Did Univision get caught Stealing Signal?

Miami insiders tell FTVLive that the brass at WPLG was irate on Thursday when they say UNIVISION, Channel 23, had stolen their chopper signal and was airing the transport of Justin Bieber to jail LIVE Thursday morning.

Univision has no chopper in Miami.

Sources say  WPLG pulled their signal from CNN and ABC to ensure UNIVISION couldn't get the LIVE chopper shot.

"When we pulled the signal. Univision went to black. That's how we know it was ours," the source said.

"Plus, Univision aired LIVE chopper video with a WPLG bug that CNN had encoded onto the video," the source added.

WPLG, WTVJ and WFOR share a chopper, but WPLG has the final say based on an agreement.

Hey Rog... You Might want to Silence your Phone Next Time

This is why you want to silence your cellphone before you go on the air. 

WTLV (Jacksonville) Reporter Roger Weeder was doing a live hit when his phone start ringing. What made it much worse was the phone was in his suit coat's top pocket, right next to the lav mic he was wearing.

As the phone started ringing, Weeder grabbed his chest like he was have a heart attack. 

Let's cue up the video:

Reporter Takes Google Glass to the Super Bowl

John Kucko

FTVLive has been telling you about our using Google Glass and yesterday we had a guest column from Michael Rosenblum talking about the future of Glass in TV News.

Well, the future isn't very far off and it will take place at next week's Super Bowl.

Viewers will get a first hand view of the Super Bowl experience from the perspective of WROC Sports Anchor John Kucko.

Kucko will use Glass and its camera to  broadcast the unique sights and sounds of the week-long festivities leading up to the big game.

Forbes writes that this maybe become more than a simple Google Glass broadcast, but a coming out party for this new and interesting device that is changing the way we experience the world–and the Super Bowl.

MSNBC Cuts off Congresswoman for Breaking News

Yesterday MSNBC was talking to Congresswoman Jane Harman about the future of the NSA and what might happened. 

Anchor Andrea Mitchell then cut off the Congresswomen mid sentence for some very big breaking news.

You have to watch to see what it was:

Edward R. Murrow just flipped over one more time. 

Gee... That Sounds Familiar

Let's turn the clocks back for a bit shall we, let's go back 4 months to October 1st 2013 and a FTVLive story that was titled "CNN to Drop Piers Morgan" (You can read the story at this link).

FTVLive reported the WORLD EXCLUSIVE that CNN Boss Jeff Zucker is "actively looking for a replacement for Piers Morgan."

The website The Wrap is just getting around to the story now. 

They write Piers Morgan is on ever more precarious footing as CNN’s 9 p.m. talk show host, according to a knowledgeable insider at the network.

CNN Worldwide President Jeff Zucker addressed the staff at a town hall meeting on Wednesday to mark his one-year anniversary at the network, where he reaffirmed his intention to change up primetime, including a plan to move documentaries into the later hours.

“Zucker has a problem at 9 p.m.,” and the president intends to solve it, a senior CNN executive told TheWrap.

“Piers Morgan Live” has failed to deliver on ratings in the three years since the British host took over the format from Larry King.

Zucker has acknowledged multiple times that primetime needs a lot of work, and Morgan in particular may be the first target. The view from inside the network is that Morgan damaged himself by taking a strong partisan position against guns during his yearlong coverage of the gun debate.

It's nice to see others pick up on a story that FTVLive FIRST reported last year. 

Sacked in Sin City

Mackenzie Warren

Sources tell FTVLive that KSNV fired Anchor, Mackenzie Warren yesterday.

She has told friends that she was not given a reason why she was canned.

Insiders say that she was escorted out of the building.

Her co-Anchor Reed Cowan solo anchored the show yesterday. 

Warren had a quick rise at KSNV, coming from sister station KRNV in Reno. But she had some detractors as well.

Her Bio has been scrubbed from the station's website.

More as we hear it. 

Ummmmm Guys..... That's the Wrong One

The news Chopper shared by WPLG, WTVJ and WFOR apparently followed the wrong SUV.. Reporting Justin Beiber was in it and headed to the Brickell area of Miami.

WRONG!

He was apparently in another SUV and went to south beach.

Stations interrupted programming and followed Beiber.

WPLG and WTVJ were flooded calls from irate viewers.

"What an embarrassing day in TV news," one veteran anchor said to colleagues. 

Facebook posts show how pissed viewers were.

