Wednesday, March 4, 2015
KTVU Reporter Ken Wayne Spends a Night in the Tenderloin (Video)
KTVU anchor/reporter, Ken Wayne, spent a night in a residential hotel in the Tenderloin. That was the easy part. And the safest.
In this rather riveting (and sometimes scary video segment--aired on the 10 O' Clock News on Monday night) Wayne walks around one of SF's most dangerous and drug-infested, wacked-out, chock full of crazy people neighborhoods--complete with hidden chest camera documenting the experience. He informed the few folks that were willing and able to talk about the camera.
In the ensuing piece, he encounters a woman who has been on crack for thirty years; you feel both sorry and anxious for her at the same time. Later on, Wayne talks to a guy on the street who says "it's crazy out here." The guy speaks coherently --not crazy at all. He too seems lucid and not that nutty --speaking of which, later on in the video, Wayne bumps into (or maybe vice-versa--it doesn't really matter) some very angry and deranged guy--his first troublesome encounter. The man momentarily pushes Wayne and all hell could break loose--but it doesn't, thankfully, and Wayne moves on and the guy disappears. Frightening and harrowing to the max.
We've all heard and experienced our own travails about this and other skid rows in the Bay Area. The Tenderloin is a mere blocks away from the other-world glitz of new-tech Downtown San Francisco--a world apart in reality but quite close geographically.
Wayne notified the Tenderloin station of the SFPD who advised him to stay away from groups and "use common sense" otherwise he was on his own. It was good, effective TV News --shades of old "Segment 2" -KTVU offerings.
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To raise an ethnic issue it might be interesting to see Stanley Roberts step away from "People Behaving Badly" for awhile to do something similar for the Tenderloin, Western Addition, Bayview, as well or maybe Oakland. Could also be parts of San Jose, or even Vallejo, that might be worthy of similar coverage. Sort of a travelogue of our home towns, there are neighborhoods we'd like to know more about. I think Stanley Roberts has the presence and style to pull that sort of story series off. Sure, Stanley Roberts is black but that's really a small component, he's the man.
ReplyDeleteHe didn't see a Republican all night but constantly kept bumping into Democrats.
ReplyDeleteYeah, but you fail to mention Republican politics put those people on the streets.
DeleteThat was misinformation on a Clinton-esque level 9:27
DeleteThis was all staged like all those fake "social experiment" videos on YouTube. KTVU paid those homeless people to act like the way did. All done for KTVU Fox2 ratings! Ken Wayne is a big pussy and would never spend a night in the Tenderloin unless he knew he had security with him. KTVU is one of the biggest lies in news now!
ReplyDeleteYou are way off base. I worked on the street for that newsroom for 10 years. They never paid for"acting" in stories. Ken is the real deal. You can sit in the security of your digs and spread your unfounded gossip. That makes you what you accuse Ken of. You couldn't hang with the real deal.
DeleteI watched Ken's report on Channel 2. One thing that really surprised me was the price he paid for a room for one night in a rundown hotel with no toilet paper. He paid $70.00.
ReplyDeleteOnly in S. F....amazing. How do the people on the streets afford this? Maybe that's why they live on the streets?
Being poor is expensive.
DeleteDid Ken Wayne run into any KGO radio employees where were there trying to escape a bad environment?
ReplyDeleteLOL LOL LOL!
DeleteRita, a.k.a. Mudhen (her street name), is a real person. It's not surprising the East Indians in that craphole hotel (118 Taylor Street) would charge that much.
ReplyDeleteIt must be pretty slow around the station along the bay to do a very unoriginal story. It's show bad judgement doing what he did for possible higher ratings.
ReplyDeleteIt's not only the Seedy Tenderloin but other parts of San Francisco such as Mid & South of Market from 5th to 11th Street; Church & Upper Market and Bayview/Hunters Point that can equally compete with the "Loin" as having the most dangerous, drug infested hoods with equally drug-addled, drunks, crazies, mentally disturbed and street criminals characters.
ReplyDeleteA ten-dollar bill on the sidewalk in that neighborhood would vaporize faster than Hillary Clinton's emails.
ReplyDeleteI think most every fairly large city has it's 'other side of the track' area. In places such as San Rafael, you will find the St. Vincent de Paul Society Low-Income Apartments on B Street. Lots of shady-seedy and needy looking people lurking on the streets at any time. Common sense tells you the danger, if any, would be greater at night, with less traffic and less cops circling the area.
ReplyDeleteI am sure Mr Wayne had a set or couple sets of "eyes" watching him closely off camera. More or less this was just a publicity stunt for KTVU.. If he really wanted to go stay in the Tenderloin he would have stayed on the streets for a week, or a night.
ReplyDeleteHow is this story investigative in any way? So what, he spent the night in the Loin. A real investigative piece is why the city's "dozens of homeless services" are failing, and why does it cost $70/night for a SRO? Just because the city is funding programs that don't work doesn't mean they can turn heads and pretend 6th St. doesn't exist. If Ken were to drag Rita to a city sponsored drug rehab center, would she succeed? Would the gent from LA allow Ken to take him to a welfare to work type program? Could he even qualify? There is a lot of red tape...
ReplyDeleteWhy are the services a band aid on a gushing wound? Why is SF repeatedly failing at the homelessness/drug addict problem when so much of our taxpayer dollars go to its support? I'm certain there is no shortage of city employees who would like to tell their side of this sad and infuriating story.
Has FOX moved the ratings needle at KTVU? In Boston FOX 25 is kicking ass after Cox management added over a dozen news staffers in time for the worst winter weather in living memory. We'll see what happens when things come back to normal (as normal as things get in the Hub) but they're off to a storming start. Honestly, we haven't seen an immediate impact like this since Joel Cheatwood rolled into town more than twenty years ago and turned sleepy WHDH (Channel 7) into a ratings powerhouse.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bostonherald.com/business/media_marketing/2015/02/ch_25_tv_news_scores_top_hub_ratings_after_hiring_spree_revamp
"Has FOX moved the ratings needle at KTVU?"
DeleteIt's really, really, really early (did I say really early) to tell?
Ken you sadly do not understand what you said. Truly ignorant. "Many people in the tenderloin don't choose to use the resource." You obviously do not understand that yes there are resources , but there are delays, lists, people with severe mental health issues that may not be able to access these resources. Go back and try again.
ReplyDelete