"Allow myself to introduce ... myself"

Add it to the list.

For better or worse, the list of things I said I’d never do – yet, have ultimately done – is getting longer. Things like “listening to a Shakira song and actually liking it” (I’m sorry, but “Hips Don’t Lie” is money). Or “buying a white car.” Or “buying a car from RPM Nissan in Durham” … actually managed to add those two items to the list with one fell swoop.

Well, “having a blog” was definitely one of the things I said I’d never do. And yet, you’re reading the very self-incriminating evidence that I indeed do have a blog.

I’ve long hated blogs. Well, not necessarily blogs themselves, but the way that folks like CNN picked up blogs and ran with them, heralding them as the best thing since sliced bread. Call me ignorant, call me old-school, call me close-minded. But I just don’t think that authoring a blog automatically makes you a journalist. And I most definitely don’t think they’re worth cable news networks dedicating whole hours of programming.

But the powers-that-be DO think they’re worth it. And the popularity of blogs continues to grow. Consequently, so does their usefulness. They’re great ways to share your opinion (something for which I’m rarely ever at a loss). They’re great ways to stay in touch (something for which I hope this proves useful, because I deeply miss my friends in Chapel Hill – and I know my family is always looking for new ways to keep tabs on me). They’re great ways to create open dialogue – I love a good-spirited, intelligent conversation (even a good argument, as some of my close friends could testify). So, I’m hoping this delivers on all that.

And, very importantly, they’re great ways for professional journalists to really connect with the people who consume their product. For me, this means connecting with the people who watch WNCT-TV 9 or view WNCT.com – and primarily, this means connecting with the people who live in Carteret County (and the surrounding counties, as well), because that’s where I live and work each day. I’m hoping this will eventually grow in to a forum for people who live in Carteret County and greater Eastern North Carolina to discuss their opinions and ideas with me, and be a way for me to better invest myself in what’s going on in the area. Not to mention, engaging in intelligent discussion with my friends from Chapel Hill and beyond.

In other words, I’d love for this to serve as a compliment to WNCT’s Viewers’ Voice – you know, the “your comments will be a part of our Viewers’ Voice segment, which airs every Friday.”

In order for that to happen, I feel like this blog must be integrated as a part of WNCT.com. I know our webmaster, George Crocker – who does a phenomenal job, by the way – is a fan of blogs … at least, I think he is. So hopefully I’ll be able to talk with him and my News Director about integrating this in to the site.

In order to make it easy to interact, I’ve designed the site so you don’t have to create a username and password to post – you should simply just be able to fill out the comment form and click send. But please feel free to create some sort of username or alias; I’d love to be able to identify who I’m talking with.

To kick off the interactivity, I’ll award two cool points to anyone who can correctly identify the movie from which I borrowed the title of this post. I know darn well there are plenty of folks out there who’ve heard me quote it time and time again.

I’m hoping to update this daily, or semi-daily, in order to truly create the type of forum I’m envisioning. My posts won’t always been this long. Sometimes they’ll be longer. Hopefully, they’ll include bits of humor and wit – I can trust friends David Holst and Mark Woodell, two of the most humorous and witty people I’ve ever met, to alert me as to whether I’ve succeeded there. Sometimes they’ll address serious topics, or just the news of the day. There will no doubt be discussion about the “business” of television journalism, and I’m hoping I can give you a sneak peek at what goes on behind the scenes. And I hope my posts will often be guided and directed by what I’m hearing from you, the folks who read this.

Let’s be honest – we all spend a considerable amount of time each day online, reading really random crap. I’d be flattered if you added my really random crap to your online to-do list.

More than anything, this will serve as an outlet. I love to write, and believe it or not, as a TV reporter, I don’t get to write as much as I would like. So check back often, I hope to keep this updated.

Thanks for taking the time to read my inaugural post, and I hope to see you here again soon.