Fox News Reporter Calls Rory McIlroy a "Leprechaun"

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World Number 1 golfer Rory McIlroy might have a lot of fans around the world. But, we know at least one Fox News Reporter that doesn't like him.

In the segment on Fox News 'Outnumbered' contributors were discussing McIlroy (who is Irish), who has ruptured a ligament in his ankle casting doubts over his participation in the British Open.

While speaking on camera, co-host Harris Faulkner said the group were "still reacting to that Rory McIlroy story", before being interrupted by an unseen reporter.

"He's a leprechaun, I can't stand him," she can be heard saying.

Faulkner took to Twitter to say she did not hear the remark, but that she also was not a fan of the golfer. 

McIlroy is known on the PGA Tour as one of the nicest, most down to earth people you could meet. But, the folks over at Fox News don't seem to like him.

Let's go to the video:

Uploaded by Макс Марченко on 2015-07-06.

One for the Record Books

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June goes down as the biggest and best month ever for traffic to FTVLive.com.

This site set another all time record last month in both page views and visitors to the site. In fact the month was so good that we were not even halfway through it before we broke the record for page views.

Of course, we have to thank all of you for spreading the word of FTVLive to your friends, family and co-workers. 

And without the best sponsors in the world, none of this would be possible. FTVLive has aligned ourselves with the best companies in and around the TV business. We have told you in the past that we have turned down advertising dollars from companies that we don't believe in or think that you should use.

Not many websites out there will do something like that. Many will take the money and run, but we have held true to only having the best of the best place an ad on this website.

We thank those people and we thank you for making June our best month ever.  

New ND Named in Birmingham

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Back in June, FTVLive told you that WVTM News Director Tim Gardner is leaving the station after more than 8 years on the job. 

The Birmingham station has now named Gardner's replacement. 

KOAT News Director Sue Stephens will take over as the station's news director beginning July 20.

Both WVTM and KOAT are owned by Hearst Television.

"Sue Stephens brings the kind of experience, dedication to quality and winning attitude that will be a perfect fit at WVTM 13," Hank Price, NBC 13's president and general manager, said in a media release. "Sue not only knows how to win, she knows how to do it the Hearst way -- with a long-term commitment to excellence in serving the people of Birmingham."

Is a move up in market size for Stephens, but not by much. Birmingham is 43rd  market and Albuquerque-Santa Fe market is 47th.

Hardly seems worth it, does it?

H/T AL.com

Crossing the Street in Chicago

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Back in March, FTVLive told you that WMAQ Anchor Rob Elgas informed the NBC O&O that he was choosing not to renew his contract. 

He said at the time that he is leaving the station to pursue a “new opportunity." 

Many expected him to pop up across the street at WBBM, filling the open morning news anchor job. 

Well, he did resurface across the street but not at WBBM.

Starting Today, Elgas has been hired by WLS as a reporter and fill-in news Anchor.

"Rob Elgas is an experienced journalist who has established a strong connection with Chicago viewers during his 13 years covering this area. We welcome him to our newsroom with the knowledge he'll hit the ground running and do a great job on the street as well as filling in on the anchor desk," said WLS GM Jennifer Graves. 

Liens Placed on All Poynter Institute Properties

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The federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. has placed liens on all property owned by Times Publishing Co. and its parent organization, the Poynter Institute for Media Studies, for failing to make required contributions to their pension plan.

The liens are for $30,476,992 — the difference between the pension plan's current assets and the calculation of all future benefits. The liens were recorded last week in Pinellas County official records.

"As we have previously acknowledged, the Times received approval to delay some of its contributions to the pension plan during the economic recession and recovery," said Jana Jones, vice president and CFO of Times Publishing, which publishes the Tampa Bay Times. "Related to these approvals, the Times agreed to provide collateral to the PBGC. These liens are part of this process."

