CNN and MSNBC try to Out Trump Each Other

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While CNN was the first to go all missing plane of Donald Trump, MSNBC seems to be catching up fast.

Both networks long ago gave way to anything that might be actual news and it's all a ratings grab now.

It seems that 3 out of 4 tweets by CNN's media reporter Brian Stelter are Trump related (and he's supposed to be the media reporter, not the political reporter). 

MSNBC is now trying to catch CNN's all Trump all the time coverage with some of their own.

NBC's Meet The Press Moderator Chuck Todd sat down for an "exclusive" interview with Trump for Sunday's show. Since that interview, MSNBC has run it or bits of it almost 100 times.

100!

But don't worry, this should all be over in 448 days. It's like the 2016 election is right around the corner.

 

The Megyn Kelly, Donald Trump Scarecrows

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Fox News Anchor Megyn Kelly is still on vacation, but you might have seen her sitting in a field in Franklin, Tennessee next to Donald Trump. 

Dave Kelly (no relation) is known in the area for his political scarecrows and he has a new addition.

Kelly has made  Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly scarecrows and they made do more than scare the crows. 

“A lot of people will pull over and get out and snap a picture. Some people, I’ve had two or three guys knock on the door. They want to know where they can buy one of these,” Kelly told WKRN.

No word if the person asking to buy these was Brian Stelter or not. 

Bay Area Reporter Testifies in Case of Stolen News Equipment

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KTVU Reporter Cara Liu was doing a live shot about a homicide at Pier 14 in San Francisco last month, when a thug robbed both a KNTV news crew and her crew of their camera gear.

Cops busted Michael Anthony Jones in connection with the July 2 robbery and assault
and he has pleaded not guilty.

Liu gave testimony in the case yesterday before a San Francisco Superior Court judge. Liu gave her testimony today in case she is not available to testify if the case proceeds to trial.

Liu said that each news crew had their own news van and had parked them in a row on the sidewalk, Liu said.

She was standing in front of a news camera preparing to give a live report when she heard screaming and saw a commotion off to the side.

Liu said she was standing about a van’s distance from the commotion and tried to communicate to the live anchor that there was a commotion.

She said she ducked for cover behind the van and saw a man standing next to a black BMW sedan in the street. The man had what she believed to be a handgun extended and was pointing it in the direction of one of the news crews.

Liu said she looked for a license plate but there wasn’t one where a license plate would usually be mounted.

She said she only managed a glimpse of part of the man’s face and didn’t see any other accomplices.

According to Liu, she then got into another news van for cover and when she got out, her company’s equipment was gone and she saw a tripod sticking out of the BMW and the BMW leaving the area.

Liu then went to check on the crews involved in the commotion and saw one of the members of the news crew bleeding from his ear and a saw the magazine of a gun on the ground.

Liu said the incident “happened very fast” and was “quite traumatic.”

Jones was arrested on July 27 and was charged with two counts of robbery, as well as assault, evading, resisting arrest by threat or force, grand theft, and misdemeanor driving with a suspended license, according to San Francisco Assistant District Attorney Alex Bastian.

Jones pleaded not guilty on July 30 and remains in jail, with bail set at $250,000, San Francisco Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman Kenya Briggs said.

Police said they believe there were two armed suspects and a third suspect who acted as a getaway driver. The suspects stole camera equipment from KNTV and KTVU Fox-2, making off with camera equipment valued at over $100,000.

H/T San Francisco Appeal

Bumped Up to the Deuce in Toledo

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WTVG has bumped Josh Love up to the Assistant News Director position.

Love replaces Anthony Knopps, who crossed the street to WTOL as the ND. 

Since joining WTVG, Love has served as executive producer, producer, and photographer/ditor, as well as a live truck technician.

“Josh brings tremendous talent, knowledge, and determination to this key position,” said WTVG’s executive news director Brian Trauring. “He has facilitated solutions and contributed terrific creativity to our news operation. He has managed election coverage with excellent results and produced special events including portions of Toledo’s water crisis coverage.”

Trauring added that Love’s “knowledge of technical news operations is deep as we increasingly rely on software and computers to deliver news and information on multiple platforms.

“I look forward to working with Josh as he continues to grow professionally and helps to provide inspired leadership for the Action News team.”

H/T Toledo Blade

I Know That Dude

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As FTVLive has been telling you, NBC Nightly News Anchor Lester Holt has been making the rounds at the O&O's.

Holt has been shooting promos for the Fall season and yesterday he stopped by WMAQ in Chicago. 

Holt takes time out to meet the Anchors at the O&O's and shoot promos with them. At WMAQ, there is one Anchor he knows really well.

It's his son, Stefan Holt. The younger Holt is an Anchor at the station.

Before making the big time, Lester was also an Anchor in Chicago, but it was across the street at CBS O&O WBBM.

Lester and Stefan were pictured together in studio yesterday. 

ABC's The View Hires new EP

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ABC's struggling gabfest The View has hired a new boss.

 Brian Teta, who worked as a Producer for the “Late Show with David Letterman” has been hired as the new co-executive producer.

The show which has basically become nothing more than a train-wreck of late is headed into its 19th season.

