Houston Reporter Ditching TV News

KTRK Reporter Jessica Holloway has gotten out of TV news for a gig at the Harris County Tax Assessor-Collector's office.  

After a dozen years in news, Holloway says that this is what she wanted to do. Her new job will be the "Outreach Manager" (whatever the hell that is).

"My goal has always been to come back to my hometown and serve my community. I strive for fairness, honesty and transparency in my work. I have extensive experience covering county government and politics. My experience will translate into a strong leadership role, ensuring citizens’ needs are given the utmost priority," said Holloway. 

Well ok then....

H/T Mike McGuff

Anchor is Not Amused by Her Co-Anchor's Dance Moves

WVNS (West Virginia) Anchor Dan Thorn was on set getting down to the rap song, "Where They At" (I didn't know they had rap music in West Virginia).

While Dan was getting down on the news desk, his co-Anchor Sarah Pisciuneri was not amused with Dan's dancing. 

Let's go to the video:

Uploaded by Dan Thorn on 2014-10-24.

This Cracks Me Up...

Missouri Governor Jay Nixon voted Today and his "crack" staff made sure they tweeted out a picture of him doing so.

They might have wanted to crop the photo.

Just saying.... 

Like We Said....

Back on September 22nd, FTVLive told you that Paul McGonagle the ND at WFXT in Boston would be heading to DC to take the ND gig at WTTG.

Well, here we are in November and FTVLive's prediction was dead on. 

Today, Fox announced that McGonagle has been named VP and News Director of WTTG effective immediately.

So, while other sites act like this is news that is just happening, FTVLive told you it was going to happen two months ago.

BOOM! (Drops the mic and walks off the stage).

Top 10 Things we Learn in TV News on Election Day

Today is the mid-term elections and we will find out which ineffective people will lead our country until we elect new ineffective people to lead our country.

But in TV news, we learn so much more on election night that who was elected and who wasn't. 

Here are the top 10 things you learn in TV news on election day.

We Learn That....

10: ....our highly paid Anchor can't ad lib worth a crap.

9. .... the station's Engineers can eat 2 times their weight in Pizza.

8. ....the Assistant News Director really does do nothing but stand around.

7. .....more technical problems can happen on one night, than an entire year.

6. .....there is no more boring live shot that the one from election headquarters. 

5. .....CNN's Magic Wall is just a really big iPad and has no magic at all.

4. .....some of the interns are kind of hot. 

3. .... the Internet is so much better at Election coverage and results than TV. 

2. ...The station is spending a ton of money of something viewers aren't watching.

1. ..... this is the night Netflix was made for. 

Breaking News: NBC Nightly News Reports Mike Seidel was not Pissing in the Snow

With the very important mid-term elections upon us, more attacks on ISIS an of course the every lingering ebola that was supposed to kill us all just two weeks ago, NBC Nightly News had another big story to report last night. 

Brian Williams took about a minute of the 21 minutes of his network newscast to report that Weatherman Mike Seidel was not pissing in the woods as some people thought.

Yes...this was an actual story on a network evening newscast. 

Walter Cronkite just flipped over one more time.

Let's go to the video:

Uploaded by scott Jones on 2014-11-03.

Tune in tonight when Brian reports that Matt Lauer is not a meanie. 

Longtime ABC Staffer is Escorted from the Building

Bernadette Piccolomini worked for ABC as a producer for 32 years, before she was let go. 

Yesterday, Piccolomini showed up on the set of 'The View" and was escorted from the building. 

 Before she was sacked, 63 year old Piccolomini worked as a Producer on “The View.”  After being let go, she filed a lawsuit against the network.

Yesterday, Joy Behar was invited back on “The View” as a guest and brought Piccolomini.

Page Six says they were in the makeup room with Whoopi Goldberg and Bernadette Peters when security ushered Piccolomini out.

One staff member said, “They escorted her out like a common criminal.”

An ABC rep said, “Piccolomini was escorted from the building by ABC security because she is on a ‘do not admit’ list.”

Fox News Anchor is Cool, Calm and Collected

While many of the network anchors might be nervous tonight, heading into their big election coverage, don't count Fox News Anchor Megyn Kelly in that camp.

Kelly told Cosmopolitan.com that she doesn't not get nervous on big nights and she says that because of her law background and her preparation.

"I've always relied on it. When I was practicing law, I felt that I may have been playing above my pay grade. You wonder, Do I belong here? Am I smart enough to do this? Am I good enough to do this? My security blanket was overpreparation. I could be going against somebody who was at the top of his class at Harvard Law School, and I couldn't wait to beat him because I would overprepare. I knew there was no way anybody would out-hustle me. That was my ticket to leveling the playing field," Kelly said

"In journalism, I don't have quite as much self-doubt as I did practicing law, but I still feel that the key to most things is preparation. I almost never feel nervous, even on big nights, because I usually know what I'm doing. There's comfort in being prepared. I try hard to provide myself with that," she adds. 

And you Know it's Ratings...

You know it's ratings when TV Anchors take time to talk about their cancer battle, fight against depression, alcoholism or some disease.

These discussions seem to only happen when the book is here.

In Chicago, news veteran Edna Schmidt has been off the air for the past year.

