Skype

“Ugh!” I said. “Another web-cam interview.
They keep doing that, and they're gonna lose this kid,” I said.
A web-cam interview is for the interviewee to park themselves in front of their computer-cam, and stare earnestly into it while being questioned by the interviewer, e.g. the national TV media.
My new laptop has a computer-cam.
Worse yet are the Skype interviews.
The other night a Toyota owner aimed his Skype at himself behind the wheel of his Prius so the TV-news could interview him.
“This is what TV-news reportage is coming to,” my wife declared.
“Cameras are so cheap and available, video crews have been let go. Let the reporter do his own video.”
“Yeah, but you can always tell these web-cam interviews,” I said.
“Poorly lit and all washed out, with no regard for production values. That Skype in that Toyota was awful.
And computer-cams are all wide-angle. They hafta be. They're two feet from the subject. Telephoto so it looks natural, and ya might get a nose.”
So whatcha get is a washed-out distorted wide-angle picture.
I thought of my friend Paul Long, who used to be Sports-Editor at the mighty Mezz.
He now is a newspaper-guy living in southern VA, but more management.
“What I dread more than anything is my bosses handing me a camera,” he Facebooked me. “I'm a writer, not a video-person.”
Over the past 30 years I've watched TV video get a lot better.
Sharper and more vibrant.
I didn't even get a color TV until about 25 years ago, because I felt it wasn't worth it.
Color TV looked awful back then.
30 years of progress, suddenly reversed by web-cam and Skype.

• “This kid” is of course me.
• My wife of 42+ years is “Linda.”
• The “mighty Mezz” is the Canandaigua Daily-Messenger newspaper, from where I retired over four years ago. Best job I ever had. (“Canandaigua” [“cannon-DAY-gwuh”] is a small city nearby where we live in Western NY. The city is also within a rural town called “Canandaigua.” The name is Indian, and means “Chosen Spot.” —It’s about 15 miles away.)