The long-awaited day has finally come (and gone) and now it really only remains to be seen what the general public have to say about it. The link below is the piece that TMJ4 did on us (Milwaukee's local channel 4, NBC affiliate).
http://www.todaystmj4.com/features/specialassignment/50975807.html?video...
A few comments:
The "catchy" promo for it that ran all day Friday was cheesy and racy. They intentionally used the phrases "love triangle" and "provocative new look on marriage." It wasn't terribly sensationalized, but it gave me a start when I first saw it.
The piece, in general, is tasteful. I think they did a decent job of portraying us in a generic - neither gung-ho positive or lynch-them-in-the-square negative - which I can deal with. We also didn't get any bad jokes from Mike Jacobs, which tends to happen after each of the "Special Assignment" pieces. That was nice.
A few corrections, though: they labeled a few people incorrectly. My girlfriend's name is Lyndzi. At about minute 1, they label her as Kris Jernberg, who is actually one of the members of our group - though the piece identifies her correctly in the script. So then at minute 1:40 that is Kris talking about not being a swinger; they label her as Rachel Keuler, who is Lyndzi's roommate. Lastly, Rachel (who is the woman with Jeff - the guy with the hat) is incorrectly labeled as the relationship - not sex - expert Judy Bruett.
It was obvious that the expert that they got to talk about relationships obviously has a) little knowledge about the practice of polyamory to generalized by saying "it would be asking for trouble" and b) doesn't agree with it. There are poly-friendly counselors and therapists in the area; I'm not sure why they didn't spend the time to look one of those up. But oh well.
I personally received five separate text messages last night with the general statement, "Hey, you're on tv." Some knew; some didn't, but they do now. It's nerve-wracking, but it's good to know that we're out there now, and anyone looking for a friendly face knows where to go.
Let us know what you think.
Yay!
You rock!! I think back to when I first met you and you talked about getting something like this started and building a community in Milwaukee and you did it! I'm so proud of you!
~Jana
Wonderful wonderful!
The three of you were wonderful and came off fantastically in the piece! :) Kudos!
Cheers on forming the discussion group too! You've doing wonderful stuff and progressing the cause of love.
(We have a website for a book of our life of polyamory, including an extensive blog, if you'd like to check it out: www.theordinaryextraordinary.com ).
Cheers, everyone! Continue the good work.
-- Alan and Anna
My Dad has done some unusual
My Dad has done some unusual sailing, and he frequently gets interviews from newspapers and radio. Sometimes I go sailing with him, so I really know what happened...and reporters *always* butcher the details.
I'm poly myself (living with my wife and co-husband in Minneapolis), and I'm so glad to read that you and your partners were the seed of a story that ended up being fairly positive.
Considering how many people think cheating is an acceptable solution to the problem of loving multiple people, I think the best thing we can hope for is to get the idea out there that there are polyamorists out there that are living an otherwise normal life.
Thanks for putting yourself out there!
Hey guys-- Over all, it was a
Hey guys--
Over all, it was a pretty good piece--I'm glad it went so well! Frankly, they could have given the counselor a lot more "biting" time--it definitely could have been worse. ;)
I noticed the mismatched titles right away--it's a mis-communication from the script to master control, and unfortunately, it seems to happen quite a bit during newscasts.
Glad to see the finished product--keep the group posted on incoming commentary from the larger Milwaukee area! I'm curious to know what the response will be like.
--A
Captions off by one
The captioning is just off by one-- The woman who speaks before Rachael is given Rachel's name, and Rachael is given the name of the "relationship expert" who speaks after her (who somehow didn't get a caption of her own). Probably someone just screwed up the "cue list".
It's a good piece, though. I thought it was interesting that they didn't mention where you were meeting, even though there were a bunch of sex toys on the wall behind you!
Great piece! You guys did
Great piece! You guys did wonderfully. Congrats!
--Alan M.
Polyamory in the News
http://polyinthemedia.blogspot.com
Nice Job!
Wonderful follow up with your group as well. Seems you are becoming a REAL hit within the community as a whole. I found you on facebook via Anita Wagner and am forwarding the links on to our local groups. Thanks for the inspirations!
Elaine F.
Southern Tier New York State
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NYSouthernTierPoly/