Paper says Sorry for Wiping Out TV Mic

The Charleston Gazette in West Virginia apologized on their Facebook page after they posted a photo on the front page of their paper. In the photo the paper whited out the microphone from TV station WOWK. They blamed the censorship on a photographer that they did not name:

"A Gazette photographer went outside the boundaries of our standards when he obscured the name of a television station on a microphone in today’s front-page photo. Other than the photographer, no one at the Gazette was aware of what had taken place with the photo. Our photographers know that it is unacceptable to alter reality in news photos. The photographer believed his action helped direct the focus of the photo to the subject. He was wrong to do so. This is a singular incident. Disciplinary action will be taken to ensure it doesn’t happen again."

H/T Jim Romenesko

CNN Anchor Packing it in

CNN's Zoraida Sambolin battled breast cancer earlier this year and that life changing event has her rethinking her priorities.

One of which is leaving CNN and heading back to Chicago. 

Sambolin told her co-workers in an email that she was leaving the cable news net and her last day would be Friday. 

Sambolin anchored CNN's "Early Start,"  returning to the show this summer after undergoing a double mastectomy. 

She had been at the network for two years coming from NBC O&O WMAQ in Chicago. 

Sam Who?

Well that sure didn't take long.

Walking into ABC 67th Street entrance, people will notice that the GMA promo shot already features Ginger Zee (lower left).

Sam Champion has been scrubbed from the promo wall before he even finished cleaning out his desk. 

Dang!

The Passing of the Torch (or Boots) @GMA

It was the official passing of the torch, or boots in this case from Sam Champion to Ginger Zee.

Zee officially takes over for Champion starting Tomorrow.

Let's go to the video:

NBC News Boss's Memo about 911 Sandy Hook Calls

NBC News President Deborah Turness is leaning towards not airing the 911 calls from the Sandy Hook school shooting on the network.  

This is the memo she sent out to the staff: 

"The families of the victims of the Newtown shootings made it public that they did not want the 911 tapes to be released. Unless there is any compelling editorial reason to play the tapes, I would like to respect their wishes. We must listen to the tapes when they are released and make our final decision. But for the avoidance of doubt, no NBC News network outlet online or on TV should use the tapes until that decision has been taken. Using the tapes could cause distress and we must therefore proceed with great sensitivity and respect, particularly as the first anniversary of the shootings approaches."

We can understand where Turness is coming from, but we have to ask, if news stations and networks let families or victims dictate news coverage, where do you draw the line?

If Trayvon Martin's parents said they didn't want George Zimmerman's 911 call aired on the newscast, would NBC have complied?

Is the Martin's loss not as important as the families of the Sandy Hook victims? 

TVLive totally gets that this is a very emotional story and that many families are impacted by this. But, should you start taking this same approach with every family that has a son or daughter killed?

Is this a slope you want to start going down? Because you better watch your step, it's very slippery. 

Anchors There is Life after Being Fired.... in Roofing

Former St. Louis Anchor and giant ego Larry Conners will be back on the air again in St. Louis.

He will not be anchoring the news, he'll be selling roofs.

Connors who was fired from KMOV after a Facebook post, where he claimed that the IRS was targeting because of an interview he did with President Obama. Turns out the IRS was trying to get the money Connors owed them, long before the Obama interview. 

Connors sued KMOV to get out of his non-compete.....he lost.

So now the fired anchor with tax problems has landed another job. 

He's the official spokesperson for John Beal Roofing and will soon appear in advertisements for the company.

"Larry is a hometown favorite," said John Beal, company president to the St. Louis Post Dispatch. "He has been a customer for many years and this is a natural progression in our business relationship.”

What kind of roof do you put on a glass house?

By the way, Connors old station KMOV, just kicked some ass in the November ratings.

Ouch! 

Sweeping Up in Pittsburgh

Pittsburgh is always one of the tightest ratings races in the entire country and the same could be said for the November sweeps. 

Here's a look at the numbers:

H/T Pittsburgh Post Gazette 

Sweeping up in Cincinnati

WKRC continues to be the ratings giant in the Natty.

The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that WKRC-TV (Channel 12) won all newscasts in November sweeps again — including having almost as many viewers at 11 p.m. as Channels 9 and 5 combined — but the big news from my view is the gains made by WXIX-TV without popular anchors Sheila Gray, Ben Swann and sports director Brian Giesenschlag.

Fox 19’s “10 O’Clock News” ratings were up 29 percent in household ratings in November for the new Scott Schneider-Trisha Macke anchor team, with Joe Danneman doing sports. Ratings increased to a 4.4 from a 3.4 last November. (News on WKRC-TV’s Channel 12.2 was flat from a year ago with a 2.2).

Acquiring “Judge Judy” from WLWT-TV for 6 p.m., to lead into the local news, gave Fox 19’s 6:30 p.m. newscast the boost which “Jeopardy!” didn’t provide a year ago. The 6:30 p.m. news pulled a 2.3 rating, which I think is a sweeps’ best, up from a 1.4 rating last November.

“Fox 19 in the Morning” also gained viewers without Gray, who left in late August after 14 years to work (for now) at Dayton’s Sinclair Broadcast Group stations. Fox moved up from fourth to third in 6-7 a.m. (from 2.7 to 3.1), while WCPO-TV fell to fourth at that hour, even with Channel 9 adding Tanya O’Rourke and John Matarese star power to the morning show for the final 1-1/2 weeks of the ratings period.

