digits on his paycheck and more to do with his desire to be part of the action, rather than just report on it.

"Working as a reporter, no matter what level and what medium, means going through life as a professional spectator," Spelman writes. "You are always watching historic events but are never involved in the outcome...I came to find this disinterested detachment frustrating, and I felt that I was not adding much real value to anything."

Having always enjoyed covering legal issues, and noting that many of the D.C. lawyers he interviewed were making valuable contributions, he felt law school would be a good fit.

"I don't want to dissuade anyone from going into journalism," says Spelman. "It is a really interesting profession, and I don't regret that I was a reporter."

"Even Worse Than We Had Hoped" is available for purchase online at www.amazon.com and www.evenworsethanwehadhoped.com.