One legendary news director could not say the words “wire copy” without laughing. Usually his laugh, followed by a cold stare, would demolish some trembling writer he’d called into his office to criticize a script’s accuracy. Heaven help the writer if he said the unforgivable. “You got it from the WIRES??!!” (laugh, stare, writer sinks through the floor, wishing he sold insurance).

To this news director, wire copy was way down on the list of acceptable news sources. It’s not that he totally distrusted the wires. He understood that wire copy, like any element of a good news operation, is just another tool, which can be used properly or abused shamefully. Letting the wires do your thinking, or your writing for you, is shameful.

With umpteen story assignments on any given day, it’s tempting to make things a little easier by relying exclusively on the wires for facts, context, even style. Many well-meaning writers simply go ahead and do that, figuring, hey, the stuff is there, all ready to go, so why not?

Because we get paid to use our brains, not just our duplicating skills.

Wire information is a first step, not a final say. Ideally, it should be supplemented, wherever possible, with firsthand details from people in the field, phone calls to the cops, careful scrutiny of available video, as much digging as possible. Get the facts, and get them right.

But often the real trouble starts after you have the facts.

Pull out any script from a typical newscast at your station. Now find the corresponding wire copy. Notice anything? Chances are, you’ll spot more style similarities than you expected. Whole phrases, hastily created in the head of some AP writer rushing to meet a newspaper deadline, show up in TV news scripts across the country. That’s how we get stuff like “war-ravaged”, “widely heralded”, “speaking on condition of anonymity”... Worse, some writers engage in “copy-blocking” . They lift whole paragraphs from wire stories and transfer them to their scripts. The poor anchors have to break their teeth over run-on sentences, awkward phrasing, and all the other stuff intended for a 35-paragraph newspaper story. The writer’s excuse for this shortcut? Not enough time to do it any other way.

Make the time.

Consider it a matter of personal pride. You’re an adult, and a professional. Nobody dresses you in the morning, nobody feeds you breakfast or drives you to work. So why should some stranger at AP do your job for you?

Furthermore, and no offense to the hardworking wire reporters, but your own personal style is better. Wire copy English may work in print, where you can go back and forth and re-read. TV viewers can’t do that. Broadcast scripts are written for the ear. They have to sound like one person having a normal conversation with another.

Trouble is, with all that tantalizing sheet of wire copy sitting in front of you, or hogging space on your computer screen, how do you not use it to excess?

Here’s a little system that may help.

Stop thinking of a wire story as a “story”. It’s a fact sheet, which happens to be arranged in prose form. Treat it that way.

Read the wire, several times if necessary, until you’re sure you understand it completely.

Highlight a word here, a word there, not for style, only for facts.

When you’re done, shove that sheet of paper out of the way and get it off your screen! You don’t want that wire copy anywhere nearby when you begin your creative process.

Ask yourself, “OK, what REALLY happened? What’s this story really about?”

Now write. In your words, nobody else’s, like a friend talking to a friend.

After the script is completed, pick up the wire again... but only to fact check, never to compare style.

Sure, this system takes a little extra discipline. But it gets easier over time, and it’s definitely worth it. Your copy will sound much better, and your anchors and viewers will appreciate it!

More Writing Tools