Chapter 1: What special edition of Talking Dateline is featured in this episode?
We have a special edition of Talking Dateline for you this week. Instead of talking about a particular episode, we wanted to play you a conversation from our first ever live event. On September 28th, thousands of Dateline fans gathered at The Pinnacle, a music venue in Nashville.
Lester, Keith, Josh, Blaine, Dennis, and I answered questions about what it's like being Dateline correspondents interviewing murderers, victims' families, and detectives. We got personal, too, reflecting on life on the road and the stories that have stuck with us long after an episode has aired.
The hosts who asked us the questions call themselves Dateline devotees, but you know them better as actors and real-life husband-and-wife duo Annette O'Toole from Virgin River and Michael McKean of Better Call Saul and the Spinal Tap movies. Before they got down to the questions, they played a montage of some memorable Dateline moments. Here's Talking Dateline from Nashville.
Without any further ado, we would like to meet the dream team that makes Dateline Dateline. Would you like? All right. All right.
Here we go.
You've all met some extraordinary people over the years.
Yes, confronting killers.
Consoling family members.
Let's take a look.
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Chapter 2: What insights do Dateline correspondents share about their experiences?
As a good child, a good son. a good citizen.
I thought it was she died trying to put out a fire that essentially I had caused.
You're sitting with this unbelievable guilt, thinking that you, in some way, were responsible for your mom's death.
Ed, I don't give a sweet flying about that. I don't care. I kind of care. Which you do care. That the family has a chance to get some closure.
Chapter 3: How do the hosts reflect on their personal stories from the road?
That they have been begging you for.
They don't know where their child is. Do you believe Jennifer is alive? I do. Against all circumstantial evidence or common understanding? I'd like not to discuss this.
What do you say to people who say these are crocodile tears?
Chapter 4: What memorable moments from Dateline are highlighted in the episode?
He's putting on a show. This is all an act. Oh, you can't. No. That's a white blue.
That's a white blue blue. If you had nothing to do with this, if you're innocent. I'm done. We're done. I'm done.
I'm not doing this. Okay. F*** you. F*** you, you arrogant f***. F*** you. How's that?
We're going to want to hear more about that in a minute, Josh. I think primarily we would like to know, I would like to know one thing. Do you consider yourselves news reporters or are you storytellers?
Every news reporter is also a storyteller. I mean, this is absolutely about the storytelling. But this is also the news business. You know, it's why... There's been an enormous amount of discussion on social that I've seen about why we and one of our competitors run the same story on the same day. And the answer is... I don't want to get beat. Like, when it's ready, it runs.
I don't want to run a week after somebody else after you guys already know how it comes out. So, I mean, we are in the news business, and we want to be right, and we want to be first. Yeah. And we want to tell a story that you guys pay attention to, which based on your reactions to that video, you clearly do. Also, by the way, I thought that guy was going to kick my ass.
Michael, I, for one, feel more of a storyteller. I remember years ago we were in a production meeting. We were screening one of our stories. It must be back 20 years ago. And with this long, in-the-weeds discussion, when are we going to introduce the stuff about the blood evidence and the DNA and what part of the story? And I said, guys... Forget about it. We're telling it.
It's not about the murder. It's about the marriage. It's about the people involved. How did somebody end up dead on the kitchen floor? That's our story, not what the crime scene guys put together. We certainly need all that, but I think that's why Dateline distinguishes itself from some of the other shows.
It's about the people. I've spent both worlds for quite a while doing nightly news and Dateline. Now I'm full-time at Dateline, having fun, by the way, as you point out. But there is a difference in the pace. You know, a nightly news story, a typical, you know, it was maybe a couple of minutes. You've had hours to put it together. These programs, we have months sometimes to put together.
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Chapter 5: How do Dateline correspondents define their roles as reporters or storytellers?
Even when I was just in the newsroom at Nightly News, a story would come across and I'm like, does this person not watch Dateline? Is it possible, really?
Or if you delete something from your phone, it doesn't go away.
They'll get it. The days when you could commit a crime in Texas and drive to Oklahoma and that was the end of it. Those days are over. A long time ago.
Do you ever get pushback from law enforcement? I mean, I'd say 95% of the time you're dealing with very competent law enforcement and people who become obsessed long after their retirement with a certain case. But on the moment, do you ever feel like they're telling you you're intruding.
If they haven't finished with their work, generally speaking, they want to be able to do what they need to do first, and then they're usually pretty happy to do it.
When we tell them that this isn't going to air until they're done, that generally makes them a little more cooperative.
And we love highlighting their good work. And on the flip side, we also sometimes have to highlight bad work, too. You know, it's not always perfect.
I think also sometimes, I mean, we get to show them as people. We get to show law enforcement detectives as people, right? Bring out some of the emotions that they bring to the case. Show how these cases oftentimes go home with them. Why there's this one that they just couldn't let go. And so I think it also kind of, you know, we can see them through a prism.
It shows a different side of law enforcement than you might get on your nightly news.
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