When someone talks about the "World Trade Center Jumpers" many people's thoughts turn to 9/11 and those poor people that jumped from the top of the twin towers.
Today, MSNBC's latest ratings flop, Ronan Farrow put up this graphic on his show:
While Farrow was talking about the BASE jumpers that video recordered themselves jumping from the new WTC tower and not 9/11 was nothing short of cringeworthy.
H/T Mediaite
The U.S. press isn't the only ones that think that CNN has gone way overboard in their coverage of the missing plane.
The Malaysian Digest writes that since the beginning of MH370 flight disappearance, CNN has been providing a wall-to-wall coverage on the issue.
Now that we are in the third week of the search mission, the cable news network was reported to be continuously featuring ‘obsessive scoop’, all in the name of high ratings.
But the cable’s coverage on MH370 was touted by media practitioners to be nothing more than a bunch of speculative guesswork and sometimes outright goofiness.
The lack of ‘credible’ news about the incident sees the news agency filling their airtime with news of reporters sitting in flight simulators, panels of talking heads speculating (sometimes wildly), a ton of information that often turned out to be false just a few hours later and anchor Don Lemon was even ridiculed for holding a toy airplane to explain the tragedy.
To top it off, an agency such as CNN has also speculated on supernatural involvement in the mystery of the Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.
All these resulted in a surge of criticism and mockery. Tom Rosenstiel, the Executive Director of the American Press Institute (a research center devoted to analyzing media) said, “Even a great story and a great mystery can become exploited. There were periods where the coverage entered into fantastical territory.”
Back on February 25th, FTVLive wrote, Sources tell FTVLive that CNN boss Jeff Zucker and Greg D’Alba president, CNN News Networks Turner Digital Ad Sales and Marketing are not seeing eye to eye.
FTVLive added word is that Zucker does not believe that D'Alba is on board with CNN's new plan to move away from covering news.
D'Alba is well liked both inside and outside at CNN, but sources say Zucker has had some quiet talks about replacing the top sales guy.
This all comes as the up fronts are just around the corner and CNN doesn't have winning successful show to sell.
The headline of that story we wrote was "COULD CNN'S TOP SALES GUY BE OUT?"
Now Page Six has written that Turner Broadcasting/CNN: Greg D’Alba, head of CNN ad sales, is leaving the company after 28 years.
“He can’t take it anymore,” a source close to D’Alba Page Six. “He can’t stand all the infighting and the politics.”
After Jeff Zucker became president of CNN Worldwide last year, Turner chairman/CEO Phil Kent was replaced by John Martin. One of Kent’s last acts was to promote David Levy to president of Turner Broadcasting System.
And it seems some of the execs don’t like each other.
“Greg is an incredibly well-respected guy and has had great success over the years, but it’s been very hard since Zucker came,” said a source.
D’Alba and his team had trouble selling ads as CNN’s ratings plunged to a 20-year low earlier this year.
And Zucker, the former head of NBC, hasn’t been able to stem the slide with his conversion of CNN from straight news to documentaries and infotainment.
D’Alba is leaving just before the crucial spring “upfronts,” when broadcasters showcase their upcoming schedules for advertisers.
Though D’Alba hasn’t decided what he’ll do next, it is expected he’ll be barraged with offers from other media companies.
D’Alba had no comment. CNN didn’t respond.
It looks like FTVLive was WAAAAAAAYYYYY out in front once again.
Back in February, FTVLive told you the story of how WFTV (Orlando) Anchor Mark Joyella had asked the station to let him out of his contract so he could move back to New York and be with his family.
Now, Joyella has taken to his blog to discuss a secret, he has been dealing with a mental illness.
He writes, I remember sitting in my psychologist’s office in a Miami high rise a few years ago, gazing out the window at the sunny, South Florida sky—from inside, it was serene—and perfectly quiet.
It was early on a Saturday morning. I’d chosen my therapist in part because she offered weekend appointments, and I always grabbed the first-of-the-day appointment on Saturdays, when I could almost always walk through the lobby, ride in the elevator, and sit in the waiting room without seeing another person. There wasn’t even a receptionist in the office on weekends.
I was a television reporter, working at the top-rated ABC affiliate, and I really, really worried about someone rushing up to me—hey, you’re the guy from the news! Oh my God, are you crazy?—which led me to act like some kind of movie star, wearing a baseball cap and avoiding eye contact. It wasn’t ego, it was fear.
Read more after the jump.
