Management Shake Ups in Sin City

It seems that just about every Las Vegas station is losing a top manager at the same time.

The Las Vegas Review Journal writes that Lisa Howfield is out as vice president and general manager at NBC-affiliate KSNV, Channel 3, the dominant station for many years before slipping. Replacing Howfield is Audra Swain, a longtime executive with the new owners, Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Also gone: Emily Neilson, president and general manager at CBS-affiliate KLAS, Channel 8, and Karin Movesian, news director at KTNV, Channel 13, the ABC affiliate. She has returned to St. Louis as news director at KSDK.

New Weather Anchor Hired in San Diego

SoCal's XETV has a new Weather Anchor.

Former KRON Chief Meteorologist Jacqueline Bennett is joining the San Diego station. Bennett left the San Francisco station back in January to be with her husband who is a Navy pilot of F-18 fighters, and stationed at the China Lake Naval Air Station.

Now she is getting back in the TV game at XETV.

Here is the internal memo, obtained by FTVLive from News Director Don Shafer: 

From: Don Shafer 
Sent: Friday, May 08, 2015 3:13 PM
To: News Department
Cc: Department Heads; 
Subject: New Team Member

Hi folks,

I am very happy today to announce we have hired a new Meteorologist for our morning newscasts.

Jacqueline Bennett has been the Chief Meteorologist at KRON in San Francisco since November of 2008.

She left in January after seven years to be with her husband who is a Navy pilot of F-18 fighters, and stationed at the China Lake Naval Air Station.

I understand her husband Matt has deployed to Afghanistan more than once and is also skilled in carrier landings.

Jacqueline has quite an education.

She has two B.A. Degrees, one in Journalism and one in Spanish Language and Culture, both  from California State University Northridge and a B.S. in Atmospheric Science with a concentration in Meteorology from San Francisco State University.

She also studied abroad in Madrid, Spain, along the way.

She has her new CBN Seal from the American Meteorological Society .

As I understand it, this Certified Broadcast Meteorologist seal replaces or updates the older AMS or NWS seal and is a great achievement to have either of these seals of recognition.

Both Sabrina and Renee have their AMS seals.

Prior to joining KRON, Jacqueline was a weather and news anchor, a reporter and weekend news/weather anchor at KIVI-TV in Boise, Idaho.

She also taught Spanish for two years at Chaminade College Prep (High School) in West Hills, California.

Jacqueline is also very involved with animals and animal groups outside her work life.

For several years she has published the “Yellow Dog Blog” (one of her 3 dogs is named Yellow Dog) and she does a lot working with dog adoption groups, animal health and safety and works with several pet food manufacturers, some of which are based here in San Diego.

Jacqueline is a veteran meteorologist and weather anchor and will fit in very well with Marc and Heather and the rest of our morning team.

She will start training with Renee on Monday.

Speaking of Renee, our deepest thanks to Renee for filling in these past couple of weeks and doing an excellent job as she always does anywhere we are fortunate to put her to help out.

Jacqueline is well-trained on the Weather Central weather system so we’ll have to see how long it will take her to be up to speed on our WSI system. 

And she will need to be trained on the Metro Traffic reporting system, a key part of our morning weather and traffic reports.

So Jacqueline will work with Renee and Sabrina to get trained on our systems and we’ll have her trained ready to go on-air when she feels she’s ready.

So please help me welcome Jacqueline to our team.

And thanks again to Renee for helping out and helping to train Jacqueline.

Don 

Quad Cities Anchor Fooled by Fake Story

KWQC Anchor David Nelson tweeted out a story yesterday about how Presidential hopeful Ted Cruz wants Veterans to to raise funds by selling cookies like the girl scouts.

It was an interesting story to say the least, it was also not true. The fake story, made to look like it came from USA Today, it did not.

It didn't take long for Cruz’s communications director Amanda Carpenter to call Nelson out:

Nelson pulled the original tweet and they offered up this:

This seems to be happening more and more with TV news people. Check the link and the story before rushing off to tweet it. It will save yourself some embarrassment and most of all, help you keep your credibility.

Just saying....

Puppy Pees on San Antonio Anchor

A young puppy named Thistle made quite a splash in his first TV appearance on KENS (San Antonio) newscast on  Friday.

Morning anchor Mat Garcia was holding Thistle (who they might want to rename Pissle) when the poor puppy just had to go.

And when you got to go, you go to go.

So, Thistle did all over Garcia. 

