When Al Sharpton is not planning protests or snitching for the FBI he does a show on MSNBC.
But Al has a bit of a problem reading the teleprompter and sometimes what he says makes absolutely no sense.
Let's go to the video:
When WTKR Anchor Juliet Bickford was busted by federal agents for her role in an international fraud scheme, her station WTKR totally ignored the story.
Yesterday in court Bickford plead guilty to the charges against her and was sentenced to one year probation, 200 hours of community service and must pay $10,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
Finally WTKR got around to covering the story that they all but ignored up until this point.
Why?
Because Bickford spoke exclusively to her old station.
Anchor Barbara Ciara sat down with Bickford and lobbed a bunch of softball questions at her. Of course, it was more than expected, since Ciara wrote a letter to the judge before her sentencing in support of Bickford. Station sources tell FTVLive that Ciara was also in Bickford's wedding.
In the WTKR lead-in to the story and in the story itself Brickford was referred as a "friend" of the station and Ciara also called her "my friend."
She was also referred to as a "family member" of WTKR, despite the fact that was was fired.....errrrrrr....resigned from the station.
WTKR ignored the story and never reported on her arrest, but now that they can milk the story as part of a cheap sweeps stunt, they have turned Ciara's softball interview into a multi part series that makes any real journalist watching want to throw up.
WTKR reached a new low in journalism with the way they handled this story. If you ask us, Bickford shouldn't be the only person at the station that lost her job.
Here is just one of WTKR's fluff pieces on their former anchor that was just convicted in court.
It's never a good thing when the News Director and the Assistant ND are scaled in the middle of the ratings book.
But that is exactly what appears to have happened at New England Cable News.
The station has confirmed that News Director Nannette Hobson and Assistant News Director Bob Keating will no longer employed there. But, NECN is not commenting on why they are gone?
“We will immediately begin a nationwide search for a new news director for NECN,” general manager Michael St. Peters said in an email to employees.
He said “other news managers” would fill in until replacements are hired.
A statement yesterday from NBC Universal, which owns NECN, said Hobson and Keating were “leaving NECN effective today.
“We are grateful for their contributions to the station and wish them all the best in their future endeavors.”
Keating joined NECN in 2001 and became assistant news director in 2008. Hobson was hired by NECN in 2012. Hobson and Keating could not be reached for comment.
H/T Boston Herald
CNN took some well deserved shots for their over the top non-stop coverage of the missing Malaysia flight.
They also saw their ratings rise as they went wall to wall with their coverage.
But, now the plane story is old news and CNN hasn't only lost their credibility, they have also lost their viewers.
The cable net's ratings have dropped 45% as the missing plane became old news.
CNN shed 343,000 total viewers and 129,000 demo viewers since the days after the plane went missing.
So, while the viewers are gone, dents to CNN's credibility remains. Not sure the short ratings bump was worth it.
Just saying....
Former CNN host Larry King appeared on the Today Show and used the appearance to take another well deserved swipe at his old network for it's missing plane coverage.
CNN devoted hours, days and weeks to covering the missing plane and as Larry King smartly pointed out, "six weeks alter and all we know is the plane made a left turn."
Let's cue up the video:
The NWT Group would like to congratulate the following:
Polo Sandoval joins CNN as a NewsSource Correspondent based in Washington D.C. from bureau chief at KRGV in the Rio Grande Valley, TX.
Raegan Medgie has joined the staff at AMHQ, The Weather Channel's new morning show featuring Sam Champion. She will be a reporter based in New York City. She leaves WNEP in Scranton, PA.
Nina Terrero is a now a correspondent for Entertainment Weekly. She will also be appearing on the “Today” show, covering Hollywood and movie news.
Bianca Castro named 4pm anchor/reporter at KXAS, the NBC O&O in her hometown of Dallas. She returns to Texas from WFTV/WRDQ where she was an anchor/reporter.
Meteorologist Crystal Egger has additional duties as a regular contributor on AMHQ with Sam Champion, the new morning show on The Weather Channel. She is also working with The Weather Channel on documentaries for their evening lineup. Crystal also joined the NBC Sports team as a meteorologist for the NHL game at Dodger stadium. She continues to be the morning meteorologist at KNBC in Los Angeles.
Eric King moves to anchoring the mid-day newscast at KXAS in Dallas and joining the morning team as an in-studio reporter from reporter at KXAS.
Hollani Davis has moved to WPTV in West Palm Beach as an anchor. She was previously an evening anchor at WDBJ in Roanoke, VA.
TW Starr is the new morning anchor for KTBS-TV in Shreveport, LA. He leaves WAAY-TV in Huntsville, AL as the morning anchor.
More NWT Talent moves after the jump.
Read MoreWBBM the CBS O&O in Chicago has hired Erin Kennedy as their new Anchor of its weekday morning newscasts.
