The Best time to Ask is When You're Told Not To

There's something I can't stand when I'm covering a news event: when people tell me I can't ask questions and don't expect to get any answers.

When I hear that, that just gives me even more incentive to start asking questions.

This happened this past week when I was covering Manny Aragon's guilty plea at court.

Just before Aragon gave his on-the-verge-of-sobbing statement outside the courthouse, his attorney, Ray Twohig, said Aragon would make a brief statement and then would not take any questions.

When someone doesn't want to answer questions, this means they will likely say so much more by not answering them, either by getting upset or just ignoring you.

So after Aragon gave his statement, I followed him, asking him questions which really ticked him off along with his attorneys.

I didn't acknowledge them when they responded to my questions with statements like, "We said no questions," and "Is this confusing to you Mr. Jojola" and "Don't you understand English?"

I clearly do understand English. But what people understand so much more at home is body language and avoidance.

Thank you Manny for not answering my questions. You said so much more.
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jeremyjojola.com

Amateur Video Floods Stations

It has long been said Albuquerque's Balloon Fiesta is the most photographed event in the world.

And when tragedy happens at the Fiesta it's inevitable it will be documented by numerous witnesses.

After watching the newscasts of other stations, it was obvious every newsroom had its share of amateur footage/images sent in by their viewers.

One of our viewers came into our newsroom with his small,palm-sized digital camera. Eric Sanchez, who going to the Fiesta for his birthday manged to record the most tragic moment of Friday's fatal crash--the pilot falling to his death from the fiery gondola,

I saw that footage in its raw form. Although the video was quite blurred and pixilated, it was disturbing to see the footage. Seeing the footage put a heavy pause in my rush of a deadline race. Seeing a man's final moments on earth end so tragically was quite simply, for lack of a better descriptive word...sad.

We made the good decision not to air that piece of the raw video tape, for obvious reasons. From what I understand, other news outlets also cut out that moment.
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jeremyjojola.com

Thanks!

Thanks to Carlos Miller and B-roll.net for profiling our Emmy win this past weekend.

Can't write much today. Our newsroom is on overdrive with some sad news to come out of the Balloon Fiesta.
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jeremyjojola.com

On Cloud 9

A great weekend in Phoenix! KOB photographer Jeremy Fine and I won our first Emmy award for this illegal dumping story that aired earlier this year. We had our hopes really high. Then just before the event started, we talked to another guy at the event who told us he was nominated for an Emmy like ten times and hasn't won. We were ecstatic once our names were called.
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jeremyjojola.com

On truTV

I received several emails from viewers last night who caught one of my reports on truTV last night. Remember this illegal dumping story? Yeah, that's the one. Our footage was played on Most Daring. I'm not sure if truTV will put it up on their website....if so, I'll post a link. Thanks to all of you (who caught the clip) for the nice emails.
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jeremyjojola.com

A Very Angry Man

During the course of the day, the newsroom will handle hundreds of calls. Today, the assignment desk transferred an interesting phone call to me. I had no idea who it was or what the caller wanted. Turns out it was Anthony Garcia, a man I've never heard of who also runs a cable access show I've never heard of either. I think it's called Crimes Against Humanity(Wednesdays between 4pm - 5pm on Channel 27). Here's a screen shot:



I had no idea I was on his show as Garcia screamed over the phone at me about how he wanted "justice" and a publicized case. He claimed he has "no freedom of the press" and wants an publicized trial "like Michael Jackson and OJ Simpson" and claimed the press are a bunch of "liars."

I know this type of caller. This is a person who is quick to claim they are a victim--someone who has been in and out of jail so many times, they believe they are being picked on.

Turns out Garcia has been booked at least eight times over the course of a decade according to his record at Metro Court. He's been locked up for domestic violence, aggravated battery, and most recently, aggravated drunk driving.

I tried reasoning with the man over the phone. Immediately he went into a tirade about how the courts and the jails are "unconstitutional." Mr. Garcia wouldn't provide specifics so I ended the call without knowing who this guy was. There was no reasoning with the man.

One of my co-workers guessed who I was talking to (apparently Garcia has called our newsroom multiple times over the years). I was interested and decided to check the guy's story out by tuning into his show.

I called into his show and manged to get on. Again, Garcia went on a tirade and a rant about how he is a victim of a corrupt system and is being picked on.

Honestly, there is no reasoning with people like this. They've been in trouble so many times, they actually begin to believe everyone is against them.

I asked Garcia about his DWI case which he is appealing and if he could give me specifics on why he shouldn't have been convicted. He couldn't give me an answer and claimed the whole case was "unconstitutional."

I plan on pulling his DWI case to see what happened for the benefit of the doubt. But seriously, I really believe Garcia is someone who blames everyone else for his own troubles.
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jeremyjojola.com