Speaker 1: Hey, everybody. Ay, me and TJ here in studio, and
Speaker 1: we are never thought we would take up an entire
Speaker 1: podcast talking about a friend of ours that was prompted
Speaker 1: by headlines we read in the morning. That sounds crazy,
Speaker 1: but that's exactly what happened. We got up this morning
Speaker 1: and we happen to be recording this on the Monday
Speaker 1: after the NFC AFC Championships, and we started seeing headlines
Speaker 1: about a very dear friend of ours.
Speaker 2: That's right. We watched the playoff games all day yesterday,
Speaker 2: all night into the evening, and then went to bed
Speaker 2: and woke up and said, wait, what did we miss?
Speaker 2: It was, actually, you know, when you're open your phone
Speaker 2: and the Apple feed straight out that something about our
Speaker 2: dear friend, Michael Strahan. And we were confused because we
Speaker 2: watched as much as we thought we were supposed to
Speaker 2: and didn't see anything that would warrant a headline.
Speaker 1: I hate using that word triggered, but it was something
Speaker 1: about this particular series of headlines having to do with
Speaker 1: straight hand and most of you be listening to our
Speaker 1: voices know it had to do with the postgame ceremony
Speaker 1: at the NFC Championship game between the Lions and the
Speaker 1: forty nine ers. So we started seeing these headlines. I
Speaker 1: don't want to misquote them. I think you have them
Speaker 1: in front of Yeah.
Speaker 2: And I actually this is actually a little painful for
Speaker 2: me because I'm not a fan and I know you're
Speaker 2: not either of reading clickbait, but that is what this
Speaker 2: is because of the words they use. Okay, yeah, I mean,
Speaker 2: but it's just using words like butchering, brutal, ripped, you know,
Speaker 2: just all of these adjectives or ways to describe how
Speaker 2: he handled the postgame celebration giving the trophy over to
Speaker 2: the forty nine ers, And so we thought, oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: what did he do? What did he say?
Speaker 1: We have to watch? We were like legitimately concerned, like
Speaker 1: there was such talk about it, and the words that
Speaker 1: were used were so strong, so aggressive, that we were
Speaker 1: terrified that, oh, my goodness, what has happened. So we
Speaker 1: went back and watched it. Because we didn't watch it
Speaker 1: live because the game had been decided. We turned it
Speaker 1: off earlier and moved on to something else, so we
Speaker 1: did not see it live. So we went back and
Speaker 1: watched it today. And your reaction act, Okay, your reaction
Speaker 1: after watching it when I queued it up this one.
Speaker 2: I said, huh, I mean, I don't understand what all
Speaker 2: of the fuss was about. I don't understand all these headlines.
Speaker 2: And I actually went and did something because it.
Speaker 1: Wasn't about us.
Speaker 2: I felt a little safer reading some of the comments.
Speaker 2: And if you read these comments, I mean, that's what's brutal,
Speaker 2: that's what's rough. So I was expecting something terrible. I
Speaker 2: was expecting something just that would be jaw dropping, And
Speaker 2: what I saw was, you know, an excited, a little frenetic,
Speaker 2: a not perfect in a live event moment where someone's
Speaker 2: trying to be the leader of you know, a three
Speaker 2: ring circus, is it ends up being I think, you know,
Speaker 2: we know what it's like, not at that level, but
Speaker 2: in general, to be on live television and to have
Speaker 2: to not only interview one person, but maybe interview five, six, seven,
Speaker 2: eight people after some huge historic game where everybody's hyped,
Speaker 2: there is so much chaos. There's probably there's confetti flying,
Speaker 2: there are fans cheering, there are you know, tiers of joy,
Speaker 2: tiers of set, and just there's so much chaos going
Speaker 2: on to have to then focus and bring this all
Speaker 2: to a live audience is no easy task.
Speaker 1: And he did it, by the way, and he did
Speaker 1: a good job of it. I would argue, right, there's
Speaker 1: a misstep and this time you just said something. You
Speaker 1: said you it's not going to be perfect. It's live TV. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's exactly what live TV is. Y. None of it's perfect.