Read MoreStations in Milwaukee had some big breaking news during their evening newscasts.
The stations reported that basketball coach Shaka Smart was leaving Virginia Commonwealth and headed to Marquette.
It was a big story in local sports......and it wasn't true.
In the end Smart might end up going to Marquette, but it was nowhere near being a done deal as the stations were reporting.
Deadspin writes that the truth is hard to sort out, because none of the stations identified their sources. But here's how clueless Milwaukee TV was today: they drove their trucks over to Marquette's campus for a hoax press conference—this after assuring viewers that "sources close to the Marquette basketball program" leaked them the info that Smart had signed on the dotted line. (Both Marquette and VCU insist nobody's spoken to Smart about a new job.)
Oops!
Here we go again.....
Our buddy Conan O'Brien shows us once again how lazy some news producers are.
Watching Fox News' Media Buzz or CNN's Reliable Sources is like watching a local Sports Anchor that roots for the home team.
That was never more apparent that this past week.
Ed Bark writes that Howard Kurtz, who anchored CNN’s Reliable Sources for 15 years, now presides over FNC’s Media Buzz . On the topic of Flight 370, Kurtz did what his old bosses at CNN never would have allowed. Namely, he ripped and twitted CNN’s coverage throughoutMedia Buzz.
Kurtz’s Reliable Sources successor, former New York Times media reporter Brian Stelter, in contrast gave his new employer’s coverage a virtual free pass. He instead opened his program by ridiculing Fox News Channel -- and Bill O’Reilly in particular -- for being critical of CNN.
In other words, both hosts prostituted themselves in the service of the network that signs their paychecks.
It really shouldn't surprise anyone that both shows are nothing more than sellouts for the company.
Howard Kurtz is by far and away the weakest talent on Fox News. As smart as Roger Ailes is, why he has this bafoon on the air, FTVLive has no idea. Both Kurtz and his "girlfriend" Lauren Ashburn should be gone from FNC. They really do drag the brand down.
As for Stelter, this really was his weakest show. It was like Jeff Zucker pulled him aside and said, "do what you can to make our non-stop coverage look good."
There is no way Stelter would have praised CNN this much if he was still writing for the NY Times.
Up until this week, Stelter has seemed to be fairly objective in his coverage and FTVLive still holds out hope for him. We're hoping that last week's show was an anomaly and not a sign of things to come.
As for Kurtz....there is no hope. Fox News should pull the plug on him ASAP.
The LA Times asks a great question.
What is it about TV news anchors and reporters stampeding to play themselves in fictional movies and TV shows? Do they think they don't get enough screen time doing, you know, their real jobs?
This habit has blotted the reputations of TV journalists for years, even decades. But that egregious Netflix show "House of Cards" has stepped up the self-whoring to a whole new level.
More after the jump.
Read MoreCNN's Don Lemon sat down with Jet magazine to talk about his critics.
Jet writes that as one of the few Blacks left on on CNN, anchor Don Lemon seems extremely comfortable playing the role of devil’s advocate rather than being a voice of reason for the Black community.
His controversial viewpoints, from the legitimacy of the NYPD’s Stop and Frisk program to defending a White reporter’s error in mistaking actor Samuel L. Jackson for Laurence Fishburne, have led to numerous Black Twitter followers branding him a sellout.
It wasn’t until Gregg Jarrett of Fox News tried to check the 48-year-old newsman— by calling him a “pompous, pretentious jerk” because of his emotional, on-air outrage over the Michael Dunn verdict— that we saw how Lemon’s often misunderstood audacity might actually provide the type of message we’ve been waiting so long to receive.
JET: What’s your response to critics who say you’re too negative about the Black community?
Don Lemon: A lot of it has been taken out of context; people hear what they want to hear. I am not criticizing the Black community. I was hired by the Tom Joyner Morning Show to do commentary that makes people think. I want my audience to feel like they are learning and not being pandered to.
JET: Your on-air battles with commentator Marc Lamont Hill have become epic. Why do you keep inviting him back?
DL: I like Marc because he gets that there is supposed to be diversity of thought without hate. We disagree on some things, but not all things. I like his perspective and we have great chemistry on the air.
JET: Has the Twitter backlash ever caused you to reconsider your standards?
DL: I’m not afraid of criticism. I actually like it. I wish everyone could experience the level of assessment I get because it actually has made me a better person. I like to provoke the conversation and create a dialogue. That doesn’t always come from people preaching to the choir and having everyone in agreement.
