The Forecast Calls For....

Looks like a big purple penis is in the forecast for Holland

News Chopper Finds Missing Boy

A Florida kid that was sick of school and ran away was found in the woods by WKMG's (Orlando) news chopper.

The 10-year-old student, who attends Saturn Elementary School in Cocoa, disappeared around lunch time, Brevard school officials said. 

Several deputies and a sheriff's helicopter were canvassing nearby wooded areas when WKMG's Sky 6 photojournalist David Sprung located the boy from the air, reporting his location to authorities.

"Normally people don't like Mondays ... I now like Mondays," Sprung said. "This has been the absolute best day of my life since I've been doing news." 

The boy, who was spotted by Sprung by his orange sweater peeking through the brush, was rescued by deputies and carried on one of the deputy's backs just before 2 p.m. 

H/T WKMG

Anchor Shake Up in O-Town

WFTV (Orlando) is shaking up their anchor team.

After 17 years on the morning shift, Anchor Vanessa Echols finally gets to sleep in. Echols will co-anchor the noon and the 4 p.m. news.

Investigative Reporter/Anchor Nancy Alvarez will assume Echols’ place in the morning alongside Jamie Holmes.

News Director Matt Parcell said the change will allow both anchors to reach new viewers.

“Vanessa has been preparing Central Florida viewers for their days for nearly two decades. It’s time to share her wealth of experience and knowledge in another day part,” Parcell said. “Nancy is a very strong anchor who will continue to bring viewers the latest news and information as they wake up. Her new role will also allow her to continue providing viewers stories they can’t get anywhere but on Eyewitness News through her reporting.”

The changes happen right after the Feb book is over.

Expect more anchor changes at WFTV in August when former WESH Anchor Martha Sugalski joins the station after sitting out a verrrrrry long non-compete.

Atlanta Station Adding and Dropping Newscasts

WXIA in Atlanta is adding one newscast and taking away another.

The station announced that they are starting a 5 p.m. newscast on March 2 and are dropping their noon newscast. 

Brenda Wood will co-anchor the new 5 p.m. news with DeMarco Morgan. 

The station is also ending its noon news program and readjusting the schedule of its “pay for play” program “Atlanta and Company,” which currently runs an hour at 11 a.m. and then an additional 30 minutes at 12:30 p.m. Now, the show hosted by Christine Pullara will run continuously from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., followed by a repeat of “Jeopardy.”

11 Alive’s general manager John Deushane said fewer people are watching local news in the middle of the day so they are transferring their efforts during that time frame online.

The Gannett station currently airs six hours of local news a day on weekdays including an hour of repeats at 3 a.m. The changes will keep the number of hours the same – just different times.

H/T Atlanta Journal Constitution 

Twin Cities Anchor to Return

Former KARE Anchor Amy Hockert is returning to the air, but she's doing it across the street.

 Hockert is joining Fox O&O KMSP on Feb. 9th.

Hockert says she will be a special projects Reporter and Anchor at KMSP.

Hockert was a news anchor at KARE for six years until she joined news aggregator BringMeTheNews in 2009, where she's now editor-in-chief.

She wrote a goodbye message to readers, telling them she is headed back to the boob tube. 

Talking about KMSP, Hockert says, "The producers, reporters and anchors are legacy players who understand, inherently, what's important to Minnesotans. At the same time, they're bobbing and weaving with the ever-changing way people consume news." 

H/T Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal 

No Comment

KOIN made the choice to turn off comments on the station's website and to be honest, we can't really blamed them.

KOIN's Digital Managing Editor Tim Steele says "it  wasn’t a decision KOIN.com made lightly or easily. But it’s time to be honest about what comment boards have morphed into over the years."

He writes, "For every great, insightful comment or news tip I’ve seen over the past decade posted to the bottom of a story, I’ve dealt with 50 times more comments that add no value. Pseudonymous commenters seemingly have limitless time to post inanities, vitriol, sexually explicit, mindless, vulgar and hurtful notes about people and things of which they have only cursory knowledge."

And taking a clue from the Las Vegas Review Journal, he quotes, “Nowhere does the First Amendment require the media to provide a platform for your speech.”

Comment sections on websites seem like so 10 years ago along with message boards. Anytime you let people hide behind a fake name or made up account, you are not going to get anything constructive.

We can't blame KOIN for turning off the comments and in fact, we think it was a good move.

Indiana Governor Backtracks on Taxpayer Funded News Service

Two days ago, FTVLive told you that Indiana Governor Mike Pence was looking to start a state-run taxpayer-funded news outlet that would help his office cutout the media.

But, after a large amount of backlash, Pence is back peddling from the plan. 

The Indy Star says that Pence told a conservative talk show host Wednesday that he would reject any version of his new "Just IN" website that looks like state-run media, continuing to distance himself from a written news service plan developed by his staff.

"As governor I can assure you that (the plan) did not meet my expectations and if this website doesn't meet my expectations of respecting the role of a free and independent press, I will reject i," Pence said Wednesday on WIBC-FM. 