Here is the memo sent to the staff, announcing Teta's hire: 

Team-We are excited to welcome Brian Teta to The View as Co-Executive Producer. Brian joins us after 11 years at Late Show with David Letterman, where he was Supervising Producer. He worked on virtually every element of the show (their final season was just nominated for an Emmy). He produced celebrity guests, cooking segments, variety acts and outdoor stunts, and he booked political guests and sports stars after events ranging from the Super Bowl to the Olympics. Brian also has extensive daytime TV experience, having spent several years producing for Ricki Lake, The Montel Williams Show and Judge Hatchett. As we ramp up for Season 19, we are delighted to add Brian’s production smarts, booking skills and terrific television experience to the team.’

KCBS Names New News Director

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FIRST on FTVLive! KCBS in LA has named a new News Director and they got a good one.

Bill Dallman takes over as the Vice President and News Director of KCBS and KCAL, the CBS-owned duopoly in Los Angeles. Dallman is returning to local television news after having spent the past two years as Vice President of News at Fox Sports 1, based in Los Angeles, where he has been as a member of the management team that launched the national sports channel in August 2013.

“Bill comes to us with a great reputation as a terrific leader of large newsrooms, a consensus builder who brings out the best in his colleagues and a seasoned journalist who shares our deep commitment to producing high-quality newscasts,” KCBS/KCAL GM Steve Mauldin said. “We are thrilled to welcome him back to the local news world, where he has enjoyed great success in a number of very competitive markets, and look forward to having him play a leading role in the continuing success of our stations.”

Prior to moving to SoCal two years ago, Dallman spent seven years as Vice President of News at KMSP-TV, the Fox-owned station in Minneapolis-St. Paul, and seven years as Vice President of News at KDVR-TV, the Fox-owned station in Denver.        

He officially  starts early next month. 

He replaces Scott Diner who left the station in June. 

Fox and Trump's "Cold War"

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CNN's Brian Trump....errrrrrr....Stelter covered his two major obsessions on his ironically named show 'Reliable Sources" this past weekend. 

Stelter's obsessions? Donald Trump and Fox News.

Check out his Twitter feed and you can bet your bottom dollar that most tweets will mention Trump or Fox News.

Stelter  says that Trump and Fox News are locked in a "Cold War" with each other. Trump says that Stelter's story about his phone call with Ailes was "completely inaccurate."

Stelter claims that that Ailes told Trump, we "can resolve this now," "or we can go to war." 

Trump says that is not true and that is not what Ailes said.

"He couldn't be nicer," Trump said of Ailes phone call.

So someone is not telling the truth, Fox News, Donald Trump or Brian Stelter.

Anyone want to take a guess?

Fox News Cleared in Showing Suicide Live on the Air

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The lawsuit never had a chance and nor should it.

Remember when Fox News showed the guy that killed himself after being involved in a high speed chase with cops?

Well, the guy's widow sued Fox News and .....she lost. 

JoDon Romero stole a car at gunpoint in Phoenix and led police on an 80-mile chase, sometimes firing his gun at the pursuing officers.

Fox News picked up the live broadcast from its local affiliate and aired the chase on an episode of Studio B with Shepard Smith.

The Fox News delay did not work right and viewers saw Romero shoot himself on TV. 

Romero's three children were in school at the time. The two older boys heard about a suicide video and looked it up on YouTube, only to see their own father kill himself. Their mother, Angela Rodriguez, sued Fox in 2013 for intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. She claimed that her children were severely traumatized by the video.

A Maricopa County judge dismissed the lawsuit on First Amendment grounds, however, and a panel of the Arizona Court of Appeals affirmed for Fox last week.

"The Fox broadcast clearly addressed a matter of public concern," Judge Diane Johnsen wrote for the court on Aug. 4.

Though Rodriguez conceded that the chase was newsworthy, she argued that the suicide was a private matter not covered by the First Amendment.

The court disagreed and Rodriguez gets nothing. 

It was really nothing more than a frivolous lawsuit from the beginning.  

H/T Courthouse News

Putting Words in Mayor's Mouth

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WPVI in Philly claims that the mayor of Colwyn, Delaware County called one of the female council members a "bitch."

The station says that "Mayor Michael Blue said, "Let me tell you something b****...""

But, WCAU says that WPVI is lying about what the mayor said. WCAU writes on their website, "Another local media outlet reported Mayor Michael Blue hurled that obscenity at Councilwoman Patricia Williams Thursday night when the two got into a heated public argument over the firing of Colwyn's city manager Paula Brown and how to handle that position moving forward."

The councilwoman that was supposedly being called "bitch", Patricia Williams also agrees Blue did not use that obscenity when addressing her and says she has her own recording of the meeting.

So why did WPVI say that he did? 

Maybe because it makes it a much more juicy story when you make up your own facts.

Here is how WPVI reported it:

And here is the video without the "beep" from WCAU:

Like we say, never let the facts get in the way of a good story. 

SMH

Like Two Peas in a Pod

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This past weekend, Seattle held it's annual Hempfest.

This was the events 24 year of throwing a festival geared towards stoners. The big stars at this year's hempfest were a couple of former TV newsies.

Cyd Maurer, the former KEZI who was fired from the station after testing positive for pot and  Charlo Greene, the Anchorage, Alaska, anchor that famously quit live on the air by, saying, "Fuck it, I quit."

The group that put of the festival says that, "We have to follow the lead of many people, like Charlo and Cyd, that have come out of the cannabis closet. The more that everyday Americans see talented, articulate people shattering stoner stereotypes, the closer we get to true freedom and equality and defeat cannabigotry once and for all."

Ummmmm...you know what....never mind.