"He's a Rottweiler and Shepherd mix, he is so cute... and he's peeing all over me! Oh no!" Mat said, handing the pup back to a producer.

"You know, it makes for good live television," co-anchor Sarah Forgany added.

"I love the dogs, and it happens, but I'm going to let you finish" the segment, Mat said as he headed away to clean up.

Afterward, Mat said the chance of this happening on air was always a consideration.

"We hold them ourselves because we think it's more personable," said Mat, who's presented "dozens and dozens" of pets while on camera. "We always thought in the back of our minds that this could happen, and now it did!"

Of course, FTVLive's Rory the VP of Cuteness would have never done such a thing. 

Let's go to the video of Pissle.....errrrrr.....Thistle peeing on air.

Sports Anchor Headed to High School Prom

WHAG (Hagerstown) Sports Director Dorian Craft is headed to a local high school prom with one of the school's football players.

Student/Athlete Cole Stotler got craft to agree to go to the prom with him, IF his "Dorian goes to prom" got 5,000 retweets on Twitter.

“I've actually never seen anyone that has had such a viral social media post spread to that number,” Craft said. “So, I really didn't think that Cole could reach 5,000 retweets - Hagerstown is a pretty small city.”

Never underestimate a high school senior with raging hormones.

The station wrote on their website, "Of course the question everyone is wondering, what will Dorian wear?"

Actually, FTVLive is thinking of a different question than that. If it's like anything like our senior prom was, well......

You know what?

Never mind. 
 

Looks like Hansen vs. Predator is a Go

Former NBC Dateline Correspondent and skirt chaser Chris Hansen launched a Kickstarter campaign to try and raise enough cash to bring back his popular "To Catch a Predator."

The new project called Hansen vs. Predator will be done online with the hopes of finding a TV home. 

With a few days left in the Kickstarter campaign, it has its initial funding goal.

Nearly 1,000 backers have pledged over $77,000 in show of support for the new investigation to bring sexual predators to justice.  

Clearing this goal means that a new investigation and digital series will be shot and distributed in the coming year.  

In addition to scores of support from individuals, yesterday morning, Ross Mallor from PM Investigations eached out to the campaign team and closed the gap to bring the project over its initial funding goal.  Additionally, advocacy group Savvy Cyber Kids issued a matching grant to make sure the new investigation begins.  

Hansen stated "I cannot express enough gratitude to everyone who has committed to make Hansen vs. Predator a reality, and I welcome others who want to be a part of this critical venture.  It's all about creating awareness and a dialogue through enterprise investigations." 

With the remaining days on the Kickstarter calendar, Hansen and team plan to continue outreach and meet stretch goals that include new rewards for backers and would ultimately lead to a second investigation.  

 

WTF?! NASCAR on Fox News

Not sure if this is a first or not, but we never remember it happening....

At the top of the 7 PM hour on Saturday, Fox News was airing a NASCAR pre-race show show on the network.

Yes, Fox NEWS was airing sports.

The NASCAR show aired on FNC until a baseball game on Fox Sports 1 was finished.

Is this the first time Fox News Channel aired sports programming?

If you jumped on the Fox News' Twitter feed at the time, the network said nary a word about program preemptions.

Is Fox News becoming the backup channel for Fox Sports now?

Hmmmmm?

Watch Your Love Ones Burn to Death Up Close

A small plane crashed on an Atlanta area roadway and WSB figured it would be a good time to use the still burning plane as a chance to promote their news chopper's camera.

Really!

It appears that someone at the station had enough sense to see how insensitive the tweet was and pulled it down.

You still have to wonder how the hell it was tweeted out in the first place. 

Breaking News and Cutting Your Grass

OK, this one is a bit of a head scratcher.

If you log onto WKEF (Dayton) Reporter Nicole Grigg's Twitter account, just like most reporters, you get some news coverage and what stories she is currently working.

You know, typical stuff you expect from a TV Reporter's Twitter.

 But then, just tweeted this out:

What the.....

So now you get breaking news and a plug for some lawn care.

Welcome to local TV news.

KTLA News Van Hit By Drunk Driver

A scary moment for a KTLA news crew.

Sources tell FTVLive that a drunk driver ran into a KTLA news vehicle on the freeway late last night it 

California Highway Patrol says a woman calling from the news vehicle had reported multiple injuries soon after the collision.

The caller said the pickup truck had spun out and collided with the news van, according to the CHP.

Sources tell FTVLive that Reporter Kimberly Cheng (pictured) and Photographer Chris Pace were the crew in the van.

