In the News!

Jacob -
 This weekend we're in Newport News, VA with your mom for a residency interview.  I'll fill you in on what our impressions are of the town, but first the important stuff: You were in the local news last night!

 On our way to meet your mom in the baggage area after we disembarked from the plane (we had to split up in a search for a lost bottle), we were accosted by a local news reporter.  She was desperate to find a photogenic father/son combo to interview for a story she was covering about a change in the security lines at the airport; we fit the bill perfectly.  Apparently a "family lane" had recently been added to help streamline the security process, and the reporter + camera lady were there to record the reactions of unaware travelers.

 We reluctantly agreed to participate in the interview, and the camera lady got some great shots of you being pushed around in the stroller ($600 well spent, after all! :) ).

 So. When you are older and begin to watch local news you'll probably be struck by the fact that the people being interviewed universally come across as dim-witted.  Your dad was no exception to this rule. 

 

It turns out that local reporters are generally fresh out of journalism school, where they learn to ask "what" and "why" and "when", etc.  In the case of our reporter, once she asked those questions once, apparently not getting me to emit the particular sound bite best squeezed into a three second clip, she decided to cycle back through the questions, not really bothering to rephrase them.

 So what showed up on the news clip later that night was this:

• A striking image of Jacob and Ben Truitt walking confidently toward the baggage claim
• A voice-over by the reporter in question asserting that Jacob Truitt had had a rough day of travel, or some such
• An insightful question from the reporter posed to Ben asking for a reaction to the idea of family lanes in the security area at the airport
• A dim-witted sounding response cut from my second pass through the question during the interview in which I answered "well..uh...other than what I just said..I guess it will get families out of their way" or some similarly grammatically and intellectually challenged answer
• A cut back to the handsome and clearly more stimulating baby being wheeled away in a designer stroller with the voice-over lady wrapping up the story

 You are a star, Jake!  We fully expect letters from Hollywood producers awaiting our arrival back in San Antonio.  We looked for an online version of the report without success, but the station is WVEC, just in case you want to prowl through their archives one day when you are the highest paid child actor in history.

 More to follow soon about Newport News.

Love,
Dad