Investigator says he Found Child Porn on Reporter's Computer

Charles Leaf

A computer forensics investigator testified Thursday that he found child-porn images on the computer of former WNYW (NY) Fox 5 reporter Charles Leaf, shortly after Leaf’s arrest on charges that he molested a 4-year-old girl at his  home.

North Jersey.com writes that Yanal Bachok, a retired detective at the Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office, said in Superior Court in Hackensack that he conducted an investigation on a desktop and a laptop seized from Leaf’s home in 2010. He said he found that someone had performed a system restore on Leaf’s laptop to erase all the data on the hard disc. But a forensic investigation recovered thousands of photos, many of which were child-porn images, he said.

Leaf’s attorneys, meanwhile, have argued that there is no evidence that Leaf was the one who stored the child-porn images on the computer and no evidence that he was the one who performed a system restore to erase the data on the computer.

Leaf is on trial on charges that he touched a 4-year-old girl in a sexual manner in October 2010. Kenneth Ralph, an assistant Bergen County prosecutor, said earlier in the trial that the girl first informed her babysitter, who then contacted a family friend. The family friend called authorities, and Leaf was arrested after the girl told investigators during an interview that Leaf engaged her in sexual acts, Ralph said.

On the first day of Leaf’s trial two weeks ago, however, the girl — who is now 8 — took the witness stand and testified that Leaf never touched her in a sexual manner and that the babysitter had coached her into fabricating the allegations.

Leaf was charged with aggravated sexual assault, sexual assault and child endangerment. Prosecutors later added charges of possession of child pornography after finding images on his computer. He faces up to 20 years in prison if he is convicted of aggravated sexual assault, the most serious charge.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Emile Lisboa asked Bachok if he knew when those photos were viewed.

“No,” Bachok replied.

“Do you know who downloaded those images?” Lisboa asked.

“No,” Bachok replied

We're Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry, Sorry

It appears that WFTV in Orlando are doing their best to avoid a lawsuit.

O-Town viewers have watched anchors Vanessa Welch, Martie Salt and Vanessa Echols read the same lengthy correction in that past two days.

The correction was read nine times in all, WFTV news director Matt Parcell said Thursday.

The multi-part correction updated reporting done in 2012 and May last year. Why a correction now? Was the station facing a threat of legal action?

"The errors were brought to our attention, and we corrected them as soon as we possibly could," Parcell said.

Parcell said it was a coincidence that the flawed reports all focused on one person: former Orlando police officer Timothy Davis Sr., who was acquitted in February of murder in the fatal shooting of his son.

Parcell said he wouldn't discuss who had done the reporting.

The correction had three parts: The station in 2012 reported that Davis had been accused of domestic violence in the past by two women; the correction noted that Davis had never been accused of domestic violence. The station in May last year reported that Apopka police were investigating an allegation that  Davis interfered in a child-abuse investigation; but by the time the report aired, police had determined that Davis had done nothing criminal. The station also showed a wrong day care owned by Davis when the story concerned an employee at another of his day-care centers.

The correction ended: "We apologize to Davis and his day cares for these errors." 

H/T Orlando Sentinel 

Watch out Sir!

Watch a guy bite it right in the middle of WCAU's live shot. 

CNN Catches Heat for Tweets

CNN has been catching heat for trolling social media.

Erik Wemple writes that CNN posted a story about a horrifying turn of events in Mundelein, Ill., a suburb of Chicago. A 14-year-old girl, it reports, has been arrested and charged for murder for the stabbing of her 11-year-old half-sister. Police found the victim in their house after the 14-year-old called about the incident, and reported that an intruder was culpable for the stabbing. Three schools were placed on lockdown because of the girl’s account, reports CNN.

Until, that is, the girl’s story “unraveled quickly.” As for motive, here’s what CNN reports: “The teen told police she was mad that her sister didn’t appreciate all she did for her, prosecutors said at the suspect’s detention hearing Wednesday.”

That’s all you need to know about this story to grasp its tone. It’s the sort of news that you don’t ever want to hear. And that’s also the reason why it’s not the type of story that you promote on Twitter via gimmickry or cuteness, as CNN did in the tweet cited above. Such teaser-tweets are cheesy enough when they relate to the trivial, like the latest twist in the life of a celeb, for example.

CNN HACKED!

The Syrian Electronic Army was able to hack in and take control of CNN's Twitter and Facebook accounts for a while last night.