Cheng was taken to the hospital.

Sources tell FTVLive the news car was totaled. 

Station Passed on Airing Beating Video

A sources says they handed WPBF in West Palm Beach a video that showed Palm Beach Sheriffs Deputies beating a one legged man.

The source claims that WPBF chose to ignore the video, and decided to pass on airing it, in hope of staying in good graces with the Sheriff's office.

“They told me they want to stay in the good graces of the sheriff,” the source told Gossip Extra. 

Although it seemed like the perfect sweeps story, WPBF passed on the story. The source also gave the video to WPTV after WPBF refused to air it.

WPTV did show the video. 

WPBF News Director Paige Harrison did not respond as to why her station decided to bury the story. 

It should be pointed out that WPTV is the number 1 station in the market and WPBF is dragging up the rear.

Gee...I wonder why?

Here's the video:

Palm Beach County Sheriff's deputies beat, tase a one-legged man and tackle his wife during a DUI arrest Feb. 4, 2015

Motown Anchor Pisses Off Muslim Community with Comments

Oh...I really don't think you should have said that.

WDIV (Detroit) Anchor Carmen Harlan upset many Michigan Muslims after making a comment on the state’s alleged ties to ISIS during a newscast on Wednesday. 

When asked about a possible “ISIS threat in Michigan”, Harlan said “given the fact that we have the largest Arab population outside of the Middle East, I guess this should not come as a real surprise.”

Many Arab organizations have voiced concern over Harlan’s comments, urging the TV station to apologize.

“This shocking lapse of professional conduct was directed against law-abiding citizens who strive to create vibrant, diverse communities wherever they live,” said Fatina Abdrabboh, director of the Michigan American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee.

“Naturally, this type of analysis is very problematic for our community as we watch the impact of blanket indictments on the Arab-American and Muslim community that have nothing to do with the ISIS phenomenon at all.”

“Carmen Harlan’s comment about the Arab American community is appalling, offensive and dangerous,” said Nadia Tonova, director of NNAAC. “As a reporter, she has a responsibility to remain objective in her reporting and not draw conclusions for her audience. We request that WDIV immediately address this racially charged comment.”

Apology coming in 3....2.....

H/T Lebanese Examiner 

Oh Rats!

When it's sweeps you never know what TV Anchors are going to do.

WNEP Anchor Mindi Ramsey was doing the show with rats climbing on her. These weren't just rats that were found walking around the studio, they were her pets. 

Not sure why the rats named Pudge and L.O. were on the show? Oh wait....It's ratings. Never mind. 

But, it would not be the first time we heard we heard a Anchor call her co-Anchor a rat.

Let's go to the video:

Al Jazeera America Staffers want Network President Fired

Kate_OBrien_Al_Jazeera_America_1.jpg

FTVLive has been telling you about the ongoing problems at Al Jazeera America.

The little watched network is trying to recover from internal strife that many could be the final nail in the coffin, before the network shuts down.

We told you a couple of days ago that AJA CEO Ehab Al-Shihabi had been replaced. But, staffers say the network still needs to rid itself of AJA President Kate O'Brian (pictured).

Insiders tell FTVLive that she is widely blamed for "enabling" the alleged discriminatory conduct by Shihabi and his Qatari cronies: 

 

  * O'Brian went along with decision to pull correspondent Nick Schifrin out of Middle East months ago (He hasn't been on-air since) because management thought his coverage of Israel/Gaza over past year was too soft on Israel.  

  * And it was because of O'Brian that AJAM PR didn't issue an internal email to staff or external press release noting Schiffrin was awarded the Overseas Press Coverage "spot news" award last week for that very same coverage of Gaza/Israel.

  * O'Brien also agreed with decision to demote Marcy McGinnis (who recently quit AJA) who tried to stand up for Schifrin. 

O'Brien also lost newsroom support in December when she bragged to staffers, soon after layoffs, that she had purchased a new sports car for her husband for Christmas.  

Sources tell FTVLive that staffers are giving new executive Amjad Attalah and new CEO Al Anstey an earful, asking them to fire O'Brian her if she won't resign.

Also, we hear that there are deep discussions among multiple staffers in AJAM newsroom yesterday about how best (petition?) to urge new CEO to bring back Marcy McGinnis and have her replace O'Brian.  

The staff says that McGinnis showed true integrity and leadership.  They say it's only thanks to McGinnis and former staffer Mayt Luke (who is suing AJA) that AJAM problems may now get addressed and fixed. 

Stay tuned....