Speaker 2: That's what actually makes it kind of interesting. Sometimes it
Speaker 2: was perfect, it'd be boring.
Speaker 1: It would right, but no, straight and we went back
Speaker 1: and watched I think we might. I've queued it up
Speaker 1: a couple of times this morning because I didn't know
Speaker 1: necessarily get it. And to some degree, we're talking about
Speaker 1: this because it was for us quite personal, given our
Speaker 1: longstanding friendships and close ties to Stray over the years.
Speaker 1: So we're always watching him, always rooting for him, especially
Speaker 1: in his football coverage, and so it is not a matter.
Speaker 1: And I don't want to call it unfair. If you
Speaker 1: put yourself out there, you're in the public spotlight, and
Speaker 1: especially when you do what he does sports. There's nobody's
Speaker 1: crazier than sports fans when it comes to talking and criticizing.
Speaker 1: But this was it was He might not even be aware,
Speaker 1: but it was. It was uncomfortable and painful and unfortunate
Speaker 1: to see what was coming at him over what was
Speaker 1: clearly just a ceremony. It wasn't anything egregious that the
Speaker 1: man did.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I would actually encourage anybody, especially if
Speaker 2: you've seen the headlines or read any of the comments,
Speaker 2: to go back and actually watch what happened on live television.
Speaker 2: And I do think there are some things that we
Speaker 2: know what it's like when you're in that position, like
Speaker 2: Michael Strahan, people are in your ear, they're telling you
Speaker 2: move on. There might be time constrictions, So a lot
Speaker 2: of people complain that he didn't let Joe Montana speak,
Speaker 2: and there was some issue as to whether or not
Speaker 2: he should have. Who knows what the producers were telling
Speaker 2: him to do or what they weren't telling him to do.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the thing that people don't realize when
Speaker 2: they're watching. You're not only trying to remember everyone's names,
Speaker 2: all the questions you're supposed to get to, all of
Speaker 2: the people you're supposed to congratulate, thank and recognize, but
Speaker 2: you also have a producer in your ear, very oftentimes
Speaker 2: giving you time cues, hurry it up, move past. We
Speaker 2: don't know if the producer said, hey, we don't have
Speaker 2: time for Joe to speak, but just get him to
Speaker 2: get the trophy to who it's supposed to go to.
Speaker 2: And those are the types of directives you're getting in
Speaker 2: your ear while you're thinking, while you're dealing. And I
Speaker 2: know this is our job, and I know you're paid,
Speaker 2: you know, really good money to do and excellent, But
Speaker 2: I just wanted there to be some of those maybe
Speaker 2: inside details that people don't realize. You have a lot
Speaker 2: of things going on at one time while everyone's watching.
Speaker 1: I'm thinking about all the times and the coordination and
Speaker 1: the things that are necessary. And first of all, Stray
Speaker 1: does not need us to defend him. No, he's fine,
Speaker 1: And this is not some bull throated defense of Stray.
Speaker 1: It was just interesting to read the headlines this morning
Speaker 1: that didn't match what actually took place on television. Another
Speaker 1: point is he got the assignment late. This has been
Speaker 1: done for decades by Terry Bradshaw, who was under the
Speaker 1: weather and wasn't a part of the coverage. He usually
Speaker 1: does this, so Stray didn't find out. She maybe got
Speaker 1: twenty four hours notice tops, but he didn't. This is
Speaker 1: not his regular gig. Still, I can't say this enough
Speaker 1: straight did a good job. Yeah right, and he did
Speaker 1: a good job. He's a football player, former, I should say.
Speaker 1: But he gets up there and he was still being
Speaker 1: his hype man. He is excited that he's at a
Speaker 1: football game Andampionship was just one.
Speaker 2: People were complaining that he was yelling, and it was like, well,
Speaker 2: I mean, you're in a stadium, a major event just
Speaker 2: took place, and there's a lot of noise. So he
Speaker 2: had a microphone, yes, but he was probably talking over
Speaker 2: a lot of noise.