This week, in an "exclusive" five-part series on WGBO-TV's nightly 10:00pm newscast, "Noticias Univision Chicago," Schmidt talks about her alcohol addition that has cost her jobs and wrecked havoc in her personal life.

From 1992-2002, Edna Schmidt was a news anchor for both nightly newscasts on Chicago's WGBO-TV -- the first female news anchor in the station's history. In 2000, Schmidt became a Chicago correspondent for Univision's national newcasts, giving her a wider audience, while still being a news anchor for WGBO-TV.

Schmidt had done a newscast at the start of October where she appeared to be under the influence and was slurring her words. That led to her being removed from the air the next night -- first temporarily, and then permanently.

Telemundo Chicago had no comment on the reason or reasons for the speedy release of their newly-hired news anchor. A simple statement from a station spokesperson read: "Edna Schmidt is no longer with Telemundo Chicago. We wish her the best in her future endeavors."

As you know, TV stations do not talk about personal issues, unless of course it's a rating book.

Then they talk about it in an "exclusive five-part series."

H/T Chicagoland Radio and Media

Ratings Plunge for Wallenda's Chicago Walk

Nick Wallenda did not fall from the Chicago high-rise, but his ratings sure did.

When the daredevil walked a wire across the Colorado River Gorge in 2013 13 million people watched.

This time, when he walked from skyscraper to skyscraper, his ratings did not hit half that. 

Wallenda's walk averaged just 5.84 million viewers and 2.16 million in the demo.

And while no one will come right out and say it, one of the big reasons for the ratings drop can be blamed on the 10 second delay.

Discovery Channel announced before the telecast, that they would be using a delay in case Wallenda made a misstep and fell from the wire.

Many (most) People watch daredevils for the danger and the thought that they might just not make it. Same reason people tune into car races, they want to see a crash.

Knowing that if Wallenda fell from the wire, people watching on TV were not going to see it, had many people decide not to tune in at all.

Discovery took out the reason that people watch daredevil stunts to begin with.

Say What?!

Check out the sign directly behind the head of this KIRO Reporter. Since we can't see her lower body, we'll take the sign's word for it. 

Dallas Anchor's Movember Promo

Here is a funny a promo done by WFAA Anchor Ron Corning for Movember.

Uploaded by WFAA CREATIVE on 2014-10-23.

I'm Surprised You're Surprised

Michelle Nunn is a Senate candidate running as a Democrat and surprisingly she is not a fan of Fox News.

Nunn said she did not want to partake in a debate on October 26, that was to be moderated by Fox News Corespondent John Roberts.

Roberts told Democrat basher Howard Kurtz that, “For some reason, the Nunn campaign just does not want to talk to Fox News, even though we have been reaching out to them in various ways since about the month of April.”

How, a Fox News person can be surprised that a Democrat doesn't want to talk to them is a bit head shaking.

I'm sure there are a number of Republicans that refuse to talk to MSNBC and would not like it if an MSNBC talent was selected to moderate their debate.

Fox News wants to have it both ways. They want to be a champion for the right, but yet get pissed off when the left won't talk to them. We can't blame Nunn for saying no to a Fox News moderator, just as we won't blame a Republican not wanting a MSNBC talent moderating their debate. 

It's very hard for us to slide with a politician (since 99% are worthless scum, no matter which side they are on) but in this case we do.

Just saying....  

Can You Help a Brother Out?

If you were logged onto FTVLive early this morning, you may have noticed as updates were posted, there was a long gap between the 3rd and 4th story.

The reason for the delay? Our computer froze and had to be restarted. As FTVLive has been telling you, our 5 year old computer is starting to give up the ghost and we are in the market for a new one.

Our heart is set on the new Apple iMac with Retina display. The problem is that computer runs $2500 and that money is not in the budget.

So, we have been asking readers of FTVLive if they want to pitch in and keep this site humming along.

A number of people have stepped up and sent some money our way. Others have sent along Apple gift cards.

Right now, we just under the halfway point of our goal of $2500.

If you want to help the cause, you may donate using PayPal by clicking this button:

You can also stop by the Apple Store and purchase a gift card and send it our way. You can even do an online gift card and send it to our email address (ftvlive@gmail.com) with no postage needed. 

To those of you that already made a donation, I am so thankful to you.

You Guys Rock!

Police Admit, Ferguson 'No Fly Zone' was to Keep Media Out

The police in St. Louis County admitted what most media already knew. 

When the cops instituted a no-fly zone over the Ferguson protests, it's sole purpose was to prevent news helicopters from covering the events.

At the time, the police department claimed the no-fly zone was necessary because shots had been fired at a police helicopter—and not, as Sgt. Brian Schellman told reporters at the time, because the police wanted the media to leave. "We understand that that's the perception that's out there, but it truly is for the safety of pilots," he told NBC. 

According to the AP, the tapes reveal St. Louis police officers worked with FAA air traffic controllers to tweak the flight restrictions to ground media aircraft while still allowing commercial flights and police helicopters to operate in the area.

Media outlets were reportedly told there was an outright ban, despite exceptions for "aircraft carrying properly accredited news representatives."

FAA administrator Michael Huerta denied the allegations, telling the AP, "FAA cannot and will never exclusively ban media from covering an event of national significance, and media was never banned from covering the ongoing events in Ferguson in this case."

So in other words, someone is lying or did lie.

Imagine that?

H/T Gawker