Not even close, Matt

Matthew Kreth does not understand SMU-TV. We would be more thanhappy to produce three shows, film weekly events, tape five dailynews segments, edit them all and change the loop every other day.Then we’re gonna fly to Somalia, cultivate the land and stopfamine and hunger worldwide. Are you kidding me, dawg?

Earth to Mr. Ill-informed — WE ARE STUDENTS — wedon’t get paid, and we don’t get benefits. A lot ofwhat goes on air is outside-of-class work. That means in betweenstudying for exams, part-time jobs, internships, organizations andattempts at a social life, you want us to put up the content ofCNN. How many professionals have to cram for exams, show up forpart-time jobs, or build resumes with internships?

We could stop this argument right now by saying, “Heybiology major, why don’t you go find out the Ph level ofWhite Rock Lake and get back to me? Acid or base?”

Instead, we’ve decided to respond to your article with thehumor, drama and education you’ve asked us to produce.

We find it funny that you make all these demands and present allthese ideas when many of the things you’ve requested arecurrently in place, not to mention other demands that aren’teven possible. Believe us, we’ve tried.

Here we go …

You said, “All I see is some sad and depressing footballcoverage.” Sorry, we’re not the reason the team is0-11. Funny thing is we tried to cover the football games —three of them to be exact. However, each game has separatetelevision contracts, and our class was forced to play secondfiddle. You can’t tape a game if you don’t getclearance. But you knew that, right?

You said, “I think more people would watch SMU-TV if theymimic shows.” Did you want us to copy them? Or should we comeup with original content? How about the weekly sports show wecreated from scratch? It’s called “SportsStampede,” you should check it out sometime.

You said, “I would love to wake up in the morning, tuneinto channel 7, and find a brief, yet informative news and weatherupdate for the day.” Ever heard of the “DailyUpdate”? We have. We finished shooting it at 8 a.m. thismorning just like every other morning of the week almost thisentire semester. Did we mention that getting to the studio at 6:30a.m. is all voluntary?

You said, “I want an SMU ‘Cribs’ show.”We say, been there done that buddy. It’s called “SMUShanties.” By the way, you wanna see the Big House? Have yourpeople call Prez Turner’s people. See if they can get us thatcoveted time slot.

You said, “Let’s have students submit tapes. All youneed is a little editing and you have one hilarious program.”We can’t think of anything else besides new ways to punchholes in the wall to describe our emotions on this one. Editing isone of the most difficult, tedious and strenuous processeswe’ve ever experienced. Try spending 10-12 hours in theediting dungeon putting together a two-and-a-half minute newspiece. We feel like mad scientists walking out.

You said, “I’ve heard from many other students thatwant to see SMU’s version of‘Punk’d.'” Sure, right after you fund uswith highly sensitive microphones we can hide in Hum-V’s,toilet seats and bushes. We already submitted the idea. Therewasn’t enough time between our other shows to put it alltogether.

You said, “Now that we have comedy covered, let’sshift into drama. You don’t have time to produce a dramaticshow?” Is biology a cutthroat major? Do you wanna see drama?Come hang out when we have one hour to write, produce and shoot a30-minute show. Egos, attitudes and differences are bound todevelop. Each student is forced to help others to bring it alltogether. There will be cursing, bickering, backstabbing andfighting. The SMU-TV kiddos have been there.

As for television drama, try catching a student film, the Hopetheatre performance, Mustang Idol or an SMU soap.

You forget in all your demands we’ve only been around onesemester. For many students, it takes that long to become familiarwith the equipment.

Those millions of dollars you spoke of:We feel that’smoney well spent. Because of our new studio, students will get theexperience needed to score jobs in some of the top broadcastmarkets in America. We show off the studio to perspective students,visiting guests and distinguished faculty. We aren’t thefinancial consultants for the department. However, the educationwe’ve received proves the money didn’t go to waste.

Currently there are fewer than 60 students enrolled with accessto our facilities. These few students will continue to create thefoundation for the broadcast journalism department of thefuture.

The last point we wish to make is important to each of us in ourown way.

Trust us when we say we log many hard hours for what you mightsee as inferior television. We’re more than proud of it. Wefelt the need to defend the entire broadcast journalism departmentand ourselves. An article chock-full of wrong information andincorrect facts with accusations creates a false representation ofour department. We fear outside students see the finger pointingand develop biased impressions of the station without giving it achance.

Channel 7 is not CNN, and we don’t want it to be. We wantto be a station that puts out quality programs at a realistic ratefor college students. We apologize if that is too slow for some. Soif you watch it and like it, that’s cool. If you want to bashit, fine. Either way, “You better watch yourself.”