Stories from the Belly of the Beast

So, after a week of waiting on my butt in my apartment, I finally had my first day of my internship at the big ol' Fox News LA bureau (or Foxy as I like to call it). And trust me, it sure did not disappoint. Now, before you go thinking that there are a bunch of mini Glenn Beck's running around the office, that is entirely not the case. Every one seems very chill and laid back...except when it comes to reporting the news fairly and balanced, of course.

My day started at 9am, which is pretty reasonable because the other news interns have to start at 7am, but since I'm interning for the website I get to start later. Haha, suckers. Except, the only drawback to starting work at 9am is that there is no parking within a 2 block radius of our building. And whatever is available has a time limit on it, so you have to go out every one to two hours to go move your car so you don't get a ticket. Although, I have learned that there is one section of the road that has a four hour limit. Obviously, it is the most coveted place to park, and therefore gets filled the fastest. It is my goal now to get there early enough to get a four hour parking spot. It's the little things.
I got to the bureau and was given a tour by our lovely internship coordinator Frankie (who's a girl by the way). I got to see the main newsroom, which was very "foxy" then swung through over to the Fox Business's offices and their mini studio. It's actually cool because right behind the set where they do the live cutaways for Fox Business is where I sit. So, if you happen to be channel surfing or really like watching Fox Business for some reason, you might be able to see me. But only tune in Monday, Wednesday and Thursday mornings because that's when I work. I know, I'm legit. Then I got to down into the "dungeon" where they keep all of their old tapes for safe keeping, like Electronic Press Kits (EPKs) which are kits that big movie studios send out to news organizations about upcoming movies and all that jazz. We do very important work over at the Foxy.

After peeking in some random people's offices, I finally got to meet (though I had already met) my web producer and the Foxy entertainment reporter that I get to be working with named Matt and Hollie, respectively. Matt is super chill, though he does talk really fast and I'm pretty sure he drinks way too much coffee, but it's cool. He also kind of looks like the guy that plays the dean on the show "Community," which I find quite humorous (photo left). Hollie is from Australia, so basically I just like to hear her talk...all the time. And she talks about entertainment all day, because she's the Foxy entertainment reporter. Then, I actually had to do some work. For my first task, I had to read a transcript of a part of a show while simultaneously watching the show to make sure that the both were the same. The show, however, was Glenn Beck. Gah...oh well, I wanted to intern at Fox News, right? After hearing him spew about bailouts or something or other, I had a chance to actually write a transcript of some interviews that Hollie had done over the last couple of days. One for Pamela Anderson and one for the infamous Elliot Spitzer mistress Ashley Dupre. It's cool. I learned that Pamela is eating a lot of potatoes now, and that Ashley wants to become the next pop sensation...after she writes her tell-all of course.

After writing the interview transcript, I had to go move my car...boooooo. When I came back I found another entertainment reporter named Martha in my little corner. She and Hollie were talking about this Iranian party girl that wrote a book about all of her rock and roll sexual escapades. It was some pretty intense sounding ish...maybe even a little frightening in some parts. Afterward I even had a chance to transcribe the interview they conducted with this woman...and let me tell you it was pretty ridiculous.

While I'm chilling in my little area of the bureau, the Foxy does live reports from the newsroom with reporter Trace Gallagher. I guess he's a big deal. I don't know. But it's funny watching him do his report live while I can also watch him his report on the television. It's trippy stuff.

Shaky pic of Trace doing his thang!

During some time between tasks, I was looking around a getting familiar with the Foxy server program thing that holds all of Foxy's news stories. As I was tooling around I stumbled across a folders labeled "Obituaries." Obviously I opened it. Why wouldn't I? Inside that folder was another folder labeled "Major Obits." Obviously I opened it. Inside it I got to read the already-made obits for such people like the Pope, past Presidents, and of course Fidel Castro. I mean, why not? This may sound morbid but I found all this kind of hilarious.

Later, and what I found to be the most fun of my day, was writing headers and a short description for several entertainment stories. The headers were fun because I got to be creative and silly. My favorite one had to do with the BeeGees performing on American Idol on Wednesday. My header: "It will be Wednesday Night Fever as the BeeGees are set to perform on Idol stage." I know...I am so fricking clever. The short description was a little tougher to come up with because it had to be 40 characters or less...including spaces. Like, that is literally only like five words. It's tougher than it looks. But I pulled it off and I really enjoyed it.

That was it for Day One...more to come as the weeks of internship ensue.