Kennedy, who has worked as an anchor/reporter for WKYC-TV in Cleveland since 2011, will join Kris Gutierrez beginning May 19 on the 4:30 a.m. to 7 a.m. newscasts.
“Erin is an exceptional broadcaster,” Jeff Kiernan, vice president and news director at CBS 2, said in a statement. “She’s an experienced news anchor and reporter who will bring an intelligence and warmth to morning news in Chicago.”
At WKYC, Kennedy was the NBC affiliate’s lead anchor/reporter for its coverage of the Cleveland kidnapping victims. She and her colleagues also won an Emmy for their coverage of the Chardon School shooting.
Previously, Kennedy worked as an anchor/reporter for six years at WPRI-TV and WNAC-TV in Providence, Rhode Island. A Notre Dame graduate and a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, she began her career in 2003 at KAMC-TV in Lubbock, Texas
At CBS 2 Chicago, Kennedy fills a slot that has been vacant since longtime morning news co-anchor Susan Carlson was released last year. Weekend anchor Marissa Bailey and midday co-anchor Roseanne Tellez have been rotating alongside Gutierrez during the interim.
H/T Chicago Tribune
The media has become obsessed with drones and they want to the FAA to back off so they can all own one.
The AP writes that more than a dozen media organizations challenged the government's ban on the use of drones by journalists Tuesday, saying the Federal Aviation Administration's position violates First Amendment protections for news gathering.
The FAA won't currently issue drone permits to news organizations. Officials have sent warning letters to journalists found to have used small unmanned aircraft — most of them no bigger than a backpack — to take photos and videos. The agency suggested to one Ohio newspaper that it refrain from publishing video of a burning building taken independently by a drone hobbyist, even though hobbyists, unlike journalists, are permitted to fly drones, according to the brief.
"The FAA's position is untenable as it rests on a fundamental misunderstanding about journalism. News gathering is not a 'business purpose.' It is a First Amendment right," the brief said.
Norman Lumpkin, a well known former WSFA (Montgomery) 12 News reporter, passed away Tuesday morning, confirms Ross Clayton Funeral Home.
Lumpkin was a trailblazer. He became the first African-American television news reporter in Alabama's capital city when WSFA-TV hired him in 1969. He later became the first African-American President of the Alabama AP Broadcasters Association.
One of Norman's first major assignments was coverage of Governor George Wallace's re-election campaign in 1970. Despite the racial tension of the era, in which he was purposefully given false information by some in order to discredit his work, Norman pushed on and ultimately gained the respect of politicians and viewers for his work. Wallace, who was a staunch segregationist, made sure Norman was invited to each campaign event.
Norman earned numerous awards for his investigative reports during his years with WSFA 12 News and mentored a considerable number of fellow journalists.
After leaving WSFA 12 News in the 1990s, Norman worked as the News Director at Montgomery's ABC affiliate.
H/T WSFA
Former WTKR (Norfolk) Anchor Juliet Bickford was sentenced Today after pleading guilty to tax crimes several months ago.
Bickford was sentenced to one year probation, 200 hours of community service and must pay $10,000 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service.
Additionally, Bickford cannot open any credit cards without consulting her probation officer and her financial records have to remain open to her probation officer. She also cannot possess any weapons.
Because Bickford is married to a service member, she will be allowed to travel overseas if necessary.
She pled guilty to filing a false tax return after deducting a hot tub purchased with her mother’s credit card in 2011. Court papers said while Bickford was an authorized user of the credit card, she was not legally responsible to pay for it, meaning she could not deduct the hot tub on her own tax return.
“Without the inclusion of expenses related to the hot tub purchase, the defendant would not have been entitled to any deductions for Medical and Dental Expenses,” court documents said. “This claimed deduction was a material matter on the defendant’s 2011 U.S. Individual Income Tax Return in that it had the effect of inflating the defendant’s refund for tax year 2011. The claiming of this deduction resulted in a tax loss, for criminal sentencing purposes, of less than five thousand dollars ($5,000).”
H/T WAVY
The ferry accident in South Korea, left about 260 dead and many Koreans very upset.
Fox News wanted to show video of how sad many Koreans are at such a terrible disaster. But, instead of using video of some of the family members, or any other sad Koreans, Fox News just cued up video random sad Asians instead.
In fact the asians that they showed weren't even Koreans.
The woman in the picture above is not Korean and her grieving is for the avalanche victims on Mount Everest that killed 16 Sherpa guides. Not the ferry disaster.
Are you F-ing kidding me?
Fox News admitted top the Washington Post that they screwed up.
“The wrong video was mistakenly pulled from the international feed. We regret this error and have corrected the footage online and will address it on air, as well,” says David Clark, Fox News’s executive producer for weekend news and programming.
A Fox News spokeswoman says the network was unaware of any complaints about the report.
Longtime NBC employee Steve Capus is headed to Black Rock.
Capus will join CBS in July as the top executive at Scott Pelley's evening newscast.
Capus was pushed out of NBC by Comcast in 2013 after eight years as president of the news division.
