Dear Christian: “Joyce held a picfac for the cameras.” I give up! Pic obviously means picture but fac?

Dear Jane: Don’t worry. It’s just the current way of saying
photo-op, just the way you don’t talk about a “grab” of someone from
electronic media but call it “actuality.” Still, it’s important to be
up with the latest lingo. A few years back I was standing in the
uncompleted M5 East freeway tunnel in the Sydney Suburbs just after the
construction crews drilling from either side had broken through. A
junior spinner from the RTA – sorry, Roads and Traffic Authority, can’t
have too many TLAs (Three Letter Acronyms) – announced that the
minister would do a stand up. He was quickly corrected by a TV
reporter. They did stand ups – they were their pieces to camera. The
minister was going to do a doorstop – even though this was by a rock
face God knows how many metres under ground and the closest thing to a
door available was a hole just bored between two unfinished tunnels.
Just remember that pressies organise pressers – press secretaries
organise press conferences – and
you’ll be OK.