Juan Anguiano of the NBC News Chicago bureau, my co-worker, friend, and surrogate son.
A relatively innocent email thread recently resulted in the idea for this post. I was emailing back-and-forth with one of my coworkers and friends who is responsible for booking news crews for the NBC News Bureau in Chicago. I had casually remarked to Juan Anguiano, one of the guys who can hold my financial fate in his hand, that I wasn’t doing much news-wise recently but there were a lot of other things going on in my life...Things such as being in the process of selling our house and readying ourselves to move, and taking care of my aging father among quite a few others. Just before this thread occurred, I had sent out a notification to my NBC friends and contacts both in Chicago and New York that I was excited to have some new equipment I was rolling out that I hoped they would be happy about and hire me more...Juan was responding back, and the email thread went as below...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To: Preston Swigart
Subject: RE: New equipment and stuff
Very nice Mr. Swigart!
To: Anguiano, Juan (NBCUniversal)
Subject: [EXTERNAL] RE: New equipment and stuff
Hey stranger. Gotta do something with my time since you guys haven’t been calling….
To: Preston Swigart
Subject: RE: New equipment and stuff
...I definitely want you to work, but your area has been under control these days. (My ears perk up with the mention of term "under control" and the wheels start spinning…)
To: 'Anguiano, Juan (NBCUniversal)'
Subject: RE: New equipment and stuff
“Under control”…that is a very interesting term. A blessing for me and my family for sure, but also a curse in regards to work. But all in all, “under control" ain’t a bad thing!!! Quite honestly right now there’s so many things going on in my life that I almost wouldn’t have time to work even if you guys did call. But of course I’d make time…
To: 'Anguiano, Juan (NBCUniversal)'
Subject: RE: New equipment and stuff
BTW, you just gave me an idea for new blog post. Thanks!
To: Preston Swigart
Subject: RE: New equipment and stuff
LOL! I'm a blog post now. Nice!
I must say when I first started here you and another crew (not in your state) were one of the very first who made me feel comfortable and helped me along the way with what you guys do. Now that I can do this with my eyes closed, I always go back those that helped me when I first started. Yes the days will come when I say "I need you today for NightlyNews and tomorrow for TODAY". Haha! Just wait
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So goes how I get my ideas for blog posts sometimes. The above words just struck me. “Under control”. That is how my friend In Chicago who works in the national news business views our area of southeastern Michigan currently. “Under control”. Of course I’ve heard that term before, but never heard it used in those terms.
In his eyes “under control” is that there is nothing going on around here that needs to be covered nationally by freelancers like me who NBC hires on a daily basis, and who do the bulk of news camera work for the national networks nowadays. This is, of course, a good thing for him because he can dictate his limited resources elsewhere if necessary. After all, in this budget conscious era even television news is a business that needs to make a profit. To me and my world, “under control” is a bit different. It means no gigantic forest fires, tornadoes, hurricanes, terrorist events, no Uber drivers randomly going around killing people or anything else that is the fodder of national television news these days. No tragedy of any kind. Nor any political craziness either. Sometimes there’s a plus to living in the ‘boring’ Midwest. So this is a good thing for me as well, but at the same time it means that I get little or no work out of it.
I am actually thrilled about this because overall it means that my family and those I care about—my beloved people and pets who are a huge part of my life are all safe, as well as myself. My house isn’t going to flood, be destroyed by wind or anything else that we are so used to seeing on the national news in certain areas of the world these days. No danger to me, those around me or my possessions, other than the ‘normal’ threats of everyday life we almost take for granted nowadays. I praise God for that.
Here’s the thing. Unfortunately as I’ve learned in in many years in this crazy news business, it’s just a matter of time. I will work in this area eventually, maybe even right near my home and Juan won’t be able to say the area is “under control” any more. Harm will likely come to people and things in some way or another. Unfortunately this is the way of the world we live in. It is my job to inform the public of these things in the most tactful way that I possibly can. In ways that may be hard for some people to understand, I both look forward to and bone-chillingly dread when that inevitably happens...
Post mortem. The events in at the church in Texas eventually did end up affecting even me, here in the Midwest. Aside from the perceived horror of the event and my sadness for all involved, because of the significance of that event and their need for staff down there NBC had to cancel plans that I was involved in here in MI. A series of stories on the one year anniversary of the monumental election of 2016 had been planned for that Tuesday, which will now never be done. So goes the News Biz (and with it, my life) in this crazy world we live in.