Coordinating Producer Mike

Inside Kate's circus train compartment.

Our feature story this week started with an unremarkable photo uploaded to iReport.com about “living in small spaces”. Kate Meinhardt sent in a picture of her tiny, cramped room aboard a circus railway car. It wasn’t the photo that caught my attention so much as it was the idea of living in a glorified shoebox while riding the rails with a circus. A few more mouse clicks and I stumbled on Kate’s big top blog. I dialed her up and got the rest of the story.

Fresh out of college and frustrated with a fruitless job, Kate threw caution to the wind and ran off with the Ringling Brothers. Yes, it was a once in a lifetime adventure, but Kate had her eyes on a bigger prize: career advancement. Her gig with the circus opened the door to her current job as a Zookeeper. However, that success came at a price. Kate suffered a terrible, life-changing injury during her circus stint; but it ultimately made her a stronger person and her attitude and optimism amazed us all.

We were lucky to stumble across Kate’s story, and it serves as a good reminder that every person you meet, every stranger you see in the street, on the subway, at the store, in church, has a story worth telling. What’s yours? We’d love to hear it.

All of us who work on "News To Me" are pretty pumped about this weekend's show!  Producers Mike and Teague have been putting in serious hours creating what we think will be really compelling TV.  It's a story we have been "teasing" for over a month now and one that we have been working on for several months: The great Georgia Bigfoot Hoax.  No need to get into the background of the hoax here... we'll do that this weekend on "News To Me," but if you are a skeptic, suspicious, paranoid, wearing a tin-foil hat or someone who makes fun of those kind of people you will really dig the first two blocks of the show.

Interestingly enough, seems like the whole "News To Me" crew has memories associated with Sasquatch.  Do we believe?  Not necessarily, but buried deep in our grey matter we all have something that clicked when we started working on this story...

Eric Lanford:
In a previous life, as host of a different TV show, I actually went HUNTING for Bigfoot.

Coordinating Producer Michael Kane:
When I was an “Indian Guide” – that was a youth group in the ‘70s for losers who were too wimpy to make it as a Boy Scout – we went on a hike up to the top Atlanta’s Stone Mountain, the largest exposed slab of granite on Earth.

The trail to the top is pocked with large holes and craters. One of the older boys pulled me aside to warn me that some of those craters were actually Bigfoot tracks. I believed him, swallowed hard and soldiered up the mountain in a cold sweat. The mountain still haunts my dreams.

Producer/Editor Teague Kennedy:
Round about 1994 I was driving down a dirt road just after dark in search of a campsite in a woodsy area in central Florida. I had seen no people or cars since entering the forest perhaps 15 minutes earlier, when up in the distance I saw in my headlights what looked to be a naked man running through the woods. Needless to say we didn't pitch tent in the area. True story.

Associate Producer Charles Gilbert:
When I was 14, my friends and I thought we saw Bigfoot’s print in some dirt behind a house in our neighborhood. The footprint was huge. Then we looked closer. We noticed that it wasn’t Bigfoot’s print. It was mine. I am 6’ tall and I wear a size 15 shoe. Damn I felt dumb.

Corey the intern:
I got scared by watching "Harry and the Hendersons" when I was a little kid. Seriously, Bigfoot has never really interested me. I'm more fascinated by UFO pictures experts can't explain.

Associate Producer Grayson Thagard:
My Grandpa Red used to take me and my little brother out on his air boat into the Florida Everglades. "The glades" was a creepy place at dusk when the shadows got long, especially for a 7 year old. As we skimmed along the shallow water Grandpa saw something out of the corner of his eye and all of a sudden he shut down the giant fan pushing the air boat. In the absence of that roar we clearly heard what can only be described as a moan coming from the thick vegetation about 20 yards away. Grandpa told us in a whisper, that it was the sound of a Skunk ape, the "Bigfoot" of the swamp. It was a typical sweltering Florida July but I clearly remember hearing the sound again and suddenly being ice cold. That was my last trip to the Everglades.