Jones said the Times is about $10 million behind in its contributions, reiterating that the liens reflect total obligations in coming years. The Times' pension plan covers approximately 3,400 current and former staffers of the Times and its business magazine, Florida Trend. She said those participants should have "no reason for alarm" about their benefit payments.

If I was a current or former employee, I would be more than worried that I would never see my pension.

Just saying....

H/T Tampa Bay Times

Women's Soccer Scores Big in the Ratings

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The US women's soccer team gave the ratings a kick in the grass (see what I did there?) as the game is officially the most-watched soccer match in U.S. history.

The match, carried by Fox, averaged 25.4 million total viewers, peaking with 30.9 million between 8:30 p.m. and 8:45 p.m. ET, according to Fox Sports.

The match, in which the U.S. women’s team won its first World Cup title since 1999, delivered a 12.9 household rating.

Among the highlights noted by Fox:

  • The 2015 USA-Japan final is the most-watched soccer match in U.S. history, obliterating the previous mark of 18,220,000 set by USA-Portugal during last year’s World Cup group stage match (6/22/15) by +39%.
  • USA-Japan also shatters prior mark for a women’s soccer match, the 1999 Women’s World Cup Final (17,975,000) by +41%.
  • The match beat the audience for the 2011 Women’s World Cup Final, which also featured USA vs. Japan, by +89% (13.5 million).

Will CNN Disclose Reporter's Ties with Hillary Clinton?

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CNN is all happy that they have landed the first sit down interview with Hillary Clinton. While this is big news in the cable universe, it is likely that viewers could care less.

FTVLive conducted a poll of 32 likely voters and asked what they thought about CNN landing the Clinton Interview and if they planned on watching.

Not one had any plans on watching the interview and most thought that Clinton has been interviewed a number of times before. Most were surprised to learn that this was Clinton's first cable interview.

So just how did CNN "get" Clinton? Well, it likely had little to do with Journalism and much more to do with "who you know."

Brianna Keilar, the CNN reporter set to interview Clinton was recently at the wedding of a Clinton campaign staffer.

Keilar attended the the wedding of Clinton's Director of Grassroots Engagement Adam Parkhomenko and Kirby Hoag, Clinton's Deputy Operations Director.

A picture from the wedding was posted to Twitter, Keilar is shown in the picture (second from the right). 

Will CNN disclose that fact to viewers before the Clinton interview takes place.

We'll just have to wait and see.

That is if anyone cares to watch. 

The KSTU Internal Memo About News Director Change

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Earlier Today, FTVLive told you that KSTU News Director Renai Bodley  (pictured)was out the door and would be replaced by the station's Deuce Marc Sternfield.

Here is the internal memo sent to the staff and obtained by FTVLive:

From: Ermish, Tim 
Sent: Thursday, July 02, 2015 6:27 PM
Subject: Changing of the Guard

It is with a heavy heart that I announce the following…

After 19 years at Fox 13, Renai Bodley-News Director of Utah’s Most Watched News has decided it is time for a change.

Renai is by far the market’s senior News Director, having oversight of a newsroom that grew from 2 hours of news a day when she started here in 1996, to the market’s most news of 9 hours per day!

Whenever I presented Renai with a challenge, I could see in her eyes “We can do it!” which is why it is so hard to say goodbye. Her leadership and enthusiasm have taken Fox 13 News to our recent #1 ranking. But as Renai has told me, it feels good going out on top!

Timing is important here as we need to have a smooth transition to a new News Director as we enter the next phase of audience measurement…therefore today I have announced that Marc Sternfield will be our new News Director effective July 20th.

So instead of saying goodbye to Marc as he was on his way to Houston, we wanted to assure that the Fox 13 newsroom was left in good hands.

We have a few key positions that Marc will be interviewing for as he builds his team.

So while we say goodbye to our current news leader, please join me in congratulating Marc in his new promotion.

Tim Ermish
President/General Manager
KSTU-FOX13

New Deuce Named in O-Town

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Fox owned WOFL has a new Assistant News Director and the old one is packing his bags to return to Miami.

