Morale Sinks at Milwaukee Station

Sources inside WTMJ in Milwaukee say the station is headed the wrong direction.

It seems that since the Scripps/Journal merger many of the Journal stations have lost their way and WTMJ seems to be one of them.

Ratings for their late newscast are down about 10%. In the morning it's much worse with the morning news down about 30%. 

A number of staffers after either been booted or left on their own. Insiders point to a dysfunctional management team that is doing nothing to attack the sinking morale. 

Longtime main Anchor Mike Jacobs retired and no successor was planed for or has yet to be named.

WTMJ was once the proud station that many wanted to work for. Right now, that is not the case. 

Long Run for the Video Bomb

Most people that video bomb a Reporter's live shot are in the area while the crew is setting up and stick around so they can wave to the camera or yell "FHRITP."

Then there is the guy that sees the live shot on his TV in his house and decides to make a run for it.

But, can he get to the Reporter before he throws it back to the studio? Will he make it? Or fall just short?

Let's go to the video:

Guy attempts to run from his house to reporter's live news broadcast before it ends in the best videobomb news blooper you will ever see.

Right Bird, Wrong Sport and State

The St. Louis Cardinals baseball team is being investigated for hacking into the Houston Astros database.

WMAQ in Chicago (the 3rd market mind you) did a story about it and included a picture of the team logo.

Problem is that the logo was for the Arizona Cardinals which is in another state and is another sport. The Arizona Cardinals play in the NFL not MLB.

But, at least they got the right bird. 

What the.....?

Just when you think CNN can't do anything to make you roll your eyes and shake your head anymore, they dig just a little deeper:

Wait a Minute Roger

When the news came down that Rupert Murdoch was stepping away as CEO on 21st Century Fox and handing off to his son James, Fox News boss Roger Ailes did not seem too happy about it. 

In what is being described as a rogue statement to his own Fox Business Network, Ailes said that he will continue to run the news network and will still report "directly to Rupert Murdoch."

James Murdoch had not even taken over yet and Roger Ailes was trying to cut out his feet from under him. 

NY Mag says that according to a well-placed source, Ailes directed Fox Business executive Bill Shine to tell anchor Stuart Varney to read the statement on air. "Ailes told Shine to write the announcement of the move for Varney to say," the source said. "In it, Ailes inserted language that he would report to Rupert."

That was obviously news to Rupert and now he and his sons are correcting the record. 

"Roger will report to Lachlan and James," a 21st Century Fox spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter.

It looks like an ego infested power struggle is taking shape and Roger Ailes just lost the first round.

Stay tuned..... 

Jeb Bush Replaces BriWi

You want another sign that Brian Williams is not coming back to NBC News?

Jeb Bush has replaced Brian Williams as Anchor. Not of NBC Nightly News mind you, but The Tonight Shows' "Slow Jam the News."

Jimmy Fallon brought back the popular segment made famous by him and BriWi, but the lying Anchorman was replaced by Jeb Bush.

Let's go to the video:

After announcing his 2016 campaign, Jeb Bush joins Jimmy and The Roots to slow jam the news.

Watching Scotty Grow

While much of the focus is on the ratings battle between ABC's World News Tonight and NBC Nightly News, CBS is slowly inching their way closer to the top. 

The CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley was up +6% year-to-year in viewers (6.47m from 6.11m) for the week ending June 12, according to Nielsen live plus same day ratings.

Pelley added +360,000 viewers and closed the viewership gap with NBC by nearly 1 million viewers (970,000) compared to the same week last year.

Americans Don't Trust the Media

You can pretty much blame the cable news networks and Brian Williams for this, but once again a new poll shows that Americans do not trust the media.

But the media isn't the only institutions that the people don't trust.

Americans' confidence in most major U.S. institutions remains below the historical average for each one. Only the military (72%) and small business (67%) -- the highest-rated institutions in this year's poll -- are currently rated higher than their historical norms, based on the percentage expressing "a great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in the institution.

Just 21 percent of Americans have confidence in TV news. 21 percent!

Newspapers stand at a whopping 24%. 

H/T Politico

No Data

Morning Weather Anchors had a rough start to the morning today. It seems that the National Weather Service was having some issues and the TV weather folk could not get any temperature data from the service.

The NWS says the reporting sites are down because of "FAA testing."

So Weather Anchors across the country did the next best thing, they went to Twitter. They asked viewers to tweet the temperature at their house?

For those Weather Anchors here in Florida, I stepped outside with my trusty weather/doppler/stormtracker9000 and can tell you it's hot as hell outside.