But he has experience doing evening news. Capus served as Tom Brokaw's EP until Brokaw retired from the main anchor chair.
He replaces Pat Shevlin, who has transferred to "60 Minutes."
There will be a bit of a learning curve for Capus. CBS produces a much harder newscast than NBC and is not as big on the fluff.
Oh MSNBC why do you keep sticking your foot in your mouth?
On Monday with a Cinco de Mayo segment featuring a stereotypical portrayal of a stumbling Mexican by a reporter pretending to guzzle tequila straight from the bottle.
As a visual reading "Mexican Heritage Celebration" appeared on screen, Way Too Early host Thomas Roberts explained the historical background of the holiday. As he spoke, a sombrero-clad Louis Burgdorf wandered around the newsroom shaking a maraca.
"It's also an excuse to drink tequila on a Monday morning at work for Louis," Roberts said, adding "you have to drink the whole thing and eat the worm."
The team at MSNBC's Way Too Early continued to weave the theme of Cinco de Mayo into the show. Roberts introduced "The Cooler" segment standing before a table with a prominently displayed bottle of a mass market tequila. "Cooler Correspondent" Burgdorf began his segment by taking a shot of tequila, which Roberts referred to as the correspondent's "go-go juice."
"Olé!" Burgdorf said after taking the shot, apparently unaware that the word is associated with Spain rather than Mexico.
Then there was dancing, again with the maracas.
The show appeared to indicate that many people at MSNBC have absolutely no idea what's going on in Mexico or with the 33.5 million Americans of Mexican origin. At least they stopped short of giving Burgdorf a mustache.
MSNBC released a statement apologizing for another on air gaff:
“On Monday, Cinco De Mayo, ‘Way Too Early’ made sarcastic references to the way some Americans celebrate the holiday. It was not our intention to be disrespectful and we sincerely apologize for the ill-advised references,” MSNBC said in a statement.
Lean Forward? I don't think so!
H/T HuffPo
Eyebrows were raised when a KUSA Photographer acted as the spokesperson for Kristin Hopkins, the Denver area woman who was trapped for six days in a car.
KUSA staffer Brian Willie acted as the spokesperson for the family and many see that as a conflict of interest.
Asked about the situation, KUSA posted on Twitter: “He’s not involved in our coverage of accident. He and the family are close friends. They asked him to be their spokesperson.”
KUSA Assistant News Director Tim Ryan said in an email:
9NEWS News Production Manager Brian Willie acted as a spokesperson for the family of Kristin Hopkins Monday. Willie is a close friend of the Hopkins family. The family asked him to read an on-camera statement to the media at St Anthony Central Hospital. Willie was not covering the story for 9NEWS.
“There is no conflict of interest,” KUSA General Manager Mark Cornetta said.
Cornetta, News Director Patti Dennis and Ryan on a conference call denied any ethical dilemma but noted, “Brian isn’t going to be reading any more statements to the media.”
"There is no loss of objectivity. The hospital will provide any other release of information.” Going forward, the spokesman will not be Willie.
Hmmmm? If there is no conflict...then why is he no longer the family spokesman?
Just asking....
H/T Denver Post
FTVLive has told you a number of times in the past about judgements made against WFAA Anchor Shon Gables.
Back on October, we told you about the judgement against her for over a quarter of a million dollars to her ex husband in Michigan.
Now, a new warrant has been issued out of Michigan for her arrest.
WFAA is aware of these judgements and warrants, but continues to let Gables anchor the newscasts.
Here the latest warrant issued against her:
Former WTKR (Norfolk) Anchor Juliet Bickford is expected to be sentenced to probation for her part in a million-dollar international fraud scheme.
Bickford, the former 4 p.m. anchor for WTKR, is due in U.S. District Court on Tuesday morning to be sentenced for her guilty plea to filing the false tax return.
The U.S. Attorney's Office filed a position paper on sentencing this week that recommends Bickford get probation and a minimum of 500 hours of community service and be ordered to pay restitution.
In those papers, prosecutors say that since her arrest and guilty plea in January, Bickford has cooperated with authorities in their investigation into the fraud scheme, but they're not sure she has been completely upfront.
Bickford has maintained to the authorities that she had no knowledge of her now ex-boyfriend Theodoros Grontis' connection to the scheme.
Grontis has been on the lam ever since federal agents questioned Bickford in September 2011. He is believed to be hiding in Greece.
Prosecutors alleged that even after being questioned by federal agents in September 2011, Bickford filed a phony tax return that hid the money she was using to live a lavish lifestyle, according to court papers filed this week.
Grontis funneled more than $500,000 from the scheme through Bickford's bank account, authorities said. Bickford was not charged in connection with the fraud or receiving its proceeds.
"Her claimed belief that Grontis and the money he provided were truly legitimate cannot be fully confirmed or dispelled," prosecutors wrote.
H/T Virginian-Pilot
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