In the past, the tragic death of a TV newsroom assignment editor wouldn’t register with most members of the “general public”.
But for some very specific reasons, those beyond the local TV news community are mourning the death of Danielle Fink, who worked as an assignment editor for Gannett NBC affiliate WKYC/3…and earlier, she was employed by Scripps ABC affiliate WEWS/5.
Danielle’s home station reports that she died in a car crash in North Olmsted sometime late Saturday night/early Sunday morning.
Her biggest passion, sports-wise for a woman who was a passionate fan of Cleveland teams, was her hometown baseball team…and she was one of the biggest fans of the Cleveland Indians in the entire area.
We know this not from the various articles on her death, the one linked from her most recent employer above, and another by NewsNet5.com’s Tina Kaufmann…from the professional place Danielle called home before starting at 13th and Lakeside.
We know this not from inside sources at either building.
We know this not from Danielle’s blog from her WKYC assignment desk, “Swing By And Spray”.
No, we know this because Danielle Fink was an active participant in social media…who went by the Twitter handle “deskchick”, and we were most certainly one of her many Twitter followers. (The picture on this item is from Danielle’s Twitter account.)
We don’t know if Danielle became “deskchick” to fulfill a Gannett corporate policy, where just about every employee in the newsroom is expected to have an online and social media presence these days.
We do know that she took to it like the proverbial duck takes to the proverbial water.
And we know it’s that personal, vibrant embrace of social media that brought a TV news assignment editor over 1000 followers, and why her own newsroom and others have covered her death as not just the result of another fatal traffic accident in the suburbs.
We didn’t know Danielle Fink aside from reading her posts on social media. We did not communicate privately with her at all, in any form.
But OMW reader Adam Gercak knew her well, and perhaps a read of this excellent blog entry will give you an idea of what Danielle was “really like” (“her enthusiasm for life” was “infectious”, writes Adam).
And maybe you’ll realize why so many in local newsrooms and beyond mourn her today.
It seems proper to close with Danielle’s last tweet, sent early Saturday afternoon:
Danielle Fink @deskchick
Soooo glad I’m doing what I want & declared this the weekend of Daffodil! #Tribefest2013 #NHL New #NBCSNL Sunday #NFLPlayoffs #movienight
12:32 PM – 19 Jan 13
This is just so sad! I lost a very close college friend in a car accident soon after graduation. She and a group of colleagues at the Detroit Free Press were traveling to a conference in Canada and the driver fell asleep. The three passengers all died. I’m sure this is going to leave a hole in the WKYC newsroom.
Licensee Bernard Ohio LLC responded, saying that Squire provided no facts to support its allegations, and further said that “it is virtually impossible to comprehend [Squire’s] arguments” on foreign ownership and that regardless Squire did not prove that anybody other than the licensee controls the stations.
Squire also objected to a license modification for WRBP (a main studio waiver) – EMF said this should be tossed because it was tied entirely to Squire’s battle with Zwirn/Bernard and had nothing whatsoever to do with the merits of the modification.
Squire’s charge of predatory lending pratices on Zwirn’s part were also tossed due to lack of proof.
In the end, the licenses were renewed, the deal approved and the main studio waiver granted.
http://rbr.com/fcc-turns-down-petitions-against-d-b-zwirn/