Speaker 1: And there you go. So Joe Montana was staying so
Speaker 1: I of and you know this, this was my wheelhouse
Speaker 1: in what you say, in my former life. Yes, these
Speaker 1: big live events to where they come to you as
Speaker 1: soon as they say your name and you're live. You
Speaker 1: got so many things to coordinate. I have literally done
Speaker 1: stories where I start live in a basement. I have
Speaker 1: to walk upstairs on live television, go up, not just
Speaker 1: straight up the stairs at the stairs, whip around. So
Speaker 1: I gotta go up two separate flights. I gotta get
Speaker 1: to the top. I gotta surprise this guy whose name
Speaker 1: I have to remember, the organization he's a part of.
Speaker 1: I need to remember the director over here, his daughter
Speaker 1: over here. I need to remember the name that's donating
Speaker 1: to this man, and I have to remember how much
Speaker 1: they're donating, and I have to remember to thank certain
Speaker 1: people at the.
Speaker 2: End and do it all in a very specific amount
Speaker 2: of time.
Speaker 1: With somebody in your heart. You're saying, ninety seconds, wrap
Speaker 1: it up, you wrap this whole thing is happening, and
Speaker 1: you damn right. I have messed up somebody's name. I
Speaker 1: have probably gotten a little loud because somebody was in
Speaker 1: my ear talking all you're.
Speaker 2: Talking talking in your ear right, everybody, just everyone just jumped.
Speaker 1: Sorry about that.
Speaker 2: If you're listening with AirPods, that probably was a lot.
Speaker 1: But that's what happens on live television. Note when you
Speaker 1: get done, you go wow, I wish I'd have done that,
Speaker 1: or I forgot to mention the vice president of the
Speaker 1: organization or you some little thing. But that's just how
Speaker 1: TV goes. So maybe we can sympathize one because it's
Speaker 1: a friend of ours. Also certainly empathize because we've been
Speaker 1: there and done that and it just bothered us so
Speaker 1: much to see how he's being dragged like nasty stuff.
Speaker 1: Not just nasty one thing. Somebody will say, come on,
Speaker 1: why didn't you let Joe speak? Why do you let Montana?
Speaker 1: I don't say that. It was over that, over that.
Speaker 2: And I asked you because I mean, I like to
Speaker 2: watch sports, but I'm not deeply invested in it. I
Speaker 2: don't watch all of the sports channels like you do.
Speaker 2: And I asked you, I said, are sports fans? I
Speaker 2: mean I've heard it, you know, just people talk about
Speaker 2: sports fans being really really invested in passionate. But you
Speaker 2: can see the badj is making passionate. I'm going to
Speaker 2: say that in a positive way. But these types of
Speaker 2: fans sports and politics.
Speaker 1: Us, Yes, that's it. You don't want to you don't
Speaker 1: want to.
Speaker 2: Piss anyone off in either one of those genre.
Speaker 1: Doesn't matter what you say when it comes to sports.
Speaker 1: I could. I could put out a message on social
Speaker 1: media today that only says Michael Jordan was good at basketball,
Speaker 1: and I will get negative comments, you idiots. I will
Speaker 1: automatically get bad It's just how it goes. Uh.
Speaker 2: And you you mentioned the forty nine Ers fans and
Speaker 2: something about Strahan not picking them.
Speaker 1: I mean some weep were taking issue with him weeks past,
Speaker 1: like an earlier coverage of the season, like he didn't
Speaker 1: or he said something they didn't like about their team,
Speaker 1: or he wasn't completely positive about the team or support,
Speaker 1: or maybe he didn't pick them that we all that
Speaker 1: stuff comes back, so it ends up being a little
Speaker 1: it's a little silly, but this one we genuinely. I
Speaker 1: asked you first thing is wanted, like did you see this?
Speaker 1: What happened? You were like, oh my god, what did
Speaker 1: he do? Did he perform a ritual killing on I mean.
Speaker 2: It seemed like maybe he killed someone and that's kind
Speaker 2: of where it was. That's how awful it was apparently.
