Uh-oh! FTVLive told you yesterday afternoon that NBC was dropping Brian Williams name from the opening credits of NBC Nightly News.
Less than 24 hours after NBC suspended Williams, they are scrubbing any links to him on Nightly News.
"It further fuels the speculation that he's never coming back," said one NBC staffer to FTVLive.
Here is the internal memo that was sent to all the NBC affiliates, telling them of the change:
While Brian Williams has been suspended for 6 months and maybe forever, Al Sharpton continues to work for the Peacock.
According to The Smoking Gun, Sharpton told boldface lies on both MSNBC and NBC's air, yet he is still working.
The Smoking Gun writes that in the wake of last year’s lengthy TSG report about Sharpton’s secret work as a paid FBI Mafia informant, the MSNBC host sought to blunt the story’s disclosures with a series of lies told at a pair of press conferences, on his nightly “Politics Nation” program, and in a report on Williams’s own NBC Nightly News (which was rebroadcast on NBC's Today show).
Sharpton, 60, cast himself as a victim who first ran into the FBI’s warm embrace when a scary gangster purportedly threatened his life. He was “an American citizen with every right to call law enforcement” for protection, Sharpton told his MSNBC audience. His sole motivation was to “try to protect myself and others.”
He needed the FBI’s help, Sharpton claimed, because his relentless advocacy on behalf of African-American concert promoters had angered wiseguys with hooks in the music business. “I did the right thing working with the authorities,” Sharpton assured viewers. As for being branded an informant, that was a label for others to worry about. “I didn’t consider myself, quote, an informant. Wasn’t told I was that,” said Sharpton.
These claims, broadcast by NBCUniversal, were demonstrably false.
So NBC....when is Sharpton going to be suspended?
Just asking.....
Suspended NBC Anchor Brian Williams already has new job offers coming in.
Minor league baseball team the Bridgeport Bluefish are offering BriWi a six month media internship to work for the baseball team writing game recaps.
Williams is a Connecticut resident and since he’s being benched for now by the Peacock network the Bluefish want to suit him up to be part of their team.
The Bluefish staff doesn't seem to be concerned about the controversy surrounding his false reporting of claiming to be on a chopper shot down in Iraq. In fact, they hope the seasoned anchor will bring the team good luck. Bluefish general manager Jamie Toole says “With his reporting style, we may even win a few of those games.”
Of course, Williams would have to take a bit of a pay cut. The baseball team is offering to pay Williams a stipend of $500 and hopes he sees this as a great opportunity in sports reporting.
H/T WTNH
The man that cops say shot KFMB (San Diego) Sports Anchor Kyle Kraska was out on bail for another crime when he shot Kraska.
Court records show Mike Montana was arrested last October, and again in November, charged both times with driving under the influence of drugs.
Word is that Kraska hired Montana to paint his home and that the shooting was the result of an argument over the "poor job" that Montana was doing.
"Kyle had noticed the guy painting neighbors houses, so when you see a neighbor, some guy doing a good job on your neighbor's house, that's a pretty good recommendation. So he ended up hiring the guy," Todd Villalobos a KFMB Sports Producer said.
Villalobos says that Kraska told him that Montana became flaky about showing up, and that the work he had done was not the quality he expected. So he paid Montana for his time and supplies and hired someone else to finish the job.
"He didn't owe the guy any money. They had completed their transaction and the guy came back and started demanding more money from Kyle," Villalobos said. Those demands started months after Kraska thought he was done with Montana.
As of Wednesday evening, Kraska was in critical, but stable condition at Scripps La Jolla Hospital. He suffered 10 gunshot wounds in Tuesday's attack.
Montana is scheduled to be arraigned on a charge of attempted first degree murder Friday.
H/T KFMB
Two days ago, FTVLive told you that KSTU Anchor Kerri Cronk became a news story herself when she and her family were a victim of a home invasion.
A woman enter Cronk's home armed with a crowbar and demanded the families car.
Police say that recovered the Honda Pilot stolen from the home but, not the woman who stole it.
Someone spotted the vehicle Tuesday and reported it to the Sandy City Police Department, according to Unified police.
“Sandy police conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle and took the two occupants into custody without incident,” a statement from the Unified Police Department reads. “Detectives from the UPD responded and took custody of the occupants and the vehicle.”
