Tuesday Briefing has Brief Collapse

by Mike Davies
edited by Phil Enright

The Marlin Fitzwater Center’s Tuesday Briefing did not go as planned after Nurse Michele Belletete arrived an hour and 15 minutes late to Franklin Pierce University, preventing the show from running on time.

The March 9^th edition of the show still went on but without an audience and limited crew.  Belletete’s intended purpose was to discuss the current state of Haiti, but numerous errors in the show made this Tuesday Briefing the shortest so far this semester.

Tuesday Briefing airs every week and is available via webcast; however, viewers were unaware that Belletete was late.  Viewers know the show starts at exactly 11am on Tuesdays but were not given an update on when this delayed show would start.  Belletete was the reason why the show ran late and when she arrived, she thought she was an hour early.

While the crew was waiting to see if the Tuesday Briefing was cancelled, Dr. Kristen Nevious, Director of the Marlin Fitzwater Center, thanked the two audience members for coming before they left the campus.  “We learned a lesson in diplomacy.  We would have rescheduled her to come back if she did not come today,” said Nevious.  Belletete voluntarily agreed to be in the show free of cost.

This was not the first time guests have arrived late to the Tuesday Briefing.  There were two separate occasions where guests had a misunderstanding with Nevious and the rest of the Tuesday Briefing crew.

Once the show began, her microphone began to lose audio levels, causing viewers to not understand what she was saying.  Another noticeable error in the show was the misspelling of her name on a graphic.

Phil Enright, Fitzwater production assistant, was in the control room as the Tuesday Briefing was being filmed and noticed some minor difficulties.  “We were set to go, but because [Belletete] was late, we broke everything down.  We had to set everything back up in a short amount of time when she arrived,” said Enright.

There was no indication of whether the Tuesday Briefing would make improvements to the crew or show.  Jason Raft, graduate assistant, was a cameraman for this week and thought the show could use some more crew.  “Having a floor manager to deal with technical issues would make everyone’s jobs easier,” said Raft.

A normal edition of the Tuesday Briefing will have a run time between 30 and 45 minutes.  This edition barely made it over 18 minutes.  This was the fifth edition so far in this semester.  While on the show, Belletete discussed her experience with Haitians and her involvement with Doctors Without Borders.  She has been to Haiti 30 times and encourages people to join large organizations who are going to Haiti to help out with earthquake victims.

The Tuesday Briefing will return after spring break on March 23^rd.  No guest has been announced at this point.  Although some viewers may not have enjoyed this episode as much as previous ones, it is still clear the Haitian citizens need help.