Associate Producer Aaron Rustom:
When I was about 10 or 11, my best friend’s dad took us out to their cabin in East Texas so we could go fishing. As we got closer to the cabin, my friend’s dad started telling us about the “Alabama-Coushatta” tribe, who were native to the area, and the creature who lurked among them… a creature named "Sasquatch." He also told us we would be okay, if we kept "stink bait" in our pockets. Stink bait is used on trot-lines to catch catfish. And as the name implies, it stinks! It stinks so bad that even Bigfoot is repulsed by the odor. That whole weekend, every noise, every crackle, every time the trees blew, we rubbed more stink bait on us.

The funny thing is… there actually have been Bigfoot "sightings" in that area!

Ok, so those are OUR Bigfoot memories... do you have a bigfoot / ufo / ghost / unexplained mystery / story? Tell us! It IS Halloween after all!

In the meantime, sleep tight... we'll see you tomorrow at 9:30pm Eastern and Pacific on Headline News!

Howdy. Time for a peek into the “News To Me” faux crystal ball to see what’s in store this fall:

Marathon football-watching sessions on the couch with beer and salty nuts. Wait – sorry, wrong crystal ball.

Web-lebrities! (is that a word?)
Some savvy stars are taking their latest projects online and finding a new audience. Like…

Tom Green
We’ll talk “Web-o-Vision” with Tom Green who hosts a groundbreaking live, web-based talk show from the comfort of his living room. Eric's going to sit down with the legendary funnyman to find about his latest venture, "Tom Green's House Tonight."

Speaking of celebrity cribs…

Daryl Hall
Yes, THAT Daryl Hall of Hall & Oates fame has launched a genre-bending, no rules, Web-only series recorded live from his home studio. We’re going to catch him right before showtime for an exclusive interview.

Adventures on the Edge:

Lost at Sea
A small, rusty sailboat is discovered by fishermen on the coast of Ireland. Inside the cabin – a video camera with a perfectly preserved tape of what appears to be the last, tearful moments of a sailor lost at sea. The video is authentic and impossible to turn away from. Now, the mystery has been solved and we can’t wait to bring you this story.

Running Man
He’s basically sprinting up and down mountains, over fields and through the woods… from the northern tip of Maine all the way to the deep south… in pursuit of an impossible world-record. Thanks to a helmet cam and live blog updates, lazy slobs like me can follow along and feel like we’re getting exercise.

And coming up THIS WEEKEND:

The Reel Geezers
Two filmmakers in their 80's who have written and produced some of the silver screen's best movies are taking on the Hollywood hype machine by putting their smart, blunt stamp of approval or dissapproval on the latest flicks. Watch them bicker their way through reviews of "The Dark Knight," "Sex and the City," and even "Pineapple Express." They're hysterical... find out how they would review "News To Me" on the show this weekend!

By now we’ve all seen the JibJab videos that mercilessly skewer our noble public servants, but have you ever wondered who’s behind these funny films? We did and – keeping with the mission of "News To Me" – we set out to meet these guys and pull the curtain back on their laugh lab.

We didn’t know what to expect. Is JibJab the masterwork of some mad genius slaving all night long by his monitor’s glow? Or is it the work of a huge team of over-educated, intellectual wisecracks who outsource the animation to Korea?

The JibJab jokes cut both ways – so are these guys really politically unbiased? Is that even possible?

After our interview – which airs this weekend – we asked the JibJabbers to give us a behind the scenes tour and… whattya know!! They did. Check out the video:

By Mandy Molloy.

Hello NTM blog fans!

It’s Mandy the summer intern! At the beginning of the summer I wrote a blog post to introduce myself and share some of my embarrassing intern moments but now I am writing to say goodbye!

Yes, it’s true my internship has come to an end, and I am so sad to see it go. Soon I will be moving back to the great city of Athens, Georgia to start my junior year and to watch the soon-to-be SEC CHAMPS, THE GEORGIA BULLDOGS, travel to victory! No haters please!

The summer has gone by extremely fast and I have enjoyed every second of my internship. I think fans should have a meet-and-greet with the "News To Me" team because they are amazing! There have been a lot of great stories on NTM this summer and a few of my favorites have been: vbs.tv’s Shane Smith’s trip to North Korea, Jonathan Harris’s rare experience as seen on thewhalehunt.org, and of course Kyle Macdonald’s hard-to-believe story of the one red paper clip. If you happen to miss a show… well lets face it you won’t… but if you do check out the hotlinks section of the blog or our archive to get caught up on the stories!

