Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Tori Campbell, KTVU: 2013 SF Bay Area Media Person of the Year




 Time Magazine has its annual "Person of the Year"--it features a person or persons who had the most impact, for better or worse, on the year's news.
 
In the Bay Area, I'm inaugurating the " SF Bay Area Media Person of the Year"and in 2013, it's a no-brainer.
 
Tori Campbell, KTVU's inimitable morning and noon anchor is my unanimous winner.
 
If you just got out of a coma or were on a Mars vacation, it was Campbell that read the infamous fake Korean airline pilot names. It caused a storm. It stained prestigious Channel 2. It made otherwise normal media people ponder.
 
Stephen Colbert was handed a double-size buffet of red meat.
 
There were consequences, of course, over the big TV news brouhaha, but the bottom line was that it was Campbell that evaded the sudden fate and wrath that begot others. Why, some people wondered, myself included, was Campbell allowed to carry on without nary a mild suspension or outright termination? Good questions.
 
In any event, this still mind-numbing event; the talk of both the local and national TV/Radio newsrooms to this day; a parody only it was real and SNLish, is, hands-down, unequivocally, the Bay Area media event of 2013 and Campbell, the 415 Media "Person of the Year."

By the way, did she really read it? I must still be dreaming.
 
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32 comments:

  1. Just edges Damon Bruce's anti woman rants .Parts one-"No good as news hosts" and the part two "No good at Sports", later.

    "Sports don't build character,they reveal it" Sure did!

    Why couldn't it have been Radnich?..sigh..

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    1. Although,NONE of the woman of KRON or KNBR, Pam Moore,Jaquelyn Bennet,Darya Folsom, Kathy Heenan,or Kate Scott said a word when Radnich said "I distinguish between the talent of R.Kelly and his being a child molester." Not one of those woman said a thing. And he's said it more then once.They all smiled and laughed. Must have been the "child molester" punch line that broke them up.
      All true.
      But,they were outraged at Damon Bruce...

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    2. Bruce upset a few women, not all, and a few men suffering from low testosterone levels with his undiplomatic remarks, but said what most sports fans already believe. So few women sports writers spoke out about his comments because they agree with him more than they disagree with him. That and they don't want to alienate 95% of their market with non-sports issues

      He's the Snowden of sports radio and should go about his business in an unapologetic way.

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  2. I'm fed up with you blaming Tori for the Asiana clusterfark. She was ON THE AIR when provided with new copy to read that she had no time to preview. Get over it. The people who prepared the copy deserved to be fired because they had time to question even after it was ostensibly confirmed by NTSB, FAA or whomever. How this is Tori's fault is beyond me. I'm not even a fan but it wasn't her fault.

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    1. Hey she READ the damn names and even purposefully pronounced the name of "Ho-Lee-Fuck" as "Ho-Lee-FuK" so obviously she knew, however, brief, that something was fishy.

      Had she immediately STOPPED and said something like, "Hold it, folks, something here looks suspicious --let's take a break and be right back," we wouldn't be talking about THIS now. Nor would have KTVU's brand been simultaneously lampooned.

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    2. Agree totally with Rich on this. If she didn't have time to preview the copy
      and read the first name -- understandable. Many would have done that, but
      as soon as "Sum Ting Wong" leaves your lips, anyone with half a brain would have stopped.

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    3. I totally disagree with Rich. Most of the people complaining about Campbell would have done the same thing in the same situation.

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    4. Sounds like something you would say Tori -- "It's not my fault. Others should be fired." Not a fan? Now, there is something on which we can all agree.

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    5. "Agree totally with Rich on this" gets published, but my comment about how an anchor handles this--and I used to be one--gets censored because I pointed out how Rich is wrong. Typical. Rich doesn't want to hear from people who know. He wants aggrandizement.

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  3. Still beating dead horses some Rich?
    Good grief.

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    1. Sorry to inform you it was the local/national media story/gaffe of the year. That's the POINT of the post.

      Maybe the "dead horse" is counter to your opinion which is fine or maybe you work at KTVU. In either case, the post is legit and I won't be the first to say as much, trust me.

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    2. Lieberman refuses to let this go. From the start he has endlessly attempted to escalate this into more than a stupid prank gone wrong into a condemnation of the entire KTVU station.


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    3. You don't have to work at KTVU to realize Rich has been beating this dead horse mercilessly for months.

      Delete
    4. > Sorry to inform you it was the local/national media story/gaffe of the year.

      Where? I must have missed this.

