A chance to interview the President. Fine and dandy. Looks good, especially during a sweeps period and so Bill Martin, the chief weather guy from KTVU was among a throng of weather anchors chosen to mingle with Mr. Obama on Tuesday.It was no coincidence that on the same day some weather peeps met with the president, the White House released a big report on Climate Change. Irrespective of your views on this important subject, it was nonetheless worthless for Martin, a fine weatherman to take part in the PR charade. And that's what it amounted to. No serious meteorological questions were asked. Nothing of substance took place. Matter of fact, I heard two local DC weather people turned down the White House invitation. Hard to grasp why Martin and Channel 2 took part in the affair--well, wait a minute, KTVU milked the entire meeting with endless promos all day and night Monday and Tuesday.
Speaking of climate change there's a very different news climate at Channel 2 where the leader, Wonder Boy Rosenthal, the ND who is fond of writing press releases and participating in American Idol tweets.
*More than anything else the overloud of commercials on AM radio is driving more people to tune out and switch to satellite. KNBR is the most serious violator, (some might say commercials are better than the bulk of their programs); KNBR runs nearly 30 minutes of spots on their afternoon and morning drive shows and when you add traffic updates and "sports minutes" you have very little content. And they wonder why people turn the dial.
*The latest barrage of new "Kars-for Kids" jingles is kind of hideous if you ask me. Now we have a country version of the spot which replaced the rock and roll version. What seems like a good cause has been muted by the endless assault of our ears by this obnoxious campaign.
*That "toilet money" John Madden gets to schmooze on KCBS pays him about $5 grand a week Do the math --$240K a year some chit-chat but good for the coach, he needs the money I'm sure.
*It's slightly disturbing that no one had heard from the "babe in the bunker" since KSFO blew out their 4-7 PM weekend tonsil. Barbara Simpson left a terse message on her Facebook page last Saturday and hasn't been seen or heard from since.
*Speaking of KSFO, their morning show host sank to a new low this past week when the host made fun of a 5-year-old kid who gave a much-played actuality on that serious circus accident in Providence. Even the traffic chick showed some on-air angst when the SussMAN began chortling over this poor little kid's voice tone. Disgusting. And the proliferation of fart noises, sirens, a sound barrage isn't resonating very well to the few listeners who have tuned out the morning carnival in droves. There's hope after all.
*The ND at 900 Front is supposedly snooping over the computer banks trying to find out who's talking to me--she'd be more apt to talk to the staff who are bordering on mutiny status if she doesn't get her act together soon. The Mickey Mouse suits are now on the radar which might mean some looming trouble down the road.
Another item: It should be telling when KGO-TV issued a press release denying my report about Cheryl Jennings and Spencer Christian contracts not being re-upped in December the comments merely said "is false" and ripped me. "Is false?" Yeah, now it is. By the way, neither Jennings nor Christian have denied the report. Probably because it's true and almost everyone at Channel 7 knows it.
*Not one of our local sports sheep media brethren dared ask the Warriors suits whether the firing of Mark Jackson could be, justified or not, met with anger and disgust from the team's African-American fans. It's a legitimate question particularly coming after the Donald Sterling affair. By the way, I'm in no way suggesting the Warriors organization is racist --they are not. But it's a question that needed to be asked and you don't even have to be an Insider to figure that out. Like I said, sheep.
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