INSIDE SCOOP

-- Compiled by the Daily Pilot staff

There are some days when the adrenaline is really pumping in the

newsroom.

You know, it kind of happens on days when we have freeway crashes,

robberies and fires happen all at once.

It’s even harder to figure out what’s going on when you don’t have the

luxury of eavesdropping on local police and fire officials using a radio

since the departments went digital this year.

We still get some sporadic information from the radio. Last week, on a

busy, busy day, one of our photographers heard a little something on the

radio that got him pumped.

The dispatch people were calling for Costa Mesa fire engines. There

was a crash somewhere in the city. Four people were pinned under a

vehicle, he said. Two fatalities.

As reporters and photographers in our newsroom went crazy making

calls, officials in both Costa Mesa and Newport Beach said they knew

nothing about this major incident.

“Really?” asked the Costa Mesa Police watch commander. “Never heard

about it.”

Same response from the Fire Department. Meanwhile, the radio people

were going crazy. More dead. More injured.

Where was this big incident going on? In some kind of weird twilight

zone or parallel Costa Mesa universe?

One reporter decided to call the Costa Mesa Fire dispatch just once

more. What was going on?

“Oh that,” said the woman on the other line, as a matter of fact.

“That’s a drill.”

As it turned out, it was drill for the newsroom, as well.

Press conferences don’t work well without press

The operative word in the term press conference is “press.”

Somebody might want to tell that to Costa Mesa Mayor Libby Cowan and

Newport-Mesa School Board President David Brooks.

The two officials called a press conference Monday to announce a

collaborative effort to provide after school programs for Costa Mesa

youth.

The room was full of city staff, school district officials and leaders

of area nonprofit organizations but no press.

The Pilot reporter was the only “press” in the room, and we weren’t

even told about the conference. Our reporter found out through routine

city calls.

It’s a good thing, too, or else the news would have been “announced”

to all those who had a part in its making.