DaleRussell's Blog

There are many reasons to watch Fox 5 that you don’t know about.

Some reasons are obvious.

Wonderful, warm, welcome into my living room type anchors.  The kind of people you trust, admire and would be happy to have over for Sunday brunch.

Helicopter flying, reporter running, photographer gunning breaking news with all the action and excitement of a Sylvester Stallone movie, back when Sly’s muscles were a product of youth and not human growth hormone.

 

Glittering graphics that pop out of your set and make you drool with excitement.

 

And of course, the I-team.  (Do you expect anything less on my own blog?)

 

But there are many other reasons to watch Fox5 that you may never know of or see.

 

One of them is leaving today.

 

His name is Bud Veazey.  His business card says Assistant News director. The number two man in a long chain of newsroom managers.

 

To us, he has always been “Easy Veazey.”

 

It is the kind of nickname you use to someone’s face, not spat behind their back and under your breath.

 

Bud Veazey is everything a newsroom needs.  For some 20 years he has been the voice of reason, the calm during the storm, the most logical, rational decision maker you could ever dream of.

 

A newsroom in crisis is not a pretty site.  Screaming, yelling, and cussing are only the beginning.  It is a white knuckle, eyes bulging, vein popping cauldron of insanity.

 

And in the middle of it all, will come “Easy Veazey.”  Calm, seasoned and reasoned – he will spot the problems, cover the mistakes, move the troops, and pacify the out of control, as easy as if were breathing.

 

If the news room was the Titanic, Veazey was the guy playing the violin, as the ship began to sink.

 

The bonus for us, as a journalist, his instincts are spot on. 

 

I won’t bore you with his resume, but I will tell you he won a George Foster Peabody award as a young TV journalist in Nashville.

 

The Peabody is our Oscar. There is no higher mountain to climb in TV news.

 

A copy of it hangs in his office, and the first time I saw it, and commented on how brilliant the story must have been, in his understated, dead pan way he answered:

 

“I think it was so long and boring, the judges must have thought it was good.”

 

 I think not. I think it was just one mark of excellence in a career marked by excellence.

A career coming to an end today.

 

There will be no more visits with the manager who would listen before talking. No more music coming from the back office, when “Easy Veazey” decided to pick up his guitar and pluck a few tunes. No more quick review of an expense account, muttering, “this is BS” then signing it anyway.  And no more eye of the storm leadership.

 

His office will be empty.  His position unfilled.  And though you have never seen him or met him, you will miss his presence.

 

And so will we.

Bud "Easy" Veazey