Hope that helps. 

Tom "South Paw" Joles inducted into Hall Of Fame

The last time FTVLive was telling you about KOB Anchorman Tom Joles, it was about his involvement in a newsroom altercation.  

Back in February, Joles was sent home for a week after he got into it with a few newsroom staffers, including longtime KOB Reporter Stuart Dyson.

Well now Joles has been inducted into the Boxing Hall of Fame....NO! Wait!.... he was inducted into the New Mexico Broadcasters Association Hall of Fame.

As staffers and former staffers reminisced about Joles career, former KOB reporter Jeremy Jojola told this tale. 

“One time there was this large spider in the newsroom,” said former KOB reporter Jeremy Jojola. “This thing was the size of a half-dollar and everyone was freaking out about this gnarly-looking spider in the newsroom. Tom walks over and he takes his fist and punches the spider!"

Somethings never change. 

H/T KOB

Pittsburgh Reporter Signing off for Cincy Anchor Gig

Longtime WPXI Reporter Timyka Artist is leaving the station at the end of the month and headed to Cincinnati.

She will be the Weekend Anchor at her new station. 

She is not saying yet where she is headed in the Natty, but she told the Pittsburgh Post Gazette that at the new station, she expects to be involved in storytelling through the new station's digital platform: "I can't talk too much about that but, let's just say we are excited about hitting the ground running."

With just that information, FTVLive is guessing that she will be headed to Scripps owned WCPO. Scripps is pushing digital hard and for her to bring up digital, it makes perfect sense.

Stay tuned to see if we're right. 

Noting the similarities in architecture between her current and new cities' skylines, "was one of the things that sort of drew me in. I love Pittsburgh so much," said Ms. Artist, of Wilkins. "I will miss Pittsburgh. This city has been so good to me. I've been blessed to work here a long time."

She signs off WPXI on June 26th. 

Huh?

What is the point of this Facebook post by WSOC?

Seriously? Can someone give me an answer?

Buffalo ND Walks Across The Street

Sources are telling FTVLive that WKBW's ND just walked out the door and across the street. Lisa Polster, the ND at Scripp's newly acquired station, just inked a deal to become the morning EP at Media General's WIVB. 

When WKBW GM Mike Nurse heard the news, he told Polster she had to leave the building immediately.

According to sources, this could be a big coup for WIVB. There were reportedly a lot of tears in the Channel 7 newsroom because Polster is well liked.

A big change from the days of Bill Ransom. when there were a lot of 'tears of joy' when he left the building.

NBC Goes Wall to Wall with Con Artist

This morning, Today Show host Matt Lauer sat down with Rachel Dolezal. This is the woman that changes her skin color to whatever is best for her situation. 

After Lauer was done talking to Dolezal, she was handed off to Savannah Guthrie, who's interview with the human chameleon, will air on Tonight's NBC Nightly News.

Also, MSNBC's  Melissa Harris-Perry also interviewed Dolezal for NBC's cable network.

We expect by later Today the Janitor at NBC will also sit down for an interview with the con artist.

I mean, it seems like she is talking to everyone else at 30 Rock.

Here is her appearance on Today:

Fox Cleaning House at KTVU?

San Francisco blogger, Rich Lieberman is reporting some major cuts at KTVU. The perennial market leader was swapped by Cox to Fox last year. New news director Dana Hahn sat back for awhile, but now is making changes.

Veteran Health/Science reporter John Fowler is out. According to Lieberman, so is Fowler's producer, Sharon Navratil, who ironically, is married to Tom Vacar, their iconic consumer reporter. Also out; 30-year veteran Leslie Donaldson, who was the station's special projects producer. 

This probably shouldn't be too shocking, after all, Cox is a privately held company that had an endless supply of money and cared about their reputation in the community. Fox is going to run KTVU purely as a business, and that means slashing fat salaries.

Rich Lieberman 415 Media

Headshot vs Mugshot

The new job is not starting out well for Liza Danver.  She's been the primary anchor at Tribune's KFSM in Fayetteville, Arkansas for only a couple of weeks and now, she's been suspended. Danver was arrested by Arkansas State Police for DWI. 

Danver had been out of the biz for a little more than a year, working as a business developer for MB Senior Solutions. Before that, she spent 3 years at WKEF in Dayton. Before Dayton, she was at Lin's WISH-TV in Indianapolis, where she was arrested twice in six months for DUI and leaving the scene of an accident. She was sentenced to jail.

KFSM's GM says nothing else will be said while the police investigation is underway.