Not many people can say they worked at the same station for 4 years.
How about doing it for 40! And in the number 1 market no less.
Chuck Scarborough, the longtime news anchor for WNBC/Ch. 4 has reported on six mayors, seven Yankee Championships, two terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, multiple financial meltdowns and countless other tragic and triumphant New York stories in four decades before the camera at 30 Rock.
Tuesday, Scarborough marks his 40th year at WNBC in one of the most remarkable runs in television news history. Through it all, his reliable presence and reassuring personality have remained as constant in New York as the Empire State Building or Midtown traffic.
“It’s astonishing to me that I have lasted this long,” says the still-youthful-looking, 70-year-old Pittsburgh native turned New York institution.
But it wasn’t quite love at first sight between Scarborough and New York when he arrived as a 30-year-old reporter from a small Boston station back in 1974.
More after the hop.
Read MoreKWTV Meteorologist Nick Bender broke the news on Twitter that he is leaving the station.
He signs off of KWTV on March 29th, he has not yet said which Kansas City he is joining.
He joins a long list of former OKC TV personalities who have gone to Kansas City...most recently, Michelle Apon of KSHB and Kisha Henry of KMBC (both formerly at KOKH).
News 13 (Orlando) Reporter Kelli Cook is leaving central Florida and is headed to Memphis.
The Orlando Sentinel says that Wednesday was Cook's last day. She had started at the Orlando cable news channel in May 2008.
She has moved to ABC affiliate WATN in Memphis, where she will work as a weekend anchor and a reporter. But the biggest draw: family.
"I definitely missed being around family," Cook said Monday. "Most of my family is in Memphis, including my parents, nephews, a host of cousins and the extended family. I wanted some time to reconnect with them."
As she was packing to leave, Cook said she came across an old journal that she began while at News 13. She wrote about covering the case of Nicole Ganguzza, the University of Central Florida graduate student who was killed in June 2008. Ganguzza had been on an evening jog on the Little Econ Greenway, and the case has not been solved.
"It clearly made a big impact on my life," Cook said. "I wrote, 'Today, I made a point to talk to my parents and tell them that I loved them.' I'll never forget her. She taught me to appreciate life and never forget to respect the people that I'm covering."
Cook's impression of reporting on Central Florida? "Working in Orlando was such a wild ride," she said. "One day you're covering a shuttle launch, and the next day you're on a murder trial that the entire world is watching. I literally woke up every morning and wondered what the day had in store.
Ashley Johnson is joining Houston's KRIV from WPHL in Philadelphia where she worked for Tribune morning show Eye Opener.
Johnson broke the news on Twitter:
The Philadelphia native got her start in the TV biz as a multi-media reporter for WPTZ the NBC affiliate serving Burlington, VT and Plattsburgh, NY.
According to her bio, Ashley attended the University of Pennsylvania where she dual majored in political science and communications. Later she earned a Master’s of Science in broadcast journalism from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism. Like 30 Rock's Kenneth Parcell, Johnson participated in the NBC Page program in New York City, where she worked for programs like The Suze Orman Show and Weekend Today.
H/T Mike McGuff
Today Show's Hoda Kotb is doing her best to keep her private life private. But, Kotb did say on this mornings show that she has been dating a mystery man.
Kotb said that she saw the Broadway play "All the Way" this past weekend with him for his birthday.
She called him "Boots," referring to the photo of just his boots that she once shared with viewers. She wasn't any more forthcoming with details about his identity on Monday. Here's her mystery man celebrating his birthday, and going backstage with Kotb for a picture with actor Bryan Cranston.
"He seems like a happy guy," Kotb's co-host Gifford joked. "A little jaundiced."
Here's the video:
Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
H/T HuffPo
Bob Iger said that he would move quickly in name a successor for Anne Sweeney and he has.
ABC News president Ben Sherwood will take the reins as Disney/ABC Television Group early next year after Sweeney steps down.
“I am honored and humbled that Bob has entrusted me with this great responsibility and amazing opportunity. I’m also deeply grateful to Anne, who has built and led a powerhouse division over the last 10 years,” Sherwood said. “I am looking forward to her counsel and wisdom during this transition period. I must also thank the remarkable people of ABC News who inspire me every day with their creativity, dedication and spirit. I will keep their commitment to excellence and their fierce competitiveness firmly in mind as I move forward to meet this exciting new challenge.”
Twitter | Facebook | Contact Us ©2026 FTVLive LLC
