Rob Morrison Pleads Guilty, Avoids Jail

Former WCBS New York anchor Rob Morrison plead guilty yesterday on two of three charges regarding his arrest by police back in February.  

Cops busted Morrison after a domestic dispute with his wife CBS MoneyWatch anchor Ashley Morrison.

Morrison pleaded guilty on second-degree threatening and disorderly conduct and agreed to participate in a Family Violence Education Program.

The anchor did not enter a plea for the felony strangulation charge. Morrison has said he did not choke his wife.

After the court session, Morrison got into heated discussion with his wife's lawyer Nancy Aldrich in the courtroom hallway. 

 “You’re representing a completely untruthful position. How can you do that?” Morrison angrily demanded.

“She never told you the truth about that night.”

As Aldrich tried to answer, Morrison interrupted, saying, “She’s saying I never strangled her? The judge doesn’t care. She made a false statement that night.”

Aldrich then insisted, “There was no misrepresentation of the facts.”

Darien Police also claim he threatened to kill his wife while at police headquarters, which Morrison also refutes.

As he left the courthouse, Morrison declined to comment on the matter. 

He's do back in court on the other charges August 14th. 

Nexstar Starts Swinging the Ax in Fresno

Left Coast sources are telling FTVLive the ax is starting to swing in Fresno.

It's not like anyone didn't expect it.

When Nexstar purchased Fresno's KSEE and KGPE, it was inevitable that jobs would be lost. Just look at Nexstar's track record.  

Sources tell FTVLive that 30-year AM anchor has been canned…. as well as the Midday anchor.  

KGPE is slated to move into the same building with KSEE in the Fall, so many more cuts are expected.  

Message to staff:  You might want to update that resume. 
 

Hey Fox News, CNN and MSNBC .... WTF?!

While we maybe just moments away from world history with Egyptian military on the verge of  government takeover and the ousting President Mohamed Morsi... what are the cable nets doing?

They are covering the George Zimmerman trial.  

Maybe I'm looking forward to Al Jazeera America after all.  

Shame on Fox News, CNN and MSNBC.

Bouncing the Baer

FTVLive FIRST told you yesterday that according to sources WHP in Harrisburg has parted ways with News Director Dave Baer.  

Baer had only been station a couple of months. Last week Baer was arrested in a Prostitution sting along with a couple of hookers. 

WHP GM Arthur Hasson has remained mum on the story and will not even confirm if Baer was busted by cops. 

And while a station that runs a news department, won't talk to the media, it does appear that Baer has been bounced. 

On the WHP website, there is a "contact us"  page that yesterday morning had a listing under staff that looked like this:

Late yesterday, the "contact us" page had a change and Baer's name was gone as News Director and it was replaced by Stacey Hanrahan as the "Acting News Director." 

Sources also tell FTVLive that Baer has left the station.  

WHP has yet to make any announcement.  

MSNBC in Ratings Free Fall

Back on March 25th, FTVLive wrote that MSNBC Boss Phil Griffin is either, Very confident,  very optimistic , or he's smoking crack. 

The story was about an article in The New Republic in which Griffin felt MSNBC is hitting it's stride and will soon be running right past Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and the rest of the gang at Fox News. 

Griffin predicted that MSNBC would pass Fox News in the next year. 

So, how is the quest for the cable net to make it to the top of the ratings chart?  

In latest ratings MSNBC delivered its worst quarterly primetime showing among total viewers and adults 25-54 since 2007.

Ouch! 

MSNBC has now been passed by CNN. 

Double ouch! 

MSNBC's primetime in total viewers (576,000) and the demos (191,000) were at lows not seen since the 2007. 

Does someone smell smoke? Smells like a crack pipe?  

Bailing on the Big Easy

WWL Morning News anchor Melanie Hebert told viewers in a Facebook post that she is leaving the station. 

She wrote: I thought it would be much harder to write this post, but it is with great relief right now that I am sharing my big news with you. For a while I have considered moving to Baton Rouge where my husband works. I have had a very good job at WWL and he has had a very good job in Baton Rouge, so we have tried to keep both jobs with demanding (and opposite) schedules while raising a baby. Waking up at 2 am for work is never easy, but added to our other challenges frankly it just seems crazy, and we’ve been doing it for too long. We have so many blessings we should be able to enjoy each day but the truth is we have been spread too thin, and I have been struggling with this decision for a long time. My bosses at WWL understand and support my decision, and I am grateful they have given me the opportunities I’ve had here. But it is with bittersweet feelings I'm letting you know that I'm resigning and moving to Baton Rouge. My last day at WWL will be Tuesday, July 23.

Unpaid Interns Sue Gawker

Remember back to your first internship at a TV station. You were paid nothing, worked long hours and if you were lucky, you got to carry the tripod.

Ahhhh... the good old days. 

Now, it seems Interns don't want to do anything and they defiantly want to get paid for it. 

The website Gawker and their network of blogs have been sued by unpaid interns who allege the online publisher violated minimum-wage law.

In the case, filed yesterday in Manhattan federal court, three former interns said they each spent at least 15 hours a week working on blogs affiliated with the New York media company and were “not paid a single cent.”

“Gawker employs numerous other ‘interns’ in the same way, paying them nothing or underpaying them and utilizing their services to publish its content on the Internet, an enterprise that generates significant amounts of revenue for Gawker,” the plaintiffs said in the complaint, which was filed on behalf of all of the company’s unpaid interns.

The lawsuit, which also names company founder Nick Denton as a defendant, seeks unpaid wages and overtime. Representatives for Gawker didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Lucky for us here at FTVLive, we pay our interns  $75 dollars and hour and give them a company car. 

H/T Bloomberg

FIRST on FTVLive: Sources Say Dave Baer Out at WHP

It looks like Dave Baer is out as News Director at WHP in Harrisburg. 

FTVLive was the FIRST to tell you that Baer had been arrested by police last week in a prostitution sting. 

Baer was busted along with two prostitutes last Thursday, he was charged with soliciting. 

WHP has not commented on Baer's arrest and they have yet to release a statement. But, sources tell FTVLive that Baer has been let go from the station and a posting on the station's website seems to confirm that information. 

On WHP's contact page, Baer was listed as the News Director, but his name has been removed and replaced with an Acting News Director.  

It appears that Stacey Hanrahan is now running the WHP News Department. 

So far WHP GM Arthur Hasson has refused to address the story of the arrest of Baer. 

Stay tuned....