Speaker 2: So anyway, we were very relieved and puzzled a little
Speaker 2: bit once we actually saw because I thought, why was
Speaker 2: that so bad? What? I'm confused? Anyway, Like you said,
Speaker 2: straight does not need us defending him. We just felt
Speaker 2: compelled to say something. And dude was a Giants player.
Speaker 2: He knows what the fans are like.
Speaker 1: He really really aware.
Speaker 2: I remember him telling me like, whoa, there was just
Speaker 2: some cities that were tough to play it.
Speaker 1: I mean, he gets it. He gets it better than anybody.
Speaker 1: And again, this isn't a we are out here in
Speaker 1: this public spotlight. There is going to be criticism that's
Speaker 1: okay and understood, and you're not looking constantly for praise,
Speaker 1: and sometimes you get constructive criticism. Over the years, I've
Speaker 1: changed things before I've been on live TV. Somebody complained
Speaker 1: about a graphic behind us. Some people were writing in
Speaker 1: being nasty and saying and somebody say, hey, it's a
Speaker 1: little distracting when the da da da da da. I
Speaker 1: said it to my director live on CNN. They changed
Speaker 1: the graphic. That stuff happened. That was a criticism that
Speaker 1: came a certain They didn't say, hey, what bleeping idiot
Speaker 1: made that graphic behind you? They should be fired. That's different.
Speaker 2: There's a way to give, as you say, constructive criticism
Speaker 2: or to have an opinion. It just doesn't have to
Speaker 2: be so nasty, right, Okay.
Speaker 1: We say nat this was just vicious over what was
Speaker 1: essentially nothing. We get it to a certain degree. But
Speaker 1: we started talking today about this morning, like if someone
Speaker 1: could have seen that thing I did on TV, if
Speaker 1: because he did it on a stage. I don't know
Speaker 1: what the viewership was last night, but one of the
Speaker 1: largest thoughts I've probably never been on TV with an
Speaker 1: audience that large.
Speaker 2: I know I haven't right.
Speaker 1: I have done things throughout my career and messed up
Speaker 1: on TV to the point that I never thought I would.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't. I didn't want to come back the next day.
Speaker 2: I'm so grateful that I started out my career in
Speaker 2: nineteen ninety five, that is before YouTube or actually was
Speaker 2: the internet even.
Speaker 1: Around that was the internet.
Speaker 2: If you have to ask, I'm telling you that if
Speaker 2: it had been recorded like those early days, oh my goodness. No.
Speaker 2: I have actually forever been grateful that social media did
Speaker 2: not exist, Twitter did not exist, nothing. So any mistakes
Speaker 2: I made were made in front of a very small
Speaker 2: audience who hopefully have forgotten, and it hasn't been recorded,
Speaker 2: and if it was, it was on tapes that can't
Speaker 2: be played on any current Now.
Speaker 1: What did you do? What was your mistakedy? Can you
Speaker 1: remember a mistake? A legitimate not just stay we but
Speaker 1: somewhere you were solely responds when you messed up almost
Speaker 1: to the point of embarrassment, well on TV.
Speaker 2: So the story that stands out the most to me
Speaker 2: was my first job in Charleston, South Carolina, and they
Speaker 2: actually made a Christmas reel of bloopers for the newsroom
Speaker 2: at the Christmas party at the end of the year,
Speaker 2: and I was highly featured, and in fact, they kept
Speaker 2: going back to the thing that I did that was
Speaker 2: the most embarrassing. So I am rushing to the scene
Speaker 2: of an alleged plane crash in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and
Speaker 2: I get there just in time for the eleven o'clock news.
Speaker 2: I was an alleged There's a reason why I say
Speaker 2: it like that.
Speaker 1: Just you wait.