Well people my infamous interning path has come to an end and as I turn in my now expired badge I leave CNN with hope that one day (fingers crossed) I will return once again!

Coordinating Producer Mike's message to Mandy and our "awwwww-worthy" group picture :

Left to right. Top row: Grayson Thagard, Mandy Molloy, Michael Kane. Bottom row: Aaron Rustom, Charles Gilbert.

Mandy,

It’s been a blast having you on the team and I look forward to working for you someday.

Have fun, study hard and Go Dawgs!!

Best of luck (not that you’ll need it) .
Mike

A pretty lame title for a blog posting, huh? Sorry, no predictions on gas prices, elections or pennant races... I just want to share a few things the NTM team are "efforting"... as they say in this biz (I had never heard that dumb expression until I started working in TV newsland).

In the crystal ball...
"The Reel Geezers"
These two octogenarian film buffs are fast becoming YouTube superstars. Their movie reviews are blunt, biting and often right on the money. We'll be talking to them in the coming weeks.

"Big Wave Surfing"
We caught up with world famous "Glacier Surfer" Garrett McNamara for more thrills. He'll show us how he uses the web to track the world's gnarliest waves in real time.

Also, he will eat it, repeatedly... and then show us his scars.

"Meet the iReporters"
Tapping the collective power of regular folks armed with cameras is a no-brainer, but no other news organization is doing it this well and, frankly, COULDN'T do it this well without smart, dependable citizen journalists. We'll get inside the heads of our emerging "Superstar iReporters."

That's all for now... oh... and the Yankees will crumble in August.

See you this weekend.

What possesses people in the throes of a life or death emergency to think: “I’ve gotta get this on video!!” iReporter David Decker seems like a sharp young man, well spoken, polite – just an everyday normal guy… who happens to be OBSESSED with tornadoes. So you can imagine the internal struggle he must have experienced when a massive twister literally arrived on his doorstep in Windsor, Colorado. Does he run for cover or grab his camera? He chose the latter.

This just in from our legal department:
PLEASE DO NOT PUT YOURSELF IN HARM’S WAY WHEN SHOOTING iREPORTS!!! SAFETY FIRST!!!!

David got lucky and we got an amazing “up close” few of this monster tornado. On this weekend’s show, David tells us, in his own words, what in the world he was thinking!!! You’ve gotta see his video.

Speaking of must see video…

A late addition to the show… a family in California now has a home movie they may never want to watch again. I’ve seen a lot of “wildfire videos” but nothing like this… my heart was racing from the moment I clicked play. Kathy Adams actually put her camera in the backseat of her family’s car as they fled their burning mountaintop home. Her video captures the raw emotion and fear as Kathy, her husband and young son tried to navigate through the smoke and flames surrounding their car. They lost everything in this wildfire and are now dealing with the tragedy. I spoke with Kathy’s husband Kenny, and he says they might share their story once the get their lives back on track. We wish them luck.

Awhile back my boss came to me and asked, “Mike, have you ever heard of "UGC?"

Me: "Umm….ahhh…. The University of Guam Central? Is it a new FOX network?? Is it an energy drink? I give up.
Boss: "No, no and no. UGC stands for 'user-generated content'."
Me: "Ahhh… RECYCLING!!! I KNEW IT!"
Boss: "No. Think citizen journalism, think YouTube, think regular folks changing the media landscape."
Me: "I was gonna say that."

Now here we are, two years later, with the first cable news show dedicated entirely to UGC. Since the NTM launch last May it’s been one big blur of crashing deadlines, stifling hot summer shoots, late nights, bad food and even worse coffee, computer-fried eyeballs, marathon edits, writing, rewriting, fighting, laughing, bitching, and wondering: “what the *$#! have we gotten ourselves into?!"

We’re still trying to figure that out, but it’s been a blast and we can’t wait for our "terrible twos."

Now can somebody PLEASE come up with a better term for "user-generated content?" Please.