Car Bob Simon was Riding in was "Veering Erratically"

The sad news at CBS 60 Minutes Correspondent Bob Simon was killed in a car crash is still settling in with friends and family on the newsman.

New details have emerged about the crash.

Simon was riding on New York's West Side Highway in a for-hire Lincoln Town Car when the crash took place shortly before 7 p.m. on Wednesday.

The car lost control, hit a Mercedes-Benz stopped at a red light and then struck the median, CBS reported.

Emergency responders found Simon unconscious in the backseat with injuries to his head and stomach, CBS said. He was pronounced dead at St. Luke's Roosevelt Hospital Center.

The driver was listed in stable condition at another hospital, and no charges had been filed.

The driver of the Mercedes – identified as 23-year-old Zachery Miller – told the New York Post the black car was veering erratically before the crash.

"He swerved into me," said the 23-year-old Mercedes driver, a resident of New Rochelle. "He hit me, and he looked like he lost control of the car."

Simon had just finished a story with his daughter, Tanya Simon, a producer at 60 Minutes. 

CBS says the story will air this Sunday on 60 Minutes. 

H/T USA Today

NY Times Media Critic Collapses in the Newsroom and Dies

New York Times Media Critic David Carr collapsed in the newsroom on Thursday, he was then taken to St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The news comes one day after the death of revered 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon in a car crash in Manhattan. 

Journalism colleagues expressed surprise and sadness at the news of Carr's death, some noting that it has been a troubling week in the world of media and journalism.

David Folkenflik, National Public Radio media correspondent, tweeted, "A terrible stretch for journalists and those who care about journalism."

Mark Halperin, author and managing editor of Bloomberg Politics, tweeted, "In Latin, we'd call David Carr 'sui generis.' In English, we'd call him an American original. In my gut, I'd call him irreplaceable."

Comedian and TV host Seth Meyers tweeted, "Of all the cats, David Carr was the coolest. He will be missed."

Carr joined the Times in 2002 as a business reporter and wrote his weekly column for the business section of the news organization. His work focused on print, digital, film, radio and television issues.

H/T USA Today

Off Duty Cop Helped Save San Diego Sports Anchor

While KFMB Sports Director Kyle Kraska recovers from 10 gunshot wounds,  the station says they're learning more about what happened right after the shooting.

San Diego Police Sgt. Scott Bartolomei lives just around the corner from Kraska. He was off-duty at the time of the shooting. He says he heard the gunshots and immediately raced to the scene, where he found Kraska on the ground outside his Scripps Ranch home, in desperate need of a miracle.

"I see a male on the ground, and he looked up and said, 'Scott, help me,' and I immediately recognized it to be Kyle," Bartolomei said. "It was surreal, a surreal moment for me. I could smell gun powder in the air and I could see the wounds on Kyle."

Bartolomei says he's known Kraska for about six years, and had just talked to him earlier that day at the gym, making the situation very emotional. But his training immediately kicked in.

"It's very common for gunshot victims to go into shock. Shock will kill you just as easily as a wound will, so I was comforting Kyle, motivating Kyle," he said.

Bartolomei won't say exactly what he and Kyle talked about in those tense moments, but he made sure the tone remained upbeat.

"'You're bigger than this, you're better than this, and you're going to survive,' and just positive, positive, positive. That's the biggest thing -- don't let him look at himself, see where his injuries were --and just keep going, keep going, taking his attention off the moment," he said.

Other officers and an ambulance quickly arrived, increasing Kraska's chances for survival.

Right now he remains in critical, but stable condition and is improving to the point where doctors believe they will be able to start slowly bringing him out of his medically induced coma Thursday night.

"He's got a bit of a road ahead of him, but he's going to pull through. I guarantee we'll see him on TV again," Bartolomei said.

Nexstar Takes Over Sin City Station

Friday the 13th and Nexstar has officially taken control of KLAS in Las Vegas. Landmark Media handed over the keys at midnight to Nexstar and many inside the station are wondering about their future and the future of the station.

KLAS Main Anchor Paula Francis took to Facebook to give her thoughts on the ownership change:

Huh?!

Maybe the first class should be on how to spell class:

News Anchor: "Worst Movie I Have Ever Seen"

While many women are excited this weekend to see the movie, 'Fifty Shades of Grey," Australia News Anchor Lisa Wilkinson says it stinks. 

Wilkinson went on 'Australia Today' to give her review and let's just say, she was not impressed:  

Hardcore "Fifty Shades of Grey" fans, brace yourselves. While the highly anticipated new film is already selling out in cities nationwide and expected to bring in more than $45 million on its first weekend, Australia's "Today" anchor Lisa Wilkinson was not impressed.

Deborah Turness Sends Email to NBC Affiliates

NBC News President Deborah Turness is trying to settle down the NBC affiliates that have been tainted by the Brian Williams saga.

Today Turness sent out an email to the affiliates, thanking them for their support.

