Why isn't Sinkovitz working?; Sidner and KTVU; Oakland Trib legacy; Wednesday rundown

He's one of the best in the industry. Twenty years alone in this market. Quality guy with proven credentials and a high Q rating with viewers. Of course he's off the Bay Area TV airwaves.

Tom Sinkovitz, late of NBC Bay Area and the old KRON, got tired of the internal machinations between him and the San Jose NBC O and O and decided to split last December. Management was jacking him around and Sinkovitz, who was tired of the long SF-SJ commute went into self-imposed exile.

You would think a KGO or KPIX would scoop up the proven news anchor, but so far, no go. Even KTVU could highlight him at 6, (allowing Frank Somerville to breathe a little), but logic isn't necessarily a virtue in local TV news.

*Speaking of KTVU, some of the old-timers had a field day of back-room chatter, watching one-time colleague, Sara Sidner, shine, from the battlefield of Tripoli.

The CNN correspondent was universally lauded for her stand-out reporting on the historic events, including live shots with army fatigues on and gunfire everywhere. It wasn't just those elements that brought forth Sidner's acumen, but a cool and calm delivery under the most dire of circumstances.

Many local TV wags and a few of her KTVU buds wondered aloud why Sidner would suddenly leave the Bay Area's most successful TV station back in 2008 for CNN in India, no less.

Perhaps Sidner saw the writing on the wall. Maybe she, as one reader said, was "tired of covering fires in Walnut Creek and doing a live shot from the fountain." (The wrath of "Special Ed" too).

Seems to me Sidner knew what she was doing.

*Sad day in Bay Area news journalism: The Oakland Tribune is no more. Sure, that paper, under Dean Singleton and his army of corporate morons, long ago murdered this one-time king of local papers.

The Trib was once a powerful voice, even in the internet age, captained early on by the Knowland family, rescued by the late Bob Maynard, (a great newspaper man, but a poor businessman).

Most of you probably don't know these names, but a few stand out: Bill Fiset, (Oakland's Herb Caen), Ralph Wiley, (superb sportswriter who had a long tenure with SI and coined the term, "Billy Ball"), Ron Bergman, (great beat reporter and sports writer), Harry Harris, (still working the crime beat and one of the best in ALL the newspaper biz), and Ed Levitt and Dave Newhouse.

Another sad day in local journalism.

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