Morning meeting

A few changes to notice in the morning assignment meeting: fewer people. But it's not necessarily a bad thing. Those who left were those not doing any work to begin with. There has been a bit of backsliding in the area of interviewing "real people" and not just government officials. Also, reporters have not been doing standups. Stories lack natural sound, which is especially strange when the video shows people singing and dancing. The big scandal this morning is a rumor that the tourism minister has a) resigned or b) is under investigation for some unspecified wrongdoing. No one is talking. The tourism minister made our reporter agree not to ask about the controversy to do an interview about the resort bed tax that produced no news. And the president's press secretary is in hiding. He claims he was misquoted by the independent news service Minivan. By the way, this has nothing to do with a motor vehicle. Minivan means freedom in Dhivehi.