Tuesday, November 4, 2014

It's Election Night In The Bay Area And Too Bad Mark Curtis Isn't In The House On Local TV News Telling Us Who Will Win; Former KTVU Political Ace/Anchor Reporting In Providence

 Mark Curtis is the former anchor and ace political reporter for KTVU years back and is now featured on the ABC affiliate in Providence, RI.

Curtis was one of the best political reporters in town and his election night analysis was absolutely first rate.

He wrote a terrific book on the historic 2008 election. He singlehandedly picked nearly all the  states that Obama won in '08. Curtis is a seasoned pro and has a political Rolodex the size of Iowa. He's doing just fine and enjoying both his personal and professional life in the east but I know from people he'd love to be back in the Bay Area.

So why isn't he?

Is it because he's in his mid-50's, Caucasian, and such? I'd like to be wrong. I hope I am. (I'm not).

The Bay Area doesn't have a whole lot of astute political reporters on TV--hell, the Bay Area doesn't have many political reporters period! Yet, the Bay Area has a long and celebrated appreciation of all things political; John Burton, the fierce and hard-fought SF Mayoral elections and the gubernatorial races from Pete Wilson to Jerry Brown. We love our politics. It's a sort-of-passion even when there's a feeling that the turnout will be light, (like Tuesday night).

Mark Curtis reminds me a lot of the late, great, Rollin Post who was the political analyst for both KQED and KRON. Post's pontifications and election-night analysis and day-after summations were always appointment TV. Ditto Curtis, who is Peyton Manning with a keen ballot box perspective.


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31 comments:

  1. Mid 50's, white and male? If he were that good Fox would have hired him by now.

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    1. He's good. Unlike Mr. Sing-Song Clark, of KTVU's Affirmative Action program.

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  2. Mid 50s white male is considered a disadvantage? Must I go through the long list of mid 50s white males gainfully employed in 415 media? I agree the guy is excellent but maybe he's no longer here because of the slash and burn style of the idiots running the stations? Maybe the voting public is also to blame. Hell, 43% of likely California voters don't even know there's a gubernatorial race!!

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    1. 43%....all registered Demos. The low.and no information voters that have wrecked this once great state.

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    2. > Must I go through the long list of mid 50s white males gainfully
      > employed in 415 media?

      Please do. I'd like to see the names you come up with, vs. minorities.

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    3. ...Still waiting...

      [crickets chirping]

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  3. Rollin Post spent a fair amount of time at KPIX in the 60s and 70s.

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  4. I learned a lot about politics from watching Rollin Post.

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  5. Word is, he's also a (gasp!) "practicing Catholic". A real Trifecta. Now do you get it?

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    1. The GM that gave him the axe was white, late forties, and gasp........wait for it.................................also a practicing Catholic.

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  6. That's too bad, those corrupt Democrats will get you every time.

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  7. So why did this genius move to a smaller market?

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  8. Blame Special Ed Chapius who fired Mark because he was overweight. The day they fired him and he said goodbye had everyone in the KTVU newsroom crying. One of the nicest pieces of revenge was seeing Chapius canned for incompetence by Cox. Unfortunately Ed survived to go on to see how much damage he could do at a Sacramento station. Mark will be busy in the upcoming Presidential primaries and will likely get some national exposure.

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  9. I remember Mark Curtis on KTVU's Morning's on 2. He was Great-unfortunately his replacement, Dave "Doofus" Clark is just the opposite-Horrible!!

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    1. But Clark fits the HR/PR demographic...

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  10. Apparently, Providence may return convicted felon ex-mayor Buddy Cianci to the Mayor's Office tonight, so I imagine Mark has (and will in the future) a lot of news to keep him occupied.

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  11. You arte absolutely right Richard about Mark Curtis. After Randy Shandoval, there was not much room for Curtis at 2. He is one of the few, like John Rothman who can sight chapter and verse on local and National politics at the same time, just like Hank Plante over at 5. He was as good as it get when it come to political reporting both local and National.

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  12. > Is it because he's in his mid-50's, Caucasian, and such? I'd like to be wrong. I
    > hope I am. (I'm not).

    You're not. Add to that he's plump. In the shallow world of TV, the NDs would rather hire a VDLC and tell her to flip her hair than a seasoned reporter with a brain like Mark, who, by the way, was one of the sharpest, easiest reporters I've ever worked with. But TV is a "visual medium."