Pence also repeated his earlier explanation that the new site was intended to be a resource, not a news source.

Garrison continued to question him: "How does an idea that's antithetical to what you were setting out to do go that far, when nobody caught it? Who wrote that thing?"

Pence replied: "I'm asking all those questions, Greg. I frankly learned about the memo from press reports late Monday. Using terms like news service, like news outlet, it's just not appropriate." 

Yeah right, the Governor didn't know.....sorry, don't believe that for a second. 

Can You Tell that Sweeps is Starting?

Today kicks off the first day of Sweeps and if you want a clue that it is happening, check out KTXL in Sacramento.

WWE's Sgt. Slaughter stop by the KTXL studio and took on Weatherman Darren Peck and his forecast.

It was supposed to be funny.

It was not.

Comcast/Time Warner Deal May Not Happen

When cable giant and NBC owner Comcast announced that they were going to buy Time Warner Cable, Comcast figured they would have no problem greasing enough politicians to get the deal approved.

Many others figured the same thing, but now, it looks like what was once a done deal my no longer be the case.

Now, it is unclear whether the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission will give Comcast their blessing.

"They've had a lot of trouble, more than they thought they would — and rightly so," said Gene Kimmelman, a former top lawyer in the Justice Department's antitrust division who now leads advocacy group Public Knowledge, which opposes the Comcast-TWC merger.

The LA Times writes, here's the rub for Kimmelman and others: The new Comcast would be the nation's dominant supplier of high-speed Internet service. The company would boast 30 million customers in major cities such as Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Denver, Dallas, San Francisco and Seattle.

Streaming service Netflix, satellite giant Dish Network, lawmakers and others have voiced concerns that Comcast could use this grip to stifle development of the Internet video business. In a sense, Comcast would have an incentive to beat back online challengers to its core business of bundling cable TV channels.

Meanwhile, a parade of major TV network executives have privately met with federal investigators, outlining their worries about a bulked-up Comcast, according to people involved in the meetings who were unauthorized to speak publicly. They fear Comcast would use its size and influence to undercut how much programmers such as CBS, Viacom and Discovery are paid for their channels.

Comcast, for its part, maintains the regulatory review of its acquisition is proceeding on schedule.

In other words, Comcast still has plenty of grease left and is willing to use it. 

NFL to Air Domestic Violence Ad during Super Bowl

The NFL spent much of this season answering questions for the leagues awful handling of the Ray Rice domestic violence case.

During the Super Bowl this ad will run and it is sponsored by the NFL:

Watch the official Super Bowl NO MORE ad (the first-ever Super Bowl commercial addressing domestic violence and sexual assault) and pledge to say NO MORE at http://nomore.org. The 30 second version of NO MORE's Super Bowl ad will air live during the first quarter of NFL Super Bowl XLIX on February 1, 2015.

Chicago Weatherman Got NY Storm Right

While most of the weather Anchors in New York were predicting an historic snowstorm to hit NY City, 800 miles away in Chicago one Meteorologist got it right.

WGN's Tom Skilling predicted that NYC would be spared the brunt of the storm and Boston would be hit hard.

Even though it wasn't Chicago weather, WGN still made a promo out Skilling's prediction:

While every blew the forecast for the NYC Blizzard...what did Tom Freakin' Skilling say?

Jon Stewart Dumps Hot Water on Media's Storm Coverage

The Daily Show's Jon Stewart gave his take on the media overhyping the storm of century and as expected, he took some well deserved shots at the cable nets:

Jon Stewart recapped the media coverage of "Blizzapocalypsegeddon 15″ tonight and how New York avoided the worst of it. But that didn't stop a lot of pretty overhyped coverage from NYC, including the interesting new tactic of having anchors running shows from their cars.

CNN's Stelter: Blizzard Mobile, Don Lemon Brought Ratings

Brian Stelter, who used to be the CNN media critic, now CNN blizzard Reporter says that Don Lemon's antics in the  ̶D̶a̶i̶r̶y̶ ̶Q̶u̶e̶e̶n̶ Blizzard Mobile was a ratings hit. 

Stelter tweeted out:

What Brian does not seem to understand is that people were watching to laugh at CNN and Don Lemon in particular. Other TV Critics (that were not out reporting on the storm) made mention of Lemon's antics and the Blizzard Mobile that uses aptly initials BM.

Folks tried to set Stelter straight on Twitter. But it seems in CNN's world, they don't care how much they embarrass themselves, just as long as people are watching.

Kind of like the Ted Baxter syndrome. 

Rev. Al Sharpton vs. The Prompter Round 4

Time for another installment of "What the Hell Rev. Al?"

As we have pointed out in the past, MSNBC's Al Sharpton has some trouble when it comes to reading the teleprompter.

Here's the latest Sharpton snafus:

MSNBC host Al Sharpton's teleprompter issues continue.