Proof of What TV People Really Think About
/No doubt about it, TV news people have the dirtiest minds:
Getting to the Bottom of the Story
/WTLV (Jacksonville) Reporter Jacob Long was sent out to cover a story and ended up making a bit of news of his own.
Long got the First Coast News vehicle stuck in a spot of bother and it was made worse when an FTVLive spy showed up to take a picture.
It gave new meaning to "wheels up."
OKC Sports Director had been in Scooter Crash Before
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FTVLive told you over the weekend that KFOR Sports Director Bob Barry Jr. had died in an accident.
Barry was struck and killed by a vehicle while he was riding his scooter.
Sadly, this wasn't the first time Barry was involved in a scooter crash. Back in 2012, Barry was hospitalized in the ICU when he crashed while test driving a high-horsepower scooter.
“I gave it too much gas too fast and I just lost it, hit a curb and went flying,” he said. That’s about the last I remember of anything.”
“I broke a collarbone, fractured two or three ribs and suffered a bruised lung,” he said. “But it could have been worse. They were worried about other things when I got there. We thought we were going to have to have surgery for an intestinal tear. That’s what they told us the first night.”
Here's video from a story KFOR did at the time:
Cops Pursue New leads in the Jodi Huisentruit Case
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This Saturday will mark the 20th anniversary of the disappearance of TV news anchor Jodi Huisentruit.
It is believed that Huisentruit was abducted early in the morning of June 27th, 1995 while leaving for work at KIMT television in Mason City, Iowa.
Police are hoping that a couple of new leads will help close the case.
Two witnesses come forward with new details that might help police solve this mystery. One has information that for the first time makes a connection between Huisentruit and Tony Jackson, a convicted serial rapist, who was living in Mason City at the time of the woman's disappearance.
The other witness is a jogger who was running by Huisentruit's apartment complex at the time of the abduction who saw a mysterious car speeding away from the scene with its lights off. This information might also help police focus their investigation.
H/T KMSP
Off the TV Beat
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Longtime NY Times Television Critic Alessandra Stanley is coming off the TV beat.
Stanley, who made a number of factual errors in her stories is being moved back to reporting. In a memo sent to the staff, executive editor Dean Baquet said Stanley would now start covering the rich of the rich.
"....part of The Times’s deepening focus on economic inequality in America, she will be creating a new beat: an interdisciplinary look at the way the richest of the rich — the top 1 percent of the 1 percent — are influencing, indeed rewiring, the nation’s institutions, including universities, philanthropies, museums, sports franchises and, of course, political parties and government", Baquet wrote in a memo to the staff.
With, David Carr dying, Bill Carter taking a buyout, Brian Stelter defecting to CNN and now Stanley moving, the Times has basically shuttered their coverage TV.
Which is a sign that the NY Times is dying a slow death or that TV is.
Just saying....
Fox News to Launch Headline News Channel on SiriusXM
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SiriusXM and FOX News announced the launch of FOX News Headlines 24/7, a new national headline news service and full-time satellite radio channel produced by FOX News journalists and contributors. The channel, part of a multi-year agreement, will launch in the fall of 2015 to all SiriusXM subscribers.
Staffed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and 365 days a year, FOX News Headlines 24/7 on SiriusXM will deliver the day’s top stories at any time. FOX News Senior Vice President of News Jay Wallace will oversee operations of the new channel, in addition to his current responsibilities managing news at FNC.
In commenting on the announcement, FOX News Chairman & CEO Roger Ailes said, “By creating this new news offering, we’re aiming to provide FOX News viewers and satellite radio subscribers the opportunity to stay informed with the latest headlines and breaking news from the network they have come to rely on and trust.”
Social Media Fail
/TV stations and networks love to use social media to attract viewers and drive them to special promotions.
But, one network might go down as doing the worst social media campaign in history.
A English-language division of Syria's state news agency, SANA English asked their Twitter followers to share their summer experiences in Syria.
Yes the same Syria that is home to ISIS and the same Syria that the US is raining bombs down on each week.
SANA took to Twitter asked people to send their summer vacation photos and to use the hashtag #SummerInSyria.
Needless to say, not many followers took the network up on their campaign and those that did, didn't exactly make it looks like Summer in Syria was a great destination.
BREAKING! LA News Director is Out
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FIRST on FTVLive (as usual)!
FTVLive has learned that KCBS/KCAL News Director Scott Diener is out.
It was just announced to the staff that Diener, who has been at KCBS/KCAL as Vice President and News Director since January 2010 is leaving, "to pursue other opportunities."
“Scott has been a terrific news director and, on a personal note, a good friend during our nine years together in Dallas and Los Angeles. He should be proud of what he has accomplished here in Los Angeles during his time at CBS 2 and KCAL 9. We wish him the very best as he moves on to his next adventure and look forward to building on the success that he helped create,” said Steve Mauldin, President and General Manager, KCBS/KCAL.
Stay tuned as FTVLive will have more on the story later.
Let's Hope Not.....
