Many “old-timers” like to complain about the shrinking size of sound bites in news stories. They pine for the “good old days” when 25, 35, even 45-second bites were common. Then they moan about the situation today: Nine seconds tops, and it’s on to the next item.

Every serious newsperson wants substantive news stories on television, and when someone speaks, the sound should really matter. It should deliver important information, and be impossible to ignore.

But a strictly stopwatch mentality won’t achieve that. Content matters more than the clock. What is said, and how it is said, is what people will remember. Not how much time it takes.

Although the era of long sound bites may have passed, the need for quality sound never goes away. Good sound makes a story worth a viewer’s attention. Weak sound is as useless as wallpaper video or jargony “groaner” clichés - a waste of precious airtime.

Think of sound bites as little “punches” in a story.. points of emphasis, opportunities to drive home an idea more effectively than narration alone. They also inject the flavor of an event, so folks learn more than just what happened at that fire, or that news conference, or that politician’s speech. They get a sense of what it was like to actually be there, and how the people involved really felt.

The best rule for picking bites is: Don’t use one unless it tells the story better than you can.

Honestly, who needs to hear a police spokesman say, “The suspect entered through the window” or a district attorney say, “The defendant is charged with three counts of attempted murder”? Do we really need to waste our time listening to a candidate say, “We need more jobs to grow the economy” or an indicted businessman’s lawyer declare, “My client is innocent and expects to be vindicated”?

A far better strategy is to hunt for great sound the same way you search for that fantastic opening picture, or just the right phrase for the lead paragraph.

And when it comes to finding great sound, what you’re hunting for, is passion.

Back when ABC’s Monday Night Football first began, the producers wanted to create a uniquely entertaining experience beyond typical sports coverage, and worthy of prime time. They resolved to do more than just “bring the game to the fan”. They were going to “bring the fan to the game”. They did it, in part, by adding more sound... more microphones everywhere, so you could hear every grunt, every crunch, every holler. That translated into a more passionate game experience.

Same with news. If there’s one thing that energizes a sound bite, and helps it kick a story forward, it’s passion. That’s what “brings the fan to the game”.

Passion takes many forms. It doesn’t have to be someone yelling and screaming. It need not be the uncontrolled sobbing of a mother saying “My baby, my baby!!” If that indicted businessman grabs the mike from his lawyer and says, “There’s no way in heck I took that money and I’m gonna prove it,” THAT’S passion. That’s exactly what Ray Donovan did, when he was President Reagan’s Labor Secretary, and he was indicted in a defense contractor scandal. On the day he was acquitted, Donovan looked into the camera and asked, “What office do I go to, to get my reputation back?” THAT’S passion. When the first President Bush ridiculed the Clinton-Gore ticket by saying “My dog Millie knows more about foreign policy than these two Bozo’s”, THAT’S passion. And when an angry Secretary of State George Shultz, enraged by the Iran-Contra scandals perpetrated under his nose, faced a congressional committee and declared, ”Trust is the coin of the realm”, you could see the passion in his eyes, and you could feel it in his words. Nobody was watching the clock.

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