As usual, Channel 12 won all weekday newscasts: 4:30-7 a.m.; noon; 4-5 p.m.; 5-6:30 p.m.; and 11 p.m. The 11 p.m. rating (10.1) again almost matched the combined ratings for Channel 9 (6.0) and Channel 5 (4.7).

Channel 5 was second 6-7 a.m. again, and third in other news time periods.

Channel 9 was fourth 6-7 a.m., and second in other news time period.

Hartford Stations to Stop Covering the News

What happens when a TV news department stops covering the news?

We're about to find out Today.

The 911 tapes from the Sandy Hook School shooting are going to be released Today, but even without listening to them, WVIT in Hartford has said they are not going to air the tapes. 

The station posted this on their Facebook Page:

Across town, WFSB management has announced the station's news team will not be in Newtown on December 14th to mark the one year anniversary of the shooting. Instead, each day leading up to the 14th, the station is profiling those who died in the shooting.

On the surface, both these actions seem like they are moves that the station is making out of compassion and respect for the victims. 

FTVLive thinks it's the wrong move. News stations need to cover the news and sometimes it is the ugly part of the job. Not every story is a puppy wash and unicorns. 

If a group of Hartford high school kids are killed this weekend by a drunk driver, are the Hartford stations going to cover the story?

What if 5 kids were in the car that was hit by the drunk driver and the kids parents said they don't want the story on the news?

Out of compassion, would the Hartford stations NOT cover the story?

If they do cover it, is that fair they honored the parents request at Sandy Hook, but did not honor these parents request?

I get that Sandy Hook is a very sensitive story and emotions are very high. But, by not covering the story you are taking the news department down a slippery slope. 

Covering news is not always pretty and sometimes the job sucks, but the bottom line, it is your job. 

The Hartford stations are making the wrong call.

Just saying.... 

Good Bye Sam

ABC's Good Morning America is fawning all over Weather Anchor Sam Champion this morning.

The show is all Sam all the time, before he heads off to the NBC owned Weather Channel.

At that point ABC will never mention Sam Champion's name again. 

Champion will be replaced by the much prettier Ginger Zee starting tomorrow. 

Can Robin Roberts and The Pope Opt Out?

Some would say that it's a huge honor, looking at the other names, I'm not so sure.

Barbara Walters is doing her annual "Most Fascinating People" and ABC's Robin Roberts has made the list. She joins Pope Francis, Jennifer Lawrence, the cast of Duck Dynasty, Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian, Kanye West and Edward Snowden.

Which makes us wonder after looking at the other people on the list, Can Roberts and the Pope opt out?

I know that I would if I were them. 

Former Seattle Anchor to Resurface in San Francisco

Anchor Peggy Bunker signed off from KOMO in February saying that she wanted to spend more time with her family. 

Well, it appears that family time is over. 

Bunker has been hired as the midday Anchor and Reporter at KNTV in San Francisco.

Here's the internal memo that was sent to the staff:

From: "Mitchell, Jonathan (NBCUniversal)" 
Date: December 3, 2013 at 6:45:19 PM CST
To: "@NBC Uni KNTV Everyone"
Subject: New addition to the newsroom

Please join me in welcoming Peggy Bunker to the NBC Bay Area news team.  Peggy will anchor our midday news and report and fill-in anchor for Today in the Bay. 
She comes to us from KOMO-TV in Seattle where she served as the morning news anchor.  Prior to KOMO, she anchored World News Now for ABC news and served as a correspondent for Good Morning America.  Earlier in her career, Peggy worked for CBS News and WCBS in New York, and anchored the morning news for the FOX affiliate in Denver.  She’s also hosted shows on HGTV and Discovery networks, and was the first anchor for the Daily Buzz, a nationally syndicated morning news program.  Coincidentally, our own KyAnn Lewis is also an former Daily Buzz staffer.

You can add Peggy to the growing list of parents with multiples at NBC Bay Area.  She and her husband are proud parents of twins.  They recently settled down in Los Altos, and her first day at NBC Bay Area will be December 4th.           
 
Jonathan Mitchell
Vice President of News

Best Bloopers for November

Sit back and relax and watch the best news bloopers for November:

Louisville Reporter to Columbus Anchor Gig

In two months, when the other TV websites "break" this news, you can remember that FTVLive had the story a longtime ago.

Duane Pohlman, Investigative Reporter at WLKY in Louisville is leaving the station to become the primary news anchor at WCMH in Columbus.

Pohlman has been at WLKY since 2011. 

His move to Columbus will happen in February. 

Stay tuned..... 

That Didn't Take Long

KMOV in St. Louis didn't take long to get the "we are number 1" promo on the air after the November book.

Here it is, but I need to warn you, after I watched it, I threw up in my mouth a little:

Everyone is a Winner in the Hampton Roads

After a rating book ends, FTVLive watches our email inbox fill up with press releases from stations claiming victory in the latest sweeps. 

Each station combs through the numbers and then pulls out the good parts, places them in the washer and puts it on the spin cycle. 

Out pops a press release claiming that their station is the best.

Here's a portion of three press releases we got from the stations in the Norfolk market. It appears that everyone is number one and no one lost.

Isn't life grand?