/I really hope that this doesn't happen:
Drunk Driver Plows Into Live Truck
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A suspected drunk driver plowed into a CHCH (Canada) injuring a News Photographer.
It happened just before 10 o’clock outside the station in downtown Hamilton. According to witnesses, the Dodge Caravan was driving erratically along Caroline, toward Hunter.
The CHCH live truck ended up on its side. EMS, police and fire responded. Crews had to break the front windshield to get photographer Phil Fraboni out of the vehicle.
He was taken to hospital, but has since been released and is recovering at home . He tweeted out this message:
H/T CHCH
Fox News Sends Palin Packing
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Fox News has not renewed the contract of former Vice Presidential Candidate Sarah Palin.
Palin was a longtime paid contributor to Fox News and although the network says she will still appear on FNC, she will no longer cash a check.
When asked for comment, a Fox News spokesperson confirmed the network had amicably parted ways with the former governor on June 1.
This does open Palin up to appear on other networks, if or when any other network wants her, remains to be seen.
H/T Politico
Calm Down Don Lemon
/Former Daily Show Reporter Larry Wilmore now has his own show on Comedy Central and he took the chance to give his take on CNN's Don Lemon, literally playing the race card.
Roger Ailes: If I don’t like them, I don’t put them on the air
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When FTVLive worked at a Cox station, there was a joke that they company would not paint the bathroom wall without first doing a focus group on what color it should be.
Media companies and stations today are choked by research. Companies shoot on set demos with potential Anchor hires and then offer them up to focus groups for review.
But one of the most successful network bosses doesn't do any of that.
Fox News chief Roger Ailes is not in to research and does not use any of it when making a new hire.
"No, I don’t do that kind of research, believe it or not. I never did any research for the Fox News Channel. If I don’t like them, I don’t put them on the air," Ailes said to Variety.
In a day when research is king, Ailes is a throwback to the old days and it seems to be working out just fine.
He looks at a possible anchor and thinks, "If I don’t think they can grow and be better at what they do, I don’t put them on," the Fox News chief says.
Kind of refreshing, isn't it?
West Palm Beach News Director admits His Firings my Have Been Illegal
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A recording of a WPEC (West Palm Beach) managers meeting was leaked to the website Gossip Extra.
In the recording the managers discuss how to fire people properly.
On the recording are discussions between General Manager Mike Pumo, HR Boss Julie Dyer and News Director Mike McCormick.
At the end of the recording, News Director McCormick brought up his worries that some of his firings in 2014 may have been illegal! Word is that McCormick called the meeting after he noticed that the station’s policy on firings was too vague and, possibly, illegal.
Others in the meeting laugh when McCormick said his firings may have not been right.
The source that leaked the recording, says that the meeting took place Dec. 9, 2014.
The first voice is believed to be Pumo’s, who insists that managers write up bad employees in more details.
“You have to have one document, or two,” Pumo says, “before putting them on a (pre-firing performance improvement) plan.
“That’s where we stumble.
“Take this very seriously. The better you write these plans . . . the better it will be to manage these problems.”
Later, Dyer explains how managers can’t threaten employees with the actual word “firing” in an email but can use alternative words like “performance” and “unacceptable.”
Then McCormick chimes in, saying he’s noticed that the only things needed at CBS12 to be a cameraman is a drivers license and show up for work.
“Honestly, I couldn’t fire anybody,” McCormick says. “As a matter of fact, the firings that we made this year (2014), I don’t think they were legal.”
WPEC is owned by Sinclair and if any company knows how to fire people, it's that one.
Here is the audio as posted to Gossip Extra:
Signing Off in Bean Town
/Longtime WBZ Anchor Jack Williams is signing off and retiring from TV news after 40 years.
The station is taking the entire week to say goodbye to Williams. Williams signs off Thursday night.
Here is a look back piece they aired of Williams longtime career on the Boston airwaves:
World News Tonight Tops the Ratings
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While NBC's Lester Holt took a very well deserved vacation last week, ABC's World News Tonight took the top spot in the ratings.
ABC Anchor David Muir won the ratings race last week averaging 7.919 million total viewers to NBC's 7.542 million. The "CBS Evening News With Scott Pelley" drew 6.866 million.
From the same week a year ago, ABC was up 15 percent and CBS climbed 13 percent while NBC was off 6 percent.
In the 25-to-54 age group, ABC averaged 1.954 million viewers to NBC's 1.875 million and CBS' 1.577 million.
All three newscasts up in that count: ABC by 11 percent, CBS by 8 percent and NBC by 2 percent.
For the season to date, ABC is leading NBC in the 25-to-54 age group by just 6,000 viewers. It's the first time -- in 19 years -- that ABC has been ahead at this point in the season.
In the 18-to-49 age group, ABC averaged 1.366 million viewers to NBC's 1.339 and CBS' 1.116 million.
But now Holt is back and for the first time since he started anchoring 5 months ago, NBC is giving Holt some promotion.
This week is Holt's first since being named the permanent Anchor of Nightly News.
H/T Orlando Sentinel
