Everybody has a story to tell.

July 11, 2016 11:41 AM

Minnesota's nickname is the "Land of 10,000 Lakes." But for local reporter Boyd Huppert and photojournalist Jonathan Malat of KARE-11, Minneapolis, it's also the Land of 10,000 Stories. Their long-running news segment highlights touching, local, human interest pieces, and has won multiple awards for excellence in journalism. A special hour-long compilation of eight popular stories aired last year.
posted by zarq (5 comments total)

A long time ago, Huppert used to work for Milwaukee news station. One of my college journalism professors knew him and would use his stories as examples of great television news stories.
posted by drezdn at 12:25 PM on July 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

All right, so I watched the first one, and it was a very heartwarming story. At the same time it feels an awful lot like a real life version of Bart's People.
posted by graventy at 12:27 PM on July 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

I really like these but then I often go for the sap. Isn't Bart's People in fact making fun of exactly this? I thought that was the point. When I saw Bart's People the genius to me was that they didn't have to punch it up or make it any more absurd than these local sap stories actually are much of the time.
posted by Clinging to the Wreckage at 12:35 PM on July 11, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have a giant soft spot in my heart for these. "Hello, I'm Generic Midwest TV Guy. We're half the moon's orbit from anywhere that isn't Canada. Let's talk to some old people."

That being said, I've been to that candy store many times. It's a tough ride back to the cities chewing taffy in a motorcycle helmet.
posted by Sphinx at 12:52 PM on July 11, 2016 [8 favorites]

Boyd Huppert & Jonathan Malat are the gold standard of TV news feature journalists. Their storytelling style is not everyone's cup of tea, but I can tell you that Huppert and Malat are extremely well-respected in the industry. What's extra special (and unfortunately increasingly rare) about them is they get to work as a tandem on these features and so they've had years to get to know each others' work and work together, whereas most reporters and photogs in a local newsroom, even ones whose main beat is "human interest," will be randomly assigned to each other based on the days' newsgathering needs. It's to the viewers' benefit that Huppert and Malat get to work together and spend time turning these stories with the kind of care they do.

I had the pleasure of meeting them at a conference a few years back and they are both super, super nice dudes who were happy to take the time to talk to a young news producer and her pet reporter who both fangirl/boy'd them pretty hard before we got down to asking actual questions.

My favorite Huppert/Malat story (it's in the compilation video linked above but I wanted to make sure it wasn't missed, it's so effing good and well-shot and well-narrated and well-told, ugh my trash local news producer heart adores Huppert and I'm not even sorry).
posted by none of these will bring disaster at 3:14 PM on July 11, 2016 [9 favorites]