50 Years of Making the News
About this site
Most people are nouns. George was a verb: he was all about what he did, not who he was.
George belonged to journalism’s golden era; a time when network news had the resources to pursue stories in depth, giving producers the freedom to craft them with care.
George had a particular way of telling a story that was almost cinematic. While the industry often lived by the saying, “If it bleeds, it leads,” George looked for the kinder story. His approach was closer to, “If it feeds, it leads.”
He was also generous to those coming up in the profession. For half a century he archived almost everything he did in television news, not so he would be remembered, but so future producers could learn from his experience.
There was a reason leading journalists such as Dan Rather, who could choose from the best producers in the business, often chose George. The reasons can be found throughout the archive he left behind.
George Osterkamp’s story is worth telling, not as a biography, but as a filmography spanning fifty years of American journalism.
The team
At the memorial, his cousin, Claude, spoke not about the past. Others already did that. Instead, he spoke about the future.
As such, a team was assembled to find a home for the archive George spent fifty years building; to ensure it would be accessible to students, researchers and the public, not gathering dust.
Job One of the team is to place the archive and negotiate funding for a grad student to organise, digitise and open-source it.
Vanderbilt University emerged as a strong candidate. A team-member has contacts there and will explore the placement.
Job Two is to give it context. The archive contains the stories. The correspondents, associates and camera operators can help explain how those stories came about, what challenges were faced, and why it matters.
The context recordings need not be complicated. The correspondents and camera operators who were there know the stories, know the craft and know how to tell them. A single camera, a single take and no editing may be all that is required.
The Archive
- Find the recipient (Vanderbilt?)
- Negotiate terms (Lynn?)
- Determine how it will be used
- Move the archive from storage unit
- Raise funds to scan the files
- Raise funds to digitise the videos
- Raise funds for a research stipend
Put it online
A research stipend allows a grad student to curate the Osterkamp archive. The archive is not just about news making, it is the news itself – the recorded history.
Journalism students will view it for its craft, while history students will look to it for the story behind the story; the outtakes that shed a deeper light on some of the 20th Century’s major events.
If CBS grants permission, the Internet Archive is the best permanent repository for both the final cut as aired, and the raw footage (vetted for privacy).
However, this if is the big question. Vanderbilt has a protocol where academics may use copyright material without litigation, but extending this to online reference is less certain.