Brandon Woodford, who was driving the car, was arrested on suspicion of being in possession of a stolen vehicle and booked into the Salt Lake County Jail, according to police. They said the passenger was released.
The woman who stole the car has not yet been identified and should be considered armed and dangerous, investigators said.
The investigation into how Woodford allegedly came to be in possession of the car was ongoing Wednesday. Unified Police Lt. Justin Hoyal said detectives had good leads into identifying the woman who took the vehicle.
He said investigators believe Cronk's house was targeted at random.
H/T KSL
WLS in Chicago says that one of their staffers leaked possible debate questions to Chicago mayoral candidate Jesus"Chuy" Garcia, considered by many observers to be one of Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's biggest threats in his effort to win re-election on Feb. 24.
The matter of the leak first surfaced last week as WLS, the League of Women Voters of Illinois and Chicago, and Univision Chicago were preparing to present a mayoral candidate debate Thursday night that included five of the major candidates for the top elected post in the city.
In the lead-up to the debate Thursday night, it was revealed that Garcia had been told about some questions that might be asked to various candidates during the debate. When the alleged leak came to light, the debate sponsors, including WLS, said they moved quickly to disseminate the proposed questions to all five candidates that participated in the debate.
Today, having concluded its investigation, WLS posted an update on its website that said "the person responsible for the leak was relieved of their duties prior to the debate and has subsequently resigned from ABC 7."
First, we really doubt the person resigned and second, why did the station not name the person?
For a station that prides itself on being No. 1 in Chicago, withholding the employee's name is lame to say the least.
Just saying...
Oh! There are so many things I could say about this live shot.
But, I'll just let you watch and come up with your own jokes:
NBC Nightly News hits the air in less than a half hour and word is that the network has dropped Brian Williams name from the show and the opening credits.
Stay tuned....
It has been come all too common for news crews working in the Bay Area.
Cops say that a KTVU news crew was attacked and robbed of camera equipment early Tuesday in Hayward, authorities said.
Reporter Tara Moriarty and camera operator Keith Crook were reporting from World’s Fare Donuts at 20800 Hesperian Boulevard west of Interstate 880. The restaurant is the home of many lottery winners, and the two had been doing live shots earlier in the morning about the Powerball jackpot, which is approaching $500 million.
About 6:45 a.m., they were confronted by two men in masks who assaulted them and robbed them of a live transmission unit — a device attached to a camera for use in live broadcasts — and a microphone, officials said. The men were last seen fleeing east on West A Street on foot, police said.
“A news crew was assaulted and their gear was taken,” officers were told on the radio. “No weapon was seen.”
Crook suffered unspecified injuries and was treated by paramedics.
“They’re fine. That’s the good news,” said KTVU news director Dana Hahn.
The stolen gear was tracked by GPS to San Francisco, but hasn’t been recovered.
The incident was the latest in which robbers have targeted the news media. The heists have prompted many stations to hire security guards to accompany news crews. Many of the guards are former police officers.
Other KTVU news crews have been accosted in Oakland and had their gear stolen.
H/T SFGate.com
Sources tell FTVLive that KABC has bumped up current News Director Cheryl Fair to the GM job.
Fair replaces Arnold Kleiner, the longtime GM of KABC, who recently retired after 46 years in the business.
Fair was Kleiner's News Director the entire time he was at the station.
Fair has been at the station for the past 20 years.
The people working a Gannett stations have been told to keep their mouth shut and watch their tweets when it comes to the Brian Williams scandal.
Patti Dennis, VP of News sent this internal memo to the staff with the subject line "Brian Williams":
From: Dennis, Patti
Date: February 11, 2015 at 6:01:34 AM PST
To: Gannett Broadcast News Directors
Subject: Brian Williams
Please be aware no one should be talking to the press about NBC’s decision. [Gannett Broadcasting president] Dave Lougee and [corporate communications veep] Jeremy Gaines are the only ones to address this outside of our organizations. Please refer all inquiries to Dave Lougee.
Please make sure your staff knows. Also, be very thoughtful with posts and tweets.