CNN says that the "posts were deleted within minutes and the accounts have since been secured." 

For now

Spending Some of MSNBC's Money

Ronan Farrow

MSNBC's latest hire Ronan Farrow's new show hasn't even hot the air yet, but that hasn't stopped him from spending his NBC paycheck.

Farrow shelled out $1.495 million for a swanky Upper West Side place in Manhattan. 

The modestly sized 982-square foot unit is in a doorman building with a landscaped roof deck and views of the Hudson River. It’s the first Big Apple real estate purchase for the blue-eyed son of actress Mia Farrow.

Farrow is MSNBC's latest savior according to boss Phil Griffin.

We doubt that he will be inviting his Dad, Woody Allen to the house warming party.

H/T NY Post

Judge Orders CNN and CBS to Turn Over Footage

It appears that CBS and CNN fight be headed to court to fight turning over some of their footage. 

The Baltimore Sun writes that a military judge has ordered CNN and CBS to turn over unaired footage of interviews with a Naval Academy midshipman who was the alleged victim of sexual assault at an off-campus party in 2012.

Marine Corps Col. Daniel J. Daugherty ordered the TV networks on Wednesday to provide a portion of footage that he deemed was not duplicative of other interviews and testimony from the female midshipman. The footage is sought by attorneys for Midshipman Joshua Tate of Nashville, who is facing a March court-martial on charges of aggravated sexual assault and making a false statement.

Charges were dropped against two other midshipmen who were initially accused; one has since graduated and been commissioned as a Navy officer, the other is expected to testify at Tate's court-martial.

Interviews with both networks were recorded in 2013, before criminal cases were initiated against the three midshipmen, all former members of the Navy football team. CBS aired about five minutes of a 45-minute interview with the alleged victim. CNN aired 11 minutes from about 55 minutes' worth of interviews.

In his order, Daugherty wrote that the alleged victim has acknowledged that she is the person in the interviews, even though her identity in the footage was obscured. He also wrote that the footage is relevant in legal arguments about the alleged victim's memories of the night in question and about her credibility and the consistency of her statements over time.

Jason Ehrenberg, Tate's lead civilian attorney, said he expects the networks to appeal to the Navy-Marine Corps Court of Criminal Appeals. The judge gave the networks 72 hours to appeal.

"I get the sense that the networks will appeal and we probably won't be getting our hands on anything in the near future," Ehrenberg said.

CBS News spokeswoman Sonya McNair said the network is considering an appeal.

CNN did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Wednesday evening. An attorney for the alleged victim declined to comment.

As Tate's court-martial approaches, the Naval Academy's superintendent, Vice Adm. Michael H. Miller, is expected to testify Friday in a pretrial hearing on how he decided whether to prosecute the three accused midshipmen.

Olbermann Pays Respects to Chet Curtis

ESPN's Keith Olbermann took time out of his show to pay his respects to longtime Boston Anchor Chet Curtis.

Lisa Myers Leaving the Peacock

Lisa Myers

Longtime NBC Correspondent Lisa Myers is leaving net after 33 years,

Washington bureau chief Ken Strickland announced in a memo to staff on Thursday.

“I have had more than 30 fascinating years at NBC News, learning from and working alongside the best of the best, including journalists who paved the way for many of us: Tom Brokaw and Tim Russert," Myers wrote in a statement. "I will greatly miss my many talented friends throughout the network, to whom I owe much, and who represent the best of journalism.  I greatly appreciate the company granting my request to change gears and pursue new horizons.”

Myers formerly served as NBC News chief congressional correspondent and covered nine presidential campaigns. In 1998, she was named one of Vanity Fair's 20 most influental women in America; in 2000, she broke the news that George W. Bush had selected Dick Cheney as his running mate. Myers joined NBC News from The Washington Star in 1981.

In his memo, Strickland called Myers "one of the most respected investigative journalists in the industry."

"Her groundbreaking reporting on issues related to Obamacare, the military, government waste, corporate wrongdoing and political scandals have helped to hold authorities accountable. And by doing so, Lisa has helped give a voice to those who need it: from U.S. soldiers, to victims of Hurricane Katrina and 9/11, concerned voters across the country, and more," Strickland wrote.

"Lisa's tenacity, integrity and commitment to journalism have helped the DC bureau continue to be a place for excellence," he wrote.

Myers tells Politico she plans to spend the next six months "working on my golf game and giving a few speeches" before figuring out the "next challenge."

H/T Politico