My first blog, my first post...WELCOME

my first blog following my first solo anchor night...big night because we are an abc affiliate, so the news followed Desperate Housewives and Brothers and Sisters. And I also had my first Ron Burgundy moment. Coming out of sports, we chatted a bit. The sports guy (Tim Hill) gives me a state capital quiz every Sunday. This Sunday it was Mississippi (do you know the capital?) I answered correct then went on with the next story. But it said something about Martinsville and Nascar. So i just looked straight at it and said, "Is that my read? Well, why not." What I read was the tag out of a Nascar story that had been killed. Hey, at least every body knows next week's race is in Martinsville.

In addition to anchoring, I went out in downtown Columbia (the Vista area) to ask people if they knew what the governments' financial bailout plan is, and if they knew what the $700 billion was going to be used for. Three of seven knew the bailout plan was to infuse money in troubled banks. Only knew how the $700 billion was going to be spent (or at least the plan on how it is to be spent). I won't answer here. Maybe get your feedback on if you know, if it's a fair question, if it even matters.

It was interesting to here why people said they didn't know. All of them--that is, the 6 out 7 who didn't know what the money was going to be used for, said they didn't bother to find out the details because there was nothing they could do about it anyway. Goes to show, if people don't have direct control over a situation, they tend not follow it.

So for my first post, I'll end my thoughts there. Now for a quick biography. My name is Andy Burns (full name is Samuel Anderson Burns). I go by Andy socially, Anderson on the air. I am an weekend anchor at WOLO in Columbia, SC. after spending two years as a reporter and fill-in anchor at WCIV in Charleston, SC. Not sure what the deal is with South Carolina, but there it is. I'm way over educated, and have the debt to prove it. Undergrad in Chapel Hill. A short time in Atlanta, then three years in NYC, then I headed to Seminary (Union Theological Seminary in NYC at Columbia U.). I'll explain why I went in a later post. Following seminary, off to Chicago for journalism grad school at Northwestern. The end of that put me Charleston. My hope with this blog is to discuss stories I report or that are dominating the newswires. Hopefully some cool discussions can develop which will help me fine tune my reporting, give me story ideas, and maybe help readers better understand stories or issues they care about. You can watch my stories at abccolumbia.com. I'll link the website as soon I figure all this out. Say hello if you happened to stumble across me. Thx.
-Andy