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  13. We always have Veronica De La Cruz give us GAMMMMMMMEEEEE ONNNNNN!!!!! on election nights.

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  14. Tonight the American public spoke.
    The GOP takes back the Senate. Happy days are here again!
    No more left wing nuts in Washington!

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    1. Yup. The repubes' vote supression efforts worked well. In Texas they accept a gun permit as an official i.d. but not a student i.d. interesting. Sanity prevailed in CA. Richmond rejected all the pro Chevron candidates, Oakland passed minimum wage increase, Berkeley passed a soda tax and we get four more years of Jerry Brown. Yeah babyyyyyyy!!!

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    2. 7:35, there were no Black Panthers suppressing the vote that I've heard of yet; maybe that helps account for the vote, you idiot.

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    3. Very smart reply 8:14. Why don't you educate yourself. Vote supression is a fact in several southern states. No worries, enjoy the repubical victory for now. 2016 will be here in no time...can't wait for that mumbo jumbo numb skull Mitch Mcconell to take hold of the gavel. Let's see how good he is when he has to be more than an obstructionist jerk.

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    4. 8:49, you're delusional. A black man was elected Senator from South Carolina. Just because he isn't in you "four legs good, two legs bad" party doesn't mean there was suppression. This isn't 1952...

      There was however documented intimidation by the Black Panthers in 2008, but Eric Holder chose not to pursue any investigation. Wonder why?

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    5. To 9:32
      On Election Day 2008, two members of the New Black Panther Party appeared outside a polling station in Philadelphia, with one of them carrying a club. The DOJ under then-President George W. Bush brought a civil voter intimidation lawsuit against the New Black Panther Party and several of its members over the incident. After President Obama took office, the DOJ decided to pursue the case against the defendant carrying the club but dropped the lawsuit against the other defendants.
      Fox news made much hay over the 2008 event and the dropping of the case against some of the defendants citing corruption and bias because the defendants were black.
      There was an investigation of the DOJ. " The investigation found no evidence that decision-makers at DOJ "were influenced by the race of the defendants, or any considerations other than an assessment of the evidence and the applicable law."
      Fox kept bringing it up in the 2012 election as part of their pandering to scared white people.
      You fell for it too.

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    6. > Sanity prevailed in CA. ..Oakland...

      You buried the lead! Oakland kicked Jean Quan to the curb. Best news I've heard in four years.

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  15. t 11:01 pm...are you kidding me? What has the GOP done that's any good in the last 30 some odd years or for that matter, 50 plus years? They are against unions, against the minimum wage, fiercely against gun control, and of course for deregulation and don't seem to realize that Global Warming is a fact, not some fanciful theory. They also showed no effort in trying to solve the health care crisis and when Obama proposed his program they summarily rejected it. Obama care is actually working out pretty well for many folks, contrary to what you and your ilk might believe. Sounds to me like you've bee drinking too much of the Kool-Aid my friend! Continue to live in your fantasy world!

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    1. > They also showed no effort in trying to solve the health care crisis
      > and when Obama proposed his program they summarily rejected it.

      Actually they did. It was called Romneycare and they loved it. Till Obama came over to it and then they rechristened it Obamacare and it was socialism.

      Just like in the early 90s they loved Welfare-To-Work till Clinton championed it and then it was terrible.

      Democrats should start denying global warming and saying Evolution is baloney if the want to see progress.

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  16. The only time I ever called a teevee station to complain was re Rollin Post. One election night when he was pontificating on KRON, he said "If you don't understand a proposition, vote NO on it." I went ballistic since there was a proposition I cared about on the ballot, and a huge disinformation campaign was taking place. Many potential voters "didn't understand it", and taking Post's advice, might have voted NO. I suggested to the station that he change his advice to "If you don't understand a proposition, DON'T VOTE ON IT!" but this of course fell on deaf ears.

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  17. Hey 4:54pm anon....Perhaps with mega businesses making a mockery out of our current system, a little 'socialism' as you call it, would not be a bad thing for this country. Actually, FDR used what you would refer to as 'Socialism' to help lift this country out of the worst economic depression in our history. Perhaps you conveniently forgot to read that in your basic history of the United States.

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