Take This Emmy and Shove It

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Take This Emmy and Shove It

FTVLive has always felt that the Emmy's were nothing more than a waste of time and a waste of money.

Every year, station's PR people send FTVLive stories about how many Emmy's their station just won and every year, we just delete the email and never use the story. 

Winning an Emmy is about as easy as winning a Members Only jacket, just go to the store and buy one. 

WGN (Chicago)  Morning Producer Jeff Hoover used to get wrapped up in the Emmy hype. He has won and he's lost, but he says he is done playing the game.

On his Facebook page, Hoover writes:

The last time I won an Emmy was in 2006 for Individual Achievement on Camera: Performer.

When the nominations were announced that year, I learned that I was the only nominee in the category.

How exciting!

That excitement quickly evaporated after someone from the Emmy committee pulled me aside to tell me it doesn't mean I will win.

What? 

How could I be the only nominee and not win?

"And the nominees are, wait a second here.  Oh, and the nominee is Jeff Hoover.  And the winner goes to...there is no winner."

That would have been a waste of a tuxedo rental on a Sunday night in November.

Read the rest after the jump.

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Crossing the Street in Buffalo

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There was a time that no one in the Buffalo market would ever even think of taking a job at WKBW in Buffalo.

The station had been run into the ground by Granite Broadcasting and it's GM Bill Ransom was one of the worst GM's in the history of TV.

But, now that Scripps has purchased WKBW and is trying to bring the station back from the dead, some at the others stations are willing to jump ship.

WGRZ Weather Anchor Andy Parker was the first to cross the street to WKBW, were he once worked before and now another Buffalo newsie is headed to WKBW.

WIVB Reporter Ed Drantch is leaving the LIN station to become a night side Reporter at WKBW, starting Oct.13.

Drantch arrived at WIVB three years ago from WHSV in Harrisonburg, Va. and quickly developed a reputation as an aggressive reporter.

Channel 7 General Manager Mike Nurse said Drantch’s WIVB contract had expired. He added that WIVB had the right to match WKBW's  offer and declined.

“We have long been impressed with Ed’s relentless reporting and investigative style and are thrilled to add him to our growing family at 7 Eyewitness News,” said Nurse. “When I met with him, I was equally impressed with his passion and commitment to Buffalo and WNY. We have been very focused on building our new morning program but we saw this as an ideal opportunity to beef up our staff in the evening as well."

There was a time when everyone that worked at WKBW was doing their best to get the hell out of the place, now with new owners, the station is becoming the place to be in town.

How times have changed. 

H/T Buffalo News

Cox Station to Add Weekend Morning News

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Cox owned WFOX in Jacksonville is tacking on a weekend newscast and it starts this weekend.

Jim Zerwekh, Vice President and General Manager of Cox Media Group Jacksonville Television announced that WFOX-TV FOX30 Action News will debut its weekend morning newscast beginning this Saturday and Sunday at 6 A.M.

"We’re happy to be able to give Jacksonville viewers the market’s earliest weekend morning newscast," said Zerwekh. "It fits in with our viewer’s busy lifestyle, and they’ll get the same level of excellent breaking news and weather coverage they have come to expect from Action News."

FOX30 Action News on WFOX-TV will premiere this Saturday morning from 6 A.M. - 9 A.M. and Sunday morning from 6 A.M. - 8 A.M.

Rosie Says She Left 'The View' Because of Hasselbeck's Unborn Baby

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Rosie O'Donnell now says that the reason she left the 'The View' the first time was because of Elisabeth Hasselbeck’s unborn baby.

O'Donnell said she cut short her original contract after only eight months on the job because Hasselbeck was arguing for two and O’Donnell cared about the conservative’s health.

“I didn’t want to be paid to fight with a pregnant woman,” O’Donnell told the NY Daily News. “There was a fetus inside of her. A baby in there. That was like child abuse, to yell at a woman who was showing. So I said rather than do that, I’ll take the risk of being sued and pull myself out of the equation.”

O’Donnell assured us that this time around she expects heated debates with the show’s resident Republican, Nicolle Wallace, but will steer clear of red state-blue state debates if the former McCain-Palin adviser — who already has a 2-year-old — decides to have another baby.

“If she is pregnant I could guarantee you I won’t discuss politics,” O’Donnell said.

We'll believe that when we see it. 