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    5. there's not much left of that dead horse. ridiculously funny story, but not a big deal for more than a couple of days.

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  4. LOVE this category Rich and it couldn't have been anyone else but TEFLON TORI.
    Total lack of character on her part to not VOLUNTEER to take a few days off when
    others around her were getting fired.

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    1. Voluntary time off...what world do you live in? She read the copy out of stupidity and without malice, and wasn't the cause for the crash.

      Dave Clark should be the one offering voluntary time off....for being annoying.

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    2. Her stupidity alone warranted some time off......

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  5. Whatever happened to the folks they fired over this. Especially the guy who had nothing to do with it.

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  6. I'm still stunned by that broadcast. Never thought I'd hear something so blatantly unprofessional on air. But I think she's no worse than the other female anchors on that station. Or do you really think Julie Haener would have handled it any differently?

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    1. Julie probably would have caught herself mid-sentence. In any case, she would have looked great doing it. Especially in pink leather...

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  7. Awards are relative and 2/Campbell has some competition. KPIX began their 10pm/44 broadcast with the camera zoomed in to Cooks breasts for a few seconds, then pans up to her face (demonstrating the "really?" look) as Bastida was speaking. FYI~Cook's rack falls into the "unremarkable" category.

    That was quickly followed with a field report covering the SJ lottery winner where the reporter referred to the person's good luck as "earnings".

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    1. That was quickly followed with a field report covering the SJ lottery winner where the reporter referred to the person's good luck as "earnings"

      Why not? The IRS does....

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    2. No, the IRS does not. Clearly you've never paid taxes. If they taxed it as "earnings" instead of "unearned income" it would go at a much lower rate than 50 percent.

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  8. I guess nothing should be a surprise anymore, but the reactions from some of the knuckleheads who read this blog is astonishing. This was a big story. Campbell is a pro. She should've known something was amiss. I'll bet even that fake boobed boob on KRON 4 would've picked up on it.

    Campbell should've been fired. Contract or no contract. No show of responsibility or accountability. I can't even watch her with seriousness anymore. In fact, I can't even watch that station for news anymore.

    And to have KTVU air that special on Korean Americans was a joke. Forced, contrived, idiotic. Shame on them.

    What was once a trusted source of news has turned into a big mess. Hope you're happy over there. If you wanted your name on that pile, you sure got it...and then some. Congratulations. Jerks.

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    1. It was an office prank that went terribly wrong and became an enormous embarrassment - rightfully so - for KTVU.

      KTVU apologized profusely.

      Rich has been "kicking a dead horse" by continuing to present this as an enormous scandal reflecting a profound systemic problem at KTVU and within the entire industry. IT WASN'T.

      This was a practical joke gone wrong and nothing more. No, I'm not an intern, I don't work at KTVU. I just recognize how hyperbolic Lieberman's coverage has been.

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    2. As somone who works in news, I can say that what happened is a systematic problem. I can't tell you how many times we're expected to rush something to air without having time to fully vet the information. I'm actually surprised gaffes like this don't happen more often. They will if the industry continues to cut corners.

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    3. The people who work in news, while not saying they are happy with the situationn, seem to get why and now what happened happened. The commenters who don't work in news are saying the silly things like she should have been fired immediately and why is she still working there? What makes me laugh is having watching producers and writers come and wash out for years, I can assure you these know-it-alls who "would have known not to do what Tori did" wouldn't last two days in any newsroom under professional deadline pressure. But they're good shooting the shit at the corner bar after their shift at Cosco.

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  9. Another KTVU gaffe! About 8:45am today Tori Campbell reported 10 inmates were DEAD after yesterday's Santa Rita jail explosion. It's now 8:57 and Tori just issued a retraction and apology...NO ONE was killed in that accident. My God what's going on at KTVU?

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  10. You give more street cred to a malaprop than an attempt of full-on self-immolation to a career.

    It's Damon Bruce hands down.
    How did that turd not get fired?

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  11. In case you are keeping score:

    Caltrans/bad Bay Bridge bolts: no one fired
    Damon Bruce anti-female on air tirade: suspended 2 days
    KTVU prank names on air: at least 4 people fired

    Enough said.

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    1. More than that, a bridge lackey said the bolt repairs came "within budget estimates" so they were pleased. The estimate had been approx ten million dollars over, the actual final price tag was twenty-five million over. That's off by 150 percent. If that's considered a "good estimate" in CalTrans land then no wonder they have billion-dollar cost overruns.

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