Here is the email obtained by FTVLive:

From: <Turness>, Deborah Turness 
Date: Thursday, February 12, 2015 at 2:27 PM
Subject: NOTE TO NBC STATIONS

 Dear NBC Affiliate Corporate Group Executives, General Managers, and News Directors:

 I am deeply grateful for your support and patience in these past difficult days. We know how uniquely our brand and yours are connected, and that you are impacted as members of the wider NBC News family.  There is nothing more important to us than to keep the integrity and credibility of the NBC News brand strong. Be assured we will get through this together with your support.

 Thank you for being such wonderful partners,
Deborah

Seattle Station Names new "In-Depth News Correspondent"

Not exactly sure what an "In-Depth News Correspondent" is or dose, but KCPQ in Seattle just hired one.

The station announced that Brandi Kruse will join the Q13 FOX news team providing groundbreaking, long-form journalism and innovative reports.

“Adding Brandi Kruse to our team of incredible journalists furthers Q13 FOX’s commitment to local news and digging deeper on the stories that impact our communities. Brandi is a true journalist who works tirelessly to see what matters: the truth,” said Erica Hill, Q13 FOX News Director.

Kruse most recently served as reporter for KIRO Radio. 

“What I see at Q13 FOX is a commitment to innovation and a team that is already breaking the mold of what local TV news has been. I am beyond thrilled to be a part of that. I look forward to this new adventure and to joining a team of outstanding journalists that I already have a great deal of respect for,” said Kruse.

If a regular Reporter gets 1:40 for a package, I'm guessing that the In-Depth News Correspondent gets at least two minutes.

Just saying.... 

Jeff Zucker Talks about Brian Williams....But

Supposedly, everyone inside NBC seemed to know that Brian Williams like to exaggerate the truth and lie.

For much of Brian Williams tenure at NBC, his boss was Jeff Zucker.

So, if Williams had trouble telling the truth, why didn't Jeff Zucker do something?

This morning, Zucker, now CNN President, spoke about Williams publicly for the first time since the scandal broke. He spoke at a breakfast for journalists this morning:

“I haven’t said anything about what’s happening to Brian, but I will say that it’s obviously incredibly sad at this point to see what’s happened to Brian. It’s incredibly disappointing to see what’s happening. He was a colleague of mine, a friend for many years. And so I feel really badly for him on a very human level. Unfortunately it has obscured a lot of fantastic work that Brian did.”

He added, “But what’s clear is he made incredibly serious mistakes.”

Zucker added: “I feel really badly that this obscured what was otherwise a really fine career. As far as punishment, I really can’t speak to that. I don’t have all the facts.”

It is strange that Zucker said anything at all, since he is really part of this story.  Reports say that Williams had a history of lying and that NBC Executives knew about it. So wouldn't Jeff Zucker been one of the executives that knew?

Maybe CNN Media Critic....errrrrrrr....Correspondent Brian Stelter could ask Zucker exactly what he knew and what he did or did not do about it.

Just saying..... 

Come On!

We keep hearing how hard it is to find the ISIS terrorists, but I'm not sure why that is?

According to WDSUs morning newscast, ISIS will be marching in a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans on Saturday.

I'm thinking someone should alert the military, so we can take these idiots out. 

Here's the screen grab from WDSU this morning:

Ummmmm....I Don't Think So

WIVB in Buffalo continues to erode their news product with letting veterans go and hiring very green Reporters and Producers.

So just how bad is it?

On Tuesday night the station anchor Nalina Shapiro read the following script: “In other space news, years after the first moon landing, the wife of Louis Armstrong has found secret items from Apollo 11. She says she found this white bag hidden away in her home. Armstrong turned the items over to the Smithsonian and they recognized some of the items as things Louis Armstrong took with him on the flight recording the camera used to record Armstrong setting foot on the moon for the first time.”

Shapiro did correct herself and blamed the mistake on the script. corrected herself pretty quickly and blamed the mistake on a script.

Ummmmm....did you go over your scripts? And how is the person that wrote that not serving a Brian Williams type suspension right now? 

By the way, NEIL Armstrong just flipped over, we're guessing Jazz great Louis Armstrong did as well. 

Brian Williams Claims He Has A Piece Of Top Secret Equipment

NBC may soon have more than an internal investigation going on, thanks to Brian Williams' 'stories'. In a piece on Huff Post Media, BriLie claims he was given part of the highly classified, Top Secret, Black Hawk helicopter used by Seal Team 6 to grab Osama Bin Laden.

While appearing on Letterman in January 2013, Williams said after the Bin Laden raid, a white envelope showed up on his desk at 30 Rock. He said inside was a piece of the fuselage of the blown-up chopper sent by one of his 'friends'.

Now, it doesn't take a genius to raise some eyebrows over this one.  A) It's doubtful a Seal Team 6 member took a piece of classified equipment, B) If they DID take a piece of the chopper, why would they risk their career giving it to BriLie, C) That chopper is still classified, so BriLie has endangered national security.

