Bob Schieffer to Step Down at CBS News

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CBS News stalwart Bob Schieffer says it is time to retire. 

After a half-century in Journalism, the Face the Nation host announced Wednesday that he plans to retire this summer.

He broke the news at the annual Schieffer Symposium at Texas Christian University, his alma mater.

“Because this is where my professional career began, this is where I wanted all of you to be the first to know, this summer I’m going to retire,” Schieffer told the crowd.

Schieffer started his career as a reporter for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and covered the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. He scored the first interview with killer Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother.

He joined CBS News in 1969, and covered the Pentagon, the White House, Congress and the State Department. He was promoted to chief Washington correspondent in 1982, the same year he became anchor of “Face the Nation.”

“He’s been an inspiration and a mentor to so many colleagues — and frankly, to me,” said CBS News President David Rhodes.

He also anchored the Saturday edition of the “CBS Evening News” for 23 years, and served as the interim anchor for the weekday broadcast for 17 months following Dan Rather’s departure in March 2005.

Unlike Barbara Walters we're fairly certain that Schieffer is going to really retire and not just say he's retiring. 

H/T NY Daily News

Babs Talks to Mary Kay Letourneau

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Speaking of the "retired" Barbara Walters, she is back (did she ever leave) with another interview.

Walters sits down with Mary Kay Letourneau, the teacher was having an affair and with a 6th grader. 

A recap: Letourneau was a sixth-grade teacher -- and 34 years old -- when she had an affair with a 13-year-old student, Vili Fualaau.

She served seven and a half years for the relationship. In 2004, after being released from prison, she talked to Walters.

And now, Walters is talking with Fualaau and Letourneau as they approach their 10th anniversary.

This sentence from the ABC release stood out: "In the candid interview, Mary Kay tells Walters what makes their marriage work in spite of their huge difference in their age."

ABC promised "intimate details about their headline-making marriage." They include Vili Fualaau's bouts with alcoholism and depression, ABC said.

Viewers also will meet the couple's two teen daughters, Audrey and Georgia. They "are now older than Vili was when he conceived them," ABC News noted.

Letourneau tells Babs she plans to teach again and hopes to have her status as a registered sex offender lifted.

Good luck with that.

H/T Orlando Sentinel 

Holt Heads into the Field

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NBC Anchor Lester Holt did something that he hasn't done since taking over for suspended lying Anchor Brian Williams.

He anchored the broadcast from the field.

Last night, Holt anchored “NBC Nightly News” from North Charleston, S.C., following the shooting death of unarmed black man Walter Scott by a white police officer, who was charged with murder after video showed him shooting Scott in the back.

Holt also interviewed bystander Feidin Santana, who recorded the shooting.

It was a good get by Holt and another step towards him getting BriWi's gig full time.

Roger Ailes Swipes at MSNBC and CNN

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Yesterday, FTVLive told you that the Hollywood Reporter was out with their list of the 35 most powerful people in New York.

The list included more than 35 people, so not sure where they came up with that number.

Fox News head Roger Ailes topped the list (because his last name starts with "a") and he gave a couple of classic Ailes sound bites.

Not surprisingly they were shots at CNN and MSNBC.

Talking about watching the competition, Ailes said, "I flip to MSNBC occasionally to make sure their blind pig didn’t find an acorn. But they never have once. I tell you who I do like at MSNBC — I like Joe and Mika. I don’t watch much CNN, they got out of the news business in primetime. But I look to see if they have a good documentary or movie. If they do, I’ll watch that.”

Ouch!

Louisville Reporter is Cyber Bullied

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WDRB Reporter Courtney Godfrey was covering a story on a threat of high school shooting, it ended with threats against her.

Godfrey came under attacks from hackers that sent hundreds of messages to her phone and posted personal information about her on Facebook.

She went from reporting the story to being the story and now she's dealing with cyber bullying first hand.

Here's her report: 

Former Arizona, Florida News Director in Cancer Fight

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We got some not so good news yesterday that our old pal Forrest Carr is not doing well health wise. 

