Sadly, one of a kind

I was shopping recently at Coastal Grand Mall, when two ladies approached me.
One said: "That's Rusty Ray!"
I said: "Hello, how are you?"
The other lady said: "I like that Rusty Ray. You know who else I like? That Jody Barr. He don't play! He's legit!"
She couldn't be more right, in my opinion.
This week is Jody's last days with News13. It's his time to move on.
He is moving on, to work for another TV station in South Carolina, one that many of you are familiar with. It's the same, tried-and-true story in the TV news business: a young person gets his or her start with a station, works hard, and gets another opportunity once their contract is up at the first station.
Jody is far from a typical local TV news reporter, though.
Sometime in either 2005 or 2006, when I lived and worked in Florence for News13, I remember I got an e-mail from Jody, who told me he had recently graduated from USC, and was trying to get in with a local TV station.
I corresponded with Jody over e-mail for awhile, only to find out a few weeks later he had contacted just about every other person who worked for News13.
When he finally got hired--to man our Lumberton bureau--I got a call from him right away, as he wanted to know anything and everything about Lumberton, including information on a place to live. (Coincidentally, Jody ended up living in the same apartment I did when I first started with News13.)
Jody was thrust into some pretty big stories in Lumberton right away. He started right around the time some big-time arrests came down in the "Operation Tarnished Badge" investigation, that eventually led to the arrest, conviction, and lincarceration of former Robeson County Sheriff Glenn Maynor.
It was clear to me--and many at News13--from the start that Jody had the makings of a great reporter, simply because he worked hard, and never stopped asking questions.
Many of you know the rest: Jody worked for a brief time out of our Florence newsroom, and then moved to Myrtle Beach. He hit the ground running along the Grand Strand, as he frequently kept a police scanner with him, and showed up at almost all police and fire calls. He triedto get to the scene of breaking news as fast as possible, and sometimes he beat many local public information officers to the scene.
This is what I want people to know: Jody is what a reporter should be. He's someone who wants to cut through not only red tape, but through all of the press releases, public information officers, media marketing firms, and talking heads to get to what it is we promise to provide our viewers: the truth.
That means he will ruffle some feathers, and that means he will (and has been) called some not-so-nice names by some very high-ranking people.
But he goes after one thing, and one thing only: the truth.
In a world of media that is all spin and shine, Jody doesn't accept that, and goes after his own sources. Sources breed stories, and, usually, the truth, not just what their superiors want the media (and, really, taxpaying viewers) to know.
I haven't always agreed with some of Jody's tactics, but I do believe in (most of) his motives.
I also am proud to call Jody a friend, and I am excited for his new venture. I know he will succeed because he is ready and willing to get his hands dirty and follow his instinct to get out the truth.
So, while many in our viewing area are breathing easier and are not sad to see Jody go, we here in the News13 newsroom should take a moment to remember that he was always after the truth, and knew how to get it, and relay it to our viewers in a very effective way.
Go get 'em, J.B., and as Billy Joel likes to say: "Don't take no (bleep) from anybody, either!"

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