Speaker 2: So Russ McCaskey of w CBDTV two Action News came
Speaker 2: to me. This was my first, like real live report
Speaker 2: where something was happening ongoing. I had no script, I
Speaker 2: didn't know what was happening, and I did my first
Speaker 2: report and I thought it was pretty darn good. I
Speaker 2: gave an assessment of what was happening. They were searching
Speaker 2: for the wreckage because several people had reported, you know,
Speaker 2: fire in the sky streaks. They said it must have
Speaker 2: been a plane. So when he came to me at
Speaker 2: the end of the eleven o'clock newscast for an update,
Speaker 2: and there was no update, So Russ McCaskey asked CUB
Speaker 2: reporter Amy roboch Amy, is there any new information to report?
Speaker 2: And I said on live television. No, Russ, there is
Speaker 2: no new news to report.
Speaker 1: You told me this story before. I don't. That was
Speaker 1: not your fault. You gave an honest, accurate assessment of
Speaker 1: what the hell was going on. There was nothing news.
Speaker 2: I was honest to a fault, and everyone died laughing.
Speaker 1: I was so embarrassed.
Speaker 2: I couldn't recover. I was stammering then at that point,
Speaker 2: and I just quickly threw back because I knew I
Speaker 2: shouldn't have said that, and then I couldn't get out
Speaker 2: of the hole I had dug for myself. And by
Speaker 2: the way, it turns out, there was not a plane crash.
Speaker 2: There was nothing to report. Again, every time I hear
Speaker 2: that that is accurate. He you never that never had
Speaker 2: you know what? That's not your fault. That was would Market?
Speaker 1: Was that again? That was Market?
Speaker 2: One of seven Charles in South.
Speaker 1: Caroline, So everybody was learning. So you had a lot
Speaker 1: of inexperienced people, and what that producer was supposed to
Speaker 1: do is what, hey, do you have anything? They ask
Speaker 1: you that in your ear before I say, oh, she's
Speaker 1: got nothing, then we don't come to it.
Speaker 2: So I could have just described the scene and said
Speaker 2: it's ongoing. The search continues. I didn't need to say
Speaker 2: there is no new report.
Speaker 1: What time is news on Local new lately?
Speaker 2: That was the eleven o'clock news.
Speaker 1: So it's eleven to thirty and you're ready to go home?
Speaker 2: That is very true.
Speaker 1: Get out of here.
Speaker 2: I went home with my uh yeah, with my tale
Speaker 2: between my life. I was so embarrassed, and no one
Speaker 2: let me forget it. It was continually brought back up
Speaker 2: for my entire time that I worked there. And you know,
Speaker 2: I learned my lessons.
Speaker 1: I am always looking for ammunition, right, I'm always looking
Speaker 1: for something you use against you. This isn't one of them.
Speaker 1: This is actually one that was I Actually I get.
Speaker 2: Read in the face thinking about it now. Still, how
Speaker 2: about you?
Speaker 1: Oh, I got a lot. The most inmbarrassing. This is
Speaker 1: the most embarrassing I can remember is top five market.
Speaker 1: I just made it to San Francisco's five number five
Speaker 1: market at the time KNTV out in the Bay Area.
Speaker 1: I had been there less than a year, maybe a
Speaker 1: matter of months, but it's a big deal. I was
Speaker 1: the five o'clock anchor, so it's a big deal. Always
Speaker 1: to fill in on the main show at eleven o'clock,
Speaker 1: Big deal, made it top five market. I'm twenty six,
Speaker 1: twenty seven years old, about to fill in for the
Speaker 1: main guy at eleven. This is my moment. It's hatving it. Okay,
Speaker 1: So the show is starting, the music's going, prompter starts rolling.
Speaker 1: I'm sitting next to my co anchor. Now, of course,
Speaker 1: the prompter has all the stories you're gonna be reading through,
Speaker 1: but at the top there's kind of a template that's
Speaker 1: never changed, and the names the anchors or the tag
Speaker 1: for the show stay in there and don't get touched that.
Speaker 1: It wasn't touched for the new guy who was filling in,
Speaker 1: so the names and the teleprompter were still the names
Speaker 1: of the two main anchors and not the fill in guy.
Speaker 1: I see where this show starts. Homegirl says good evening.
Speaker 1: I'm blah blah blah. I say, good evening. I'm Alan Deentton.