New News Director Named in Austin

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Sinclair owned KEYE has named Rob Cartwright as the new News Director of their Austin station.

Here is the internal memo, obtained by FTVLive that was sent out to the staff by GM Amy Villarreal.

From: Amy Villarreal
Sent: Wednesday, September 24, 2014 10:02 AM
To: Austin-All
Cc: Rob Cartwright

Subject: Rob Cartwright News Director of KEYE

Please join me in welcoming Robert Cartwright to Sinclair Broadcast Group as News Director of KEYE in Austin.

For the past three years, Rob has been the News Director at WSYR in Syracuse. He has helped build a great, innovative and #1 newsroom. Under his leadership, WSYR has had tremendous success.  Rob's first news management position was with  WJLA and then moved to Assistant News Director at KDAF in Dallas. He also worked as show producer at WFAA and KSAT.  He has over 18 years of experience in news and we look forward to him joining our team. “I believe Rob's proven track record and his ability to teach and lead will be a great advantage to KEYE's news operation.” commented Vice President of News for Sinclair Scott Livingston.  

“I am excited to be joining the talented team in Austin.  The area is growing quickly and KEYE is the place to turn for local news, weather and the in-depth reporting people in Central Texas need to know about.” commented Rob Cartwright. Rob’s first day will be October 13th, 2014.

Welcome Rob!

Amy Villarreal
Vice President & General Manager
KEYE TV

Jeff Zucker says he has Complete Confidence in Zakaria

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Does Fareed Zakaria have pictures of CNN boss Jeff Zucker in a compromising position with a farm animal?

That seems to be the only logical reason that Zakaria is still employed and CNN and Zucker continues to let that happen. 

Although Zakaria has been shown to be a serial plagiarist that would certainly get him fired in the smallest of TV markets, he continues to be employed by CNN.

And what does Zucker have to say about it?

“We continue to have complete confidence in Fareed,” Zucker told POLITICO on Tuesday. 

When pressed further if that meant Zakaria would continue appearing on CNN, Zucker repeated that they have complete confidence in the host.

I'm guessing it was a goat. What do you think? 

Jeff Zucker: Cable News Is Not a ‘Very Healthy’ Business

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CNN boss Jeff Zucker says that he has a good reason for his news network to do less news.

Zucker claims that the cable news business as a whole is not a “very healthy” and hence the need for more long-form original series.

Speaking at a press luncheon Zucker noted the unfortunate state of cable news while promoting the network’s vision for the future.

“In primetime in the last five years, in the demo, Fox has lost 41 percent of its audience, MSNBC has lost 27 percent of its audience, HLN has lost 13 percent of its audience, and CNN has actually grown its audience by two percent,” he noted. “Fox is still a dominant number one in the ratings, but they’ve lost 41% of the demo… They’re still a solid number one, so I’m not taking anything away from them.”

However, he continued, “When you look at that trend line, you realize that’s not a very healthy genre.”

As a result, Zucker said, his network has moved more towards original series like Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown, The Sixties, Morgan Spurlock: Inside Man, The Hunt with John Walsh, and Ling’s series debuting this weekend.

As for whether a network that features more long-form content will pre-empt its own breaking news coverage, Zucker said, “We still want to ensure that we are the place people tune when there’s breaking news, but we can walk and chew gum at the same time.” 

H/T Mediaite 

Group Says it Warned Alaska Station about Reporter's Bias

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A group opposed to legalizing marijuana in Alaska says it warned KTVA (Anchorage) about their Reporter Charlo Greene and her apparent bias long before she announced it on live television.

The group called 'Big Marijuana, Big Mistake Vote No on 2' (they couldn't have a shorter name) says they warned KTVA not once, but twice as to Greene's bias coverage.

Green quit like on air, dropping the F-Bomb and admitting she is owner of the Alaska Cannabis Club. 

"We met with the News Director and walked him through our concerns," said a Big Marijuana, Big Mistake Vote No on 2 spokesperson. 

They group also says they sent a very detailed email to the station that also pointed out Greene's bias. 

The group said they were very frustrated that the station continued to let Greene cover the story and they said it was a disservice to the viewers and the state of Alaska.

The station has apologized for both Greene's F-bomb and her biased reporting, but it is likely that this incident is going to haunt the station for a longtime to come. 

Stay tuned.... 