Carr, a former longtime News Director spent years running the newsroom at KGUN and other shops around the county has been told he might not have long to live.

Shortly after he retired from TV news, Carr  was diagnosed with kidney cancer. He had surgery, had the kidney removed and thought he was doing well. Until a Doctor's visit last week. 

He went in for a CT scan, and the news is not good.  "

The cancer is back and it has metastasized.  I will meet with an oncologist next week to review options, but obviously they’ll range from not-so-good to really bad.  The five-year survival rate for this category of cancer is rather bleak," he writes on his blog. 

Carr, who never met a keyboard he didn't like,  says he goal now is to finish some books he is working on and see what his options are in his cancer fight.

We wish him the best. 

 

Anchors Knock Heads in Palm Beach

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It appears that two West Palm Beach Anchors are not playing nice with each other.

 Gossip Extra writes that WFLX 10 p.m. anchors Jay Cashmere and Ashley Hinson are not on speaking terms these days.

Sources in the newsroom, which WFLX shares with WPTV say that the tension is palpable every night.

Apparently, Cashmere let his legendary temper do the talking after a recent broadcast, and the diminutive Hinson caught the brunt of it.

“Jay made Ashley cry on the set,” one source tells us, “and she just ran off.

“WFLX wanted young anchors, but now it looks like they got babies with inflated egos.”

Managers had to get involved to get everybody back on the same page, but Cashmere and Hinson ignore one another.

Neither Cashmere nor Hinson have commented.

Of course if a gossip item was written every time a couple of news Anchors didn't get along, the Internet would be filled up.

Just saying.... 

Off the 5 in Houston

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KPRC Anchor Dominique Sachse has gone missing from the station's 5PM newscast, but is still there at 6 and 10PM.

Sachse says she has come off the 5:00 newscast and it's a good thing.

"From my perspective, I feel very fortunate to work for a company that understands and respects my desire to always find a balance between work, family and community," Sachse told mikemcguff.com. "Freeing up the 5pm newscast allows me more family and after-school time."

Sachse says she's going to be on the NBC affiliate's 6 and 10pm news for a long time to come.

4pm anchor Lauren Freeman gets bumped up the food chain and has taken over for Sachse at %PM, while still doing the 4:00.
 

Rand Paul Pounces on the Media

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24 hours after Rand Paul announced his bid for the White House, the politician hit the campaign trail, which included a number of media speed bumps.

If Paul is hoping to win over the media, he's not off to a very good start. 

The Washington Post writes that in a series of interviews after the freshman senator from Kentucky declared his candidacy on Tuesday, Paul turned prickly — briskly sidestepping tough foreign policy questions from one journalist, lecturing another on how to conduct an interview, and testily declining to clarify his position on abortion. 

On Tuesday, Paul bristled at a question from Fox News host Sean Hannity about a 2007 comment in which he’d dubbed the idea that Iran posed a threat to U.S. security a “ridiculous” one. Paul was one of 47 Republican senators who recently signed a letter aimed at derailing a deal to contain Iran’s nuclear program, drawing scrutiny over his hawkish turn.

“You know, things do change over time,” Paul said. “I also wasn’t campaigning for myself [in 2007], I was campaigning to help my father at the time.”

Hours later, he pushed back even harder amid similar foreign policy questions from “Today” host Savannah Guthrie. 

“Before we go through a litany of things you say I’ve changed on, why don’t you ask me a question: ‘Have I changed my opinion?’ That would sort of be a better way to approach an interview,” Paul told the NBC journalist. 

The exchange drew immediate comparisons to a similar conversation in February with CNBC anchor Kelly Evans, when, during a back-and-forth about the effectiveness of a tax program, Paul at one point shushed the reporter, telling her to “calm down a bit.”

Paul might want to figure out that he will end up needing the media a hell of a lot more than they will need him.

Just saying.... 

Tulsa Anchor Headed to Dallas

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Sources tell FTVLive that KJRH (Tulsa) Anchor Russ McCaskey is leaving T-Town for the Big D.