Patti Dennis
VP News
KUSA
H/T Romenesko
Sinclair pulled a "Brian Williams" when it said that it insisted that it would not share the news Anchors between WOAI and KABB the two stations they own in San Antonio.
Back in the Fall, News Director Blaise Labbe said that maintaining the different identities of the two stations continues to be a priority.
But last weekend was proof that Sinclair was not being honest. Both stations used the same Anchor and Meteorologist both the 9 p.m. news on KABB and the 10 p.m. show on WOAI.
The Saturday and Sunday newscasts looked to be virtual carbon copies of each other. They were so similar, in fact — scripts, story order, you could not tell the difference.
Now, WOAI GM John Seabers confirms the new weekend arrangement was permanent. “We will have a shared anchor team and a shared meteorologist,” he said.
By cutting back on the number of anchors, he said, more funds could be applied to reporting, and the story count on weekends eventually will be more comparable to that on weekdays.
So, really the talk about the stations maintaining the different identities was just like BriWi's account of an RPG hitting his chopper in Iraq.
It was just a lie.
Brian Williams maybe be suspended, but NBC is still looking into a number of his stories that might not be factually correct.
While the 6 months without pay sentence has been handed down, word is that Richard Esposito, the senior producer conducting the fact-checking investigation of Williams's statements, is continuing to dig through BriWi's stories.
New York Mag says the fact that NBC lawyers are said to be reviewing the list of Williams’s fictions is an ominous sign.
NYM also writes that NBC has widened their probe to include Williams’s expense accounts.
Depending on how much damning evidence they find, it is a real possibility that Brian Williams has anchored his last newscast at NBC.
You know when you you get a job at a new station and they give you the company handbook? You know the book that you never read and just toss in your desk.
Well in wake of the Brian Williams scandal, the staff at NBC O&O's are being told that they must re-read (or read for the first time) the 83-page manual on news guidelines.
The staff has until Friday to acknowledge in writing that they have read NBCUniversal News Group Policies and Guidelines.
The guide covers everything from accuracy and fairness in reporting to ownership of securities and insider trading.
“It is important that our staff and daily hires be up to date on NBC News Policies and Guidelines,” WMAQ (Chicago) News Director Debra Juarez.
It other words, Brian Williams sneezes and the NBC brass thinks everyone else has a cold.
H/T Robert Feder
As FTVLive told you yesterday, NBC has suspended lying Anchor Brian Williams for 6 months without pay.
That means, if all goes to NBC's plan, Williams will not be back on the air until late summer.
You have to wonder as he prepares to comeback, if all this will come to the forefront again. Can people ever forget that the "most trusted man in TV news" is a liar?
What happens as the election heat up and Williams sits across from a politician and calls them out for some lie they told months ago? How can he do that? And if you can't do that, how can he do his job?
Those are some of the questions that NBC will have to answer before it let's Williams return to the air.
If everyone got suspended for 6 months for telling a few lies, not many people would be working. But, this is the face of an entire news division and he is not "everyone."
Some wonder if Williams will ever return? There are some inside NBC News that don't think he should.
Will NBC drop Williams' name from the title of the show? Will they take Nightly News, Michael Douglas introduction off the air? It would seem odd if those things stay while Williams is gone for that long.
You can bet that in 6 months time, most of the viewers will have forgotten about Williams. But, as he prepares to comeback, the press will open up the wounds and NBC will start bleeding once again.
Brian Williams says that when he comes back, he will work hard to earn the trust of the viewers once again. But, can that really happen?
The truth is Williams is too wounded to comeback, but NBC brass didn't have the guts to pull the plug on him immediately.
Now, we will wait 6 months to see the next chapter in the BriLie saga.
Stay tuned.....
For the most part, the gang at MSNBC has either ignored or downplayed the Brian Williams saga.
But, after the network announced that they had benched BriWi for 6 months without pay, Rachel Maddow led with the story on her show.
Problem was, NBC refused to talk to Maddow about the suspension or the story. She was not happy about it either. “No, NBC News will not make anyone available to discuss this story with us on the air,” she said during her show. “You’d think that if they’re going to talk to anybody about this, we might reasonably get a leg up on getting interviews with any NBC News executives to explain this decision if only because we’re right down the hall.”
Pretty bad when your own network shuts you out.
H/T Mediaite
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