Speaker 1: What did you do? Did you start to last?
Speaker 2: So? Did your coakers start to last?
Speaker 1: I is the first broadcast that I ever did where
Speaker 1: I was physically under the news desk the whole time?
Speaker 1: Is this why you ever read the prompter?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 1: You know what you make? You the point I don't
Speaker 1: trust it.
Speaker 2: It's true. So I was always in awe of you
Speaker 2: because all of us would write our scripts out, we'd
Speaker 2: put them in prompter and we're in the studio and
Speaker 2: we'd read our script from the prompter. You never did,
Speaker 2: And you could have a minute long intro that had
Speaker 2: lots of details and numbers and things you don't want
Speaker 2: to mess up, and you preferred to memorize it or
Speaker 2: have it in your head versus read it from the
Speaker 2: prompt and that might be the root cause of it.
Speaker 1: Trauma is what it was. It was trauma. I don't
Speaker 1: even trust my own name, but yeah, they left it
Speaker 1: in there. And I said, I think I stumble over
Speaker 1: and eventually said my own name, but I read fully
Speaker 1: and I didn't say Alan. I catch it. I said,
Speaker 1: I'm Alan Denton.
Speaker 2: Did you and Alan Denton ever talk about this?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't think I ever looked at
Speaker 1: him again. No, it was fine. And you know, he's
Speaker 1: a I think he's maybe twenty plus, maybe even thirty
Speaker 1: years older than I am. White dude, blonde hair. We
Speaker 1: do not even funny air, you can mix that up.
Speaker 1: So we have moments. Everybody has a moment on TV,
Speaker 1: and some of them you can laugh at. But I
Speaker 1: don't know to encourage people to give folks a break,
Speaker 1: to give folks just a just a little break on times.
Speaker 1: I know, it's social media and it's how it is.
Speaker 1: It's not what you should expect. It just we shouldn't
Speaker 1: expect people to be kinder in those situations. But it
Speaker 1: was just it was just weird to see the headlines
Speaker 1: and then go back and watch and go what the.
Speaker 2: Hell when it comes to dealing with those types of opinions.
Speaker 2: I remember I once had a friend who was a
Speaker 2: co anchor at MSNBC, and I'm sure, I'm oh my gosh,
Speaker 2: I made a million mistakes. And there was one day
Speaker 2: I was beating myself up and he looked at me
Speaker 2: and said, hey, Amy, you know what, it's just television.
Speaker 2: We're not saving lives. You're gonna be fine, and so.
Speaker 1: Is the audience. And to that point as well, you
Speaker 1: need somebody to get in your ear like that. And
Speaker 1: I was reminded, man, thank god, you get to come
Speaker 1: back and do this tomorrow, because there are some right
Speaker 1: these guys lost a football game yesterday, and some guys
Speaker 1: had a bad game, and they're getting talked about in
Speaker 1: a really vicious way. They have to wait until next
Speaker 1: season to get back out there and try to prove
Speaker 1: themselves or try to do better. And we we do.
Speaker 1: We work in an industry that does allow for you
Speaker 1: to come back on the next day and try it
Speaker 1: again and have a clean slate. So obviously we love Stray,
Speaker 1: but we don't need to defend Stray. Stray's good, but
Speaker 1: it was just something that was on our mind that
Speaker 1: was funny and painful and triggering to a certain degree.
Speaker 2: Yeah, just you know, I don't know, maybe everybody can
Speaker 2: just remember, if you don't have something nice to say,
Speaker 2: maybe think twice even longer before you say it, or
Speaker 2: even more importantly, put it in print and send it
Speaker 2: out for the world to see.
Speaker 1: That's uh, I'm sure that'll turn everything around.
Speaker 2: I'm sure I've just convinced everybody to be kind. All
Speaker 2: right until tomorrow.
Speaker 1: All right, folks, appreciate you listening. As always. You can
Speaker 1: find the show at Amy and TJ Podcast. But for now,
Speaker 1: I'm Alan Dinnon
Speaker 2: And I'm Russ McCaskey b Its the en