|
When you work in TV news, your contact list is huge, but your actual friend circle is incredibly small. People in this business love to use the word "friend." They’ll use it to describe co-anchors, reporters they share a live truck with, or producers they grab a quick drink with after the late news. But let’s call it what it really is: they aren’t your friends. They are acquaintances. You will have hundreds of acquaintances in your career. You’ll have very few friends. If you want proof of this, just look at what happens when someone gets fired or laid off. In the first 48 hours after you get marched out of the building, your phone will blow up. People from the newsroom you barely talked to will reach out. “Are you okay?” “What happened?” “Did Management say anything?” Don’t flatter yourself. They aren’t checking on your mental health. They are looking for gossip. Journalists are, by trade, nosey people—it comes with the territory. They want to know the dirty details, and more importantly, they want to gauge if their own neck is on the chopping block next. If you want to know who your actual friends are, wait four, five, or six months. See who is still texting you when you’re out of the business or at a different station. See who cares about how you are doing when you can no longer provide them with the daily newsroom tea. Those are your friends. The reality is that TV news is a cutthroat industry, and the proof is happening right in front of you every single day. Just stop and listen to the conversations happening in the corners of your newsroom. Listen to how the people in that little clique are talking about others who aren’t standing there. You can bet your bottom dollar that the second you walk away, that same group is talking about you. I get emails all the time from people in this business saying, "My news director/GM says he is friends with you." Let me clear this up right now: don't believe them. It is not true. Like most of you, I have a lot of acquaintances in this business, but I do not have friends. In fact, I can count on one finger how many real friends I have left in TV news. That person is on-air, and they are absolutely not in a management role. So, the next time your boss brags about being "friends with the FTVLive guy," feel free to tell them that is total bullshit. The point of all this isn't to make you cynical; it’s to give you a reality check. Stop trusting every smiling face in your newsroom. Most of them do not have your back. It takes many journalists years—and a lot of heartbreak—to finally learn this fact. But once you accept the reality of the business, it will save you an immense amount of stress and anxiety. Do yourself a favor: look for your real friends outside of the station walls. Find people who don't care about ratings, sweeps, or who is anchoring the 6 PM. Build a life outside of the business, and your life will be a whole lot better.
|