Here is the internal memo sent to the staff from News Director Jeff Zeller and obtained by FTVLive.

Please join me in welcoming Steve Linden as our new Assistant News Director for FOX 35.

Currently, Steve is working on the assignment desk at WKMG after recently moving to Florida.
But Steve is no stranger to FOX. He has worked in various news management roles in the company for years.

Most recently, Steve served as Director of News Content for "Chasing” News. For three years, Steve served as Director of News for the Local News Service operations in New York City .

 From 2006-2010, Steve was the Assistant News Director at WWOR and from 1996-2006, Steve worked at WNYW in NYC as the Managing Editor.

Steve will make his return to FOX and begin his new role here at FOX 35 on July 20th.

I would like to also thank Jorge Gonzalez for all his years of hard work and dedication to this organization. Jorge is moving back home to Miami later this month. His last day with us will be July 15th.

Salt Lake City Deuce Bumped up to ND Job

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KSTU Assistant ND Marc Sternfield had resigned to become the Assistant News Director at KHOU in Houston.

But now Sternfield has canceled his move south and is staying in Salt Lake City. The station is bumping him up to News Director and pushing longtime News Director Renai Bodley out the door. 

Bodley was also the one time Deuce at the station, before she was bumped up to the big chair 16 years ago. Now, her AND is taking her job and she's kicked to the curb. 

Gots to love TV news. 

You Have a Tip?

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If your News Director or GM just sent out a memo, make sure you forward it to FTVLive.

If you have any tips, or found and interesting news story, pass it along. FTVLive is always looking for good tips and if you have one, why not share it with us?

You can email us at FTVLive at Gmail Dot Com 

Also you can follow us on Twitter! We post to Twitter the second a new story is posted on FTVLive.com.

Remember all tips are treated as anonymous and FTVLive never reveals our sources. 

Best Female Anchor Hair in Each State

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Back in May, FTVLive told you which male Anchors had the best hair in each state.

Well now it's the ladies turn.

The website GetGoodHead.com (don't ask us how we found this site) is out with the list of best female Anchor hair in each and every state.

KTLA's Courtney Friel came out on top in California, while WNBC's Sibila Vargas (pictured) was tops in New York. 

To see if you won or came in second, you can check out the full list here. 

If you din't win, there's always next year. 

Huntsville Reporter Foils Robbery

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Sometimes you cover the news and other times you make it.

WAFF (Huntsville) Reporter Vincent Crivelli thwarted a robbery late last week. 

Police say that Crivelli stopped an attempted robbery in a Kroger parking lot. 

Huntsville Police said Misty Suwarow, a Kroger manager, was walking to her car when Leonard Grey approached her and asked for money. Suwarow, who was in her car, refused and Grey opened the door and jumped on top of her.

Crivelli was at the store to buy strawberries and apples after work when he heard a honking car horn and a woman screaming. He thought it was a domestic dispute until he got closer.

"It didn't look like it was a domestic dispute," Crivelli said. "It looked like it was much more, and she was screaming for help."

Crivelli said he pulled Grey out of the car by putting him into a headlock and held him down until the police arrived approximately 10 minutes later.

When the police pulled up, Crivelli said, Grey reached for something in his pocket.

"For the first time in the whole incident, I was scared," Crivelli said. "'He's got a knife. He's got a knife,' That's what I was thinking."

Grey pulled out something from his pocket, but that's when police intervened and arrested Grey, Crivelli said.

Police at the scene told Crivelli the item was a crack pipe.

While Crivelli was holding Grey someone recognized him asked him if he was on television.

"Yeah, Channel 48 News, we investigate," Crivelli said in reply.

Crivelli said he does not think he deserves any recognition.

But you know, he talked to the local paper anyway and his station did a story on him. Which we doubt either would have done for a simple robbery attempt.

Just saying.... 

H/T AL.com