Texas Photographer Helps Save Woman from Flood Waters

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KTSM (El Paso) News Photographer Mike Wilburn did his job and also helped save a woman caught in raging flood waters.

Wilburn was shooting the scene when he heard screams out in the water. A woman was trapped in her car as the rushing water had pinned her against a wall.

Wilburn trudged his way through the water toward the voices, his camera providing the only light in the area.

Guys are trying to help the woman and tell Wilburn to put his camera down and help. Wilburn does help, but keeps the camera rolling.

"We could see she was pinned, I slipped and totally fell in the canal, too but kept my camera up." Wilburn said.

The men, including the Photographer work to push the truck away from her as she squirms and struggles. Then, some progress. She's able to free all but one of her legs.

The woman, looking exhausted, tells the men she's going to faint.

Then, a big smile crosses her face as she's finally freed.

Everyone is happy and the Photog had the entire ordeal on video.

The perfect story. 

Click here to watch the video

ESPN Host Calls Roger Goodell A Liar

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ESPN's Bill Simmons went off on his podcast calling NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell a lair in a in profanity-laced tirade.

“Goodell, if he didn’t know what was on that tape, he’s a liar. I’m just saying it. He is lying. If you put him up on a lie detector test, that guy would fail. For all these people to pretend they didn’t know is such [expletive] [expletive]. It really is, it’s such [expletive] [expletive]. For him to go into that press conference and pretend otherwise — I was so insulted.”

He then challenged  ESPN to punish him for his take on Goodell.

“I really hope somebody calls me or emails me and says I’m in trouble for anything I say about Roger Goodell, because if one person says that to me, I’m going public. You leave me alone. The commissioner’s a liar and I get to talk about that on my podcast. Thank you.”

So far, ESPN has declined comment. 

Stay tuned.... 

H/T USA Today

Signing Off in Chi-Town

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Longtime WLS Reporter Theresa Gutierrez is signing off from the Chicago station after 43 years.  

“I’m not retiring,” she told viewers. “I’m just moving on to the next chapter of my life and do some things that I’ve been wanting to do for a long time. . . . It’s been a great journey. I’ve had a ball. There’s never been a dull moment with you, the viewers, or my colleagues.”

Here is the internal memo sent to staffers from WLS News Director Jennifer Graves:

If you saw our 5pm news this afternoon, you saw today’s headline: Theresa Gutierrez has decided to retire from ABC 7.

Theresa’s career here is nothing short of legendary. She’s been at ABC 7 for almost 43 years. She’s held multiple positions in the newsroom and in our programming department:  program host, program producer, general assignment reporter, even production assistant!  Theresa was one of the first Hispanic women to break into television journalism. Theresa, along with Barbara Walters, Connie Chung, Christiane Amanpour and Jane Pauley were featured on the cover of an educational book, Women Who Broke Barriers: The New Face of TV News.

She’s a true trailblazer and one of the hardest working, most dedicated and most versatile journalists in the business. As you know, Theresa’s community roots are deep and she’s been honored with awards too numerous to list. Please take a look at the attached news release, and you’ll be reminded of Theresa’s many and varied contributions to ABC 7 and television journalism.

Theresa’s last day will be October 31. We’ll celebrate her amazing career as we get closer to that date. In the meantime, let’s all thank Theresa for her many contributions to ABC 7 and wish her the best as she prepares for this next chapter of her life with her wonderful husband Ambrose.

Thank you, Theresa!

H/T Robert Feder

KTVA News Director Makes Statement on F-Bomb Reporter

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KTVA News Director Bert Rudman posted a video to the station's website in which he apologizes for the F-Bomb thrown down by Reporter Charlo Greene. He also said that Greene doing a story on a business she owns was unacceptable. 

Here is his statement: 

"By now many of you have seen one of our reporters use inappropriate language and quit her job during Sunday night’s newscast. We apologize.

In addition, she had a personal and business stake in the issue she was reporting, but did not disclose that interest to us. This betrayed the basic bedrock of responsible journalism.

At KTVA we strive to live up to the highest journalistic standards of fairness and transparency. Sunday’s breach of those standards is unacceptable and cannot be tolerated.

Thank you for watching our news broadcasts and be reassured our mission is to present the kind of journalism that lets you make informed decisions about the community in which we all live."

You can watch the video here, as the station does not allow embedding of their video (which is sooooo lame).