If this is true, the folks at 30 Rock can probably expect to see a bunch of black SUVs pulling up with some serious looking G-men coming in to investigate.

Hey wait, didn't Aaron Sorkin do something like this on HBO's The Newsroom?  We know, Brian, HBO followed you around for 'realism' ideas, right?

60 Minutes Correspondent Bob Simon Killed in Crash (Updated)

60 Minutes Correspondent Bob Simon was killed in a car crash on the West Side Highway in Manhattan last night.

The 73-year-old Simon was a passenger in a cab, when it rear-ended a Mercedes-Benz driven by a 23-year-old man.

Both the driver and Simon had to be cut out of the car, police said.

The veteran CBS reporter was taken to St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital, where he died. 

The drivers of the cab and the Mercedes were not seriously injured.

Simon joined CBS News as a reporter and assignment editor in 1967 based in New York.

He has been a regular face on “60 Minutes” since 1996.

He is survived by his wife, Françoise, and daughter, Tanya, who is a producer for "60 Minutes" in New York.

CBS News President David Rhodes released a statement mourning the loss of his friend.

“Bob Simon was a giant of broadcast journalism, and a dear friend to everyone in the CBS News family,” Rhodes said. “We are all shocked by this tragic, sudden loss.

“Our thoughts and prayers are with Bob’s extended family, and especially with our colleague Tanya Simon.”

H/T NY Daily News

Note: FTVLive unwillingly and with absolutely no ill intent used a picture of the Simon crash scene. We have since learned that the photo was the property of Photographer Chris Sadowski. The minute we learned that information FTVLive has pulled the photo of the crash scene from our site. We never had prior information that the photo was Mr. Sadowski and never would have used it knowing that he owned the copyright on the photo. FTVLive regrets the mistake and never posted the picture with any knowledge that it was the property of Mr. Sadowski.

Colleagues React to Bob Simon's Death

Colleagues and friends of Bob Simon took to social media to react and pay their respect to 60 Minutes Correspondent Bob Simon, who was killed in a car crash last night:

Tom Brokaw Played a Role in Williams' Suspension

FTVLive reported that NBC and Comcast Executives would seek the counsel of Tom Brokaw when it came to dealing with the Brian Williams scandal.

And, according to The New Yorker that is exactly what they did. 

The magazine writes that Tom Brokaw played a key role in NBC’s decision last night to suspend the news anchor Brian Williams, according to two people involved.

Williams, they said, offered to make a full apology. NBC had begun a probe, led by the network’s investigations editor, Richard Esposito, which, though not complete, had already uncovered “more than one issue of Brian exaggerating,” according to one of the sources. Williams said that he realized the lameness of his apology, made last week, for “exaggerating” the dangers that he encountered in Iraq, in 2003. He assured NBC’s chief executive, Steve Burke, he would look into the camera and offer a compelling explanation of his lapse.

The second conferee said that Williams and his attorney were willing to accept a suspension, but that Williams wanted a declaration by NBC that he would return as an evening-news anchor. Burke, the conferee says, was torn between wanting to take a hard line and feeling compassion for Williams. Brokaw, who turned seventy-five last week, cancelled a Caribbean vacation to heed Burke’s request for advice. Brokaw was concerned about the effects of Williams’s actions on the reputation of the rank and file in the news division.

On Tuesday, Burke summoned Williams and told him that the suspension was non-negotiable.

Brokaw may have stepped down as the Anchor on Nightly News, but the guy still has some big juice at 30 Rock. 

Is Matt Lauer Really Sad about BriWi Suspension?

For the first time, NBC's Today Show finally got around to covering the Brian Williams scandal on Wednesday morning. 

Today had all but ignored the story, until NBC Suspended Williams for 6 months without pay.

Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie looked like they are reporting on a funeral while covering the BriWi story.

"Brian is not only a colleague of ours here, but he's a really good friend," Matt Lauer said. 

"We all care a lot about Brian," Savannah Guthrie added. "That's what makes this so hard."

But, id Lauer telling the truth about his friendship with Williams?

Back in May, the New York Post reported that Williams and  Lauer — rivals for big exclusive interviews, and for the attention of their bosses — are said to be feuding.

When the “Today” show aired excerpts of Williams’ interview with NSA leaker Edward Snowden, Williams refused to introduce the segments, sources said, leaving the task to Andrea Mitchell.

“It was a great promotional opportunity, but Williams wouldn’t go on ‘Today’ even for his own interview,” said one insider. “He wants nothing to do with ‘Today.’”

The Post said that BriWi had been hurt because NBC News boss Deborah Turness, who took the reins last August, is giving all of her attention to helping Lauer and the “Today” show regain supremacy in the ratings. “Brian feels like an orphan,” the insider said.

So, is Matt Lauer really sad about Williams downfall, or is he quietly gloating?

Maybe we should ask Ann Curry.