I'LL SAY THIS: DO NOT TRUST THEM AS THEY USED TO SAY, "Trust us."
It's a BS word, trust. They should never be trusted in the first place.
Never.
They used to be the gold standard in Bay Area TV News. It's a different world, I know, but they no longer carry the sword. They are a lot of talk with very little swagger. They've been reduced to everyone else and they happen to be in first still in a marginalized business in a marginalized town, is KTVU News. They still have very, very good people--on the air, that is--and they do good things but they have severe case of egotitus and mass carelessness, to wit:
*Frank Somerville: so, you're getting a divorce. It happens. Don't freak out, Frank. You're human. The news is not unsettling at least in the public. It would have leaked out anyway and besides, it's no big deal anymore even if you think it is. The only issue now is to get on with your life and read the news and quit worrying about the repercussions. There are none. You're a mostly good guy, Frank. A few personal peccadillos doesn't define you. Keep on keeping on, Count Somerville.
*Julie Haener: Jules, why have I always been suspicious about you? For a time I thought you were a hard worker and honest journalist. Was it working with Dennis Richmond all those years? Oh, don't get me wrong, Dennis was good and for a time, cool, but he obviously had an effect on you and it took its toll. So Julie, the outside sheen is simply an act. Deep down you're as occasionally mean as all the rest of us civilians. Don't take yourself so seriously and just carry on the task of reading the teleprompter. By the way, unlike Dennis, have you ever gone out in the field? Ever?
*Bill Martin: I have a ton of respect for you, Bill. You may think I've taken cheap shots but Bill, you know I was spot on. You seem to have taken off some time of late. The weathercasts seem disjointed and broken. All in all, you still got it, Bill, but there's no crispness anymore and a few of your cohorts seem bored. They are not alone. You need to tighten it up and become a lot more fresh. It's not that difficult.
*Mark Ibanez: Wow, have times changed. Mark, you used to be a total breath of fresh air. You wrote the best three minutes of sports in the whole market. You were the STAR! The real deal. The punch, the spirit, the salute, the gravitas. Now Mark, it all comes out. Don't be phony Mark. You know what a phony is? A phony is a person who does/says one thing; does another; has an image as a good guy and all-around cool person. But then behind the scenes is 100 percent the opposite. Mark, you have 40 years in the company and you still are the man, it's just that your star has faded quite a bit in the end and I'm the only one who knows. Mark, it's 4th down and 10 from the 10 and you have one last play. Don't screw it up and by god, don't text in the play.
*415 Media
To Be Continued
The "mother Theresa" of KTVU.
ReplyDeletewhy should someone's personal life be subjected to your guesswork and scrutiny? How does any of that become your business or have anything to do with the job they do on the air?
ReplyDeleteSurprise! Surprise! Surprise! It speaks to their character and integrity. Now, do you really want the person delivering your news CHEATING ... on anybody ... especially a spouse?
DeleteFrank: For all your back-pedalling, he may have grounds for a lawsuit. (I am a former lawyer by trade.) He's a public figure so the bar *is* higher; still, malice is one of the elements he'd have to show, and in your case that'd be relatively easy. You could be in hot water, or, to put it another way, I wouldn't want to be you.
ReplyDeleteJulie: She's always been this way. Pretty, and blissfully unaware of her limitations. They go far in the business at every station. Many female anchors are former beauty contest winners or else they wanted to be actresses or singers but that was too tough.
Bill: Losing his grip on reality, slowly but surely. Similar to the way people acted in Communist countries when their every move was being watched by, say, 50 closed circuit cameras. Sad to see. Were I him, I'd take the money and retire, and enjoy life.
Ibañez: Always has been a horse's patoot. Most sports anchors are. Don't know why, but they seem to think they're the most important person in the building. Vern Glenn is one happy exception. So is Fonzi.
This is an excellent post and I agree with 99%, with the exception of Fonzi, he is the same
Delete6:09 PM "Many female anchors are former beauty contest winners or else they wanted to be actresses or singers but that was too tough."
DeleteRight! Airheads.
At 6:09 pm,,,Agreed..you can blame their management for their self inflated importance...sportscasters feed off of it...shows you the consciousness of the station...Glenn stinks tho...he has other problems.
ReplyDeleteBlame management how? You think management encourages big egos??? That makes them harder to control and tougher to negotiate salary-wise.If anything, management tries to strip them of their egos. They often have even bigger egos. And they do even less.
DeleteTV, magazines, movies, music, et al, attract big egos and immature, narcissistic personalities. Very few people get into these fields for healthy reasons, which is why you have so much burn out, extra-marital affairs, drug and alcohol use, etc. A hazard of the trade. And what's ironic is, especially when it comes to TV news and especially here in the Bay Area, most civilians don't give a f***. A newswriter friend of mine liked to say if they put you in the federal witness protection program they make you a Bay Area TV news reporter, because nobody will know who you are. It's true, and everyone but the reporters and anchors themselves know it.