McCaskey has been at the Scripps station since 200 is headed to KTVT in Dallas to Anchor the station's morning newscast. 

He replaces Brendan Higgins, who as FTVLive told you left the station after his arrest over the Summer. 

McCaskey will team with longtime Anchor Karen Borta who was demoted....errrrr....moved to mornings earlier this year. 

No official announcement from either KTVT or KJRH just yet, but when it happens, the other TV websites are sure to have the story. 

We just figured we'd give it to you first, like always. 

BriWi Thrown Off Most Powerful List

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The Hollywood Reporter is out with their list of the 35 most powerful people in New York media.

The list is a lame alphabetical order of the same names you get each and every year. Fox News boss Roger Ailes tops the list, but that's because his last name starts with "A". CNN's Jeff Zucker is last, we think because his last name starts with "z".

The only news of note is that CBS's Scott Pelley and ABC's David Muir make the list and so does NBC's evening news Anchor, but it's not Brian Williams. Lester Holt makes the power list in place of BriLie.

And in case you thought this list was nothing more than a fluff piece to suck up to the NY media elite, we'll have you know that The Hollywood Reporter breaks some news about Holt.

THR writes about Holt, "Where my phone is at night - “I’m one of those throwbacks who still has a house phone, so if anyone needs to call me in the middle of the night, they shouldn’t bother with my cell. It’s firmly in the off position.”

Hard hitting stuff, don't you agree?

Mayoral Candidate Keels Over During TV Debate

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Philly Mayoral candidate Lynne Abraham found out a way to get out of those boring TV debates.

She fainted while taking part in the debate. She blamed it on a sudden drop in blood pressure.

While it got her out of the rest of the debate, her opponents jumped on the old, "she isn't healthy enough to be Mayor bandwagon. 

Maybe she isn't healthy enough, or maybe she just figured out a way to get out of these dog and pony shows.

Let's go to the video: 

Wrongful Death Lawsuit Filed Against Louisville Sports Anchor

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A Louisville Sports Anchor involved in a fatal crash with the station's news car is now facing a wrongful death lawsuit.

WHAS's Jeff Woods was in a news car when police say he hit woman that had already been struck by another vehicle. The woman died.

The lawsuit, filed in Jefferson Circuit Court by the family of Fontaine Jeffrey, claims tow truck driver Matthew Good was out of control when he struck Jeffrey at the intersection of Second and Jefferson Streets on Jan. 23.

After that, Woods hit Jeffrey, “dragging her several feet down Jefferson Street,” according to the lawsuit. Woods stopped his vehicle, got out and “without rendering aid,” got back in his news vehicle and “fled the scene of the accident,” the suit claims.

Woods actions were “unconscionable, outrageous, repugnant, and violated human decency,” according to the lawsuit, filed by attorney Aubrey Williams.

"What offends the family so greatly is that the driver left the scene," Williams said in an interview. "It's a tragedy and the family is hoping that WHAS and the towing company do the decent thing in regards to their mother."

WHAS President and General Manager Linda Danna asked a reporter to e-mail questions to her. She has not yet responded.

FTVLive reported back in March that Woods had been indicted in the accident. Woods works at WHAS as the station's weekend sports anchor, but has not been on the air since the night of the incident.

H/T WDRB

LA Entertainment Reporter Tees Off on CNN Media Critic

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Yesterday, FTVLive wrote about ABC about to waste two hours of many of their viewer's lives by airing an interview with train wreck reality star Bruce Jenner by Diane Sawyer.

We also pointed out that CNN Media Critic....errrrrrr.....Correspondent Brian Stelter called Sawyer's interview one of her "biggest scoops." Seriously! He said that.

KTLA's Entertainment Reporter Sam Rubin also thought that Stelter "scoop" claim was way off base. Rubin went off on Stelter calling him an "idiot" and saying he was hired only because he looks like Jeff Zucker. 

Ouch!

Let's go to the video:

Uploaded by ktlagrace on 2015-04-07.