Suspended KTVU anchor SPEAKS TO ME EXCLUSIVELY
KTVU anchor Frank Somerville has been on an indefinite suspension well over a month now. He hasn't heard anything; not a word from his KTVU/Fox employer; he's been camped out in his Uptown -Oakland condo, frustrated and wary of his status at KTVU. He himself has NOT SPOKEN to anyone, not even his bosses at KTVU, UNTIL NOW.
I REACHED OUT to Somerville via text and asked him if he wanted to get some info out
No one at the station --Fox/KTVU--has contacted me. So, I'm assuming I've done my last newscast.
"I want to make clear how many good people at the station who work so hard everyday. I wish I could tell them that in person. I apologize for all the disruption that this situation has created."
He was especially upset that his feud with KTVU management --in which he asked to read a tagline about minority women who go missing and get scant media attention--was the cause of his suspension and its subsequent aftermath. Clearly, Somerville didn't expect the backlash --and support too outside KTVU.
The controversy that probably spelled the end of Somerville's tenure at KTVU, where's he's been for over thirty years, twelve as a co-anchor on the 6 and 10 M News.
I asked him why he thought Fox hadn't communicated with him. "I have no idea."
Somerville told me his contract was up in late January, 2022, and that he hoped for an official resolution well before that time.
*Rich Lieberman 415 Media Exclusive
Thank you for the report, Rich. Count me in the camp that doesn't really care. I didn't tune in because he was there, I won't tune out because he's not there. The only reason I ever turn on KTVU is to get a peek at Gasia's set of Mikaelians or to see the sexy Heather Holmes.
ReplyDeleteGodspeed Frank.
Ditto the sexy Heather Holmes!
DeleteAs long as Gasia’s twins are on-air, the other old hags and old farts on the morning show can be given a pink slip for all I care. The reality is much different though. Dave Clark is protected by his race and age, and Pam Cook is protected by her gender, age, and weight. They’re just laughing their way to the bank knowing that they are now among the untouchable, geriatric, old geezer class along with Tom Vacar, Rob Roth, and Debora Villalon.
DeleteHow sexist of you. You're disgusting. Rich should take this down or at least edit your comment.
Delete2:08, weight is not a protected class in California. This means that Pam could get the boot if she keeps eating on Big Macs and burritos, especially if her contract is written such that a significant change in her appearance could be grounds for dismissal.
DeleteHH looked like a giraffe today and the checkout clerk for Assyrian corner market...your 5 o'clock shadow is coming through nicely....
DeleteI’ve also noticed Pam is gaining weight at a rapid pace. I just assumed she’s been stress eating with all the turmoil going on at The Firm.
Delete5:05 save the fake outrage for the HuffPo comments section.
Delete11:35am lol It’s just another keyboard warrior troll. Every blog has one or two. They look for ways to entertain themselves while the rest of us just live our lives.
DeleteOK, a close industry contact overheard Sunday at the smoking section that Frank’s definitely not knocking but would be willing to go back through the door. It’s gonna be a 12th hour deal but he’s still very likely coming back to KTVU’s evening anchor desk...Better chance there than anywhere else, at this point.
ReplyDeleteThe bigger story this morning should be how often ALL local TV news weather hacks get the Bay Area forecast wrong! Yes, the ominous weather hucksters were slinging their usual of late: ‘atmospheric river to unleash itself while we’re all bedways,’ complete with all the standard overhyped and dramatic doom and gloom trappings. All this to simply get folks to tune in to hear them talk and see what they're wearing, geesh!
For the record, we had 3/10ths of an inch down in the Santa Clara Valley! For accurate forecasts without the fluff: Weather Underground, hands down.
Specifically what station and who?
DeleteThe "smoking section" = parking lot or patio at pizzia joint at JLS??
DeleteOr is the smoking section the parking lot of the apartments next to ktvu? You know, the lot where employees go to gossip, vent and meet their love interests and secrets lovers?
DeleteWhere do they measure official rainfall for San jose? is it the airport under a tree? i live 10 miles from the airport and my rain total is always higher than what they show on channel 2
DeleteWhat a crock of BS from KTVU. Sound like a bunch of pricks funning it. So, he's getting dumped because of a comment about minority women?? Makes no sense
ReplyDeleteSure it makes sense - KTVU is a Fox station now, not an Oakland station. What care the network suits about minority women?
DeleteBut to be sure, his proposed comment simply provided a convenient excuse, because these days it's easier - legally - to dump someone for policy than for a personal substance problem, which only warrants suspension (and they've already done that).
And of course they won't say anything further, to Frank or anyone, or provide any kind of legal ammunition while they simply wait to run out the clock, which is all they have to do now. Ball-less as it is. Frank knows the score.
He and Veronica along with Dennis, should did their own produced newscast
ReplyDeleteHe is, and has been, a fool to speak with you. He has nothing to gain from this and further weakens/exacerbates his position with KTVU. Good job of exploiting someone who doesn't have the common sense to stay away from gossip blogs.
ReplyDeleteAre you kidding? Read the blog post at the top again a few times. He's basically said nothing. Boiling it down to a few words: He has heard nothing from his bosses, he *assumes* he won't be returning to the air at Fox/2, he's sorry if his situation has caused his co-workers any disruption. That's a very vanilla "statement". It's Rich who, like always, is trying to gin it up into something significant, the second coming of Herb Caen.
DeleteI've never been a fan of Frank's but this is a shabby way for Fox 2 to treat him. I think this is a combination of three things.
ReplyDelete1. A news director who is insecure and wanted to make a statement about who is boss.
2. Biting the hand that feeds him. Fox News Channel makes money off of exploiting murders of white women while giving lip service to the tragedies black women. While Frank probably wasn't going to single out his station's owner, this is a subject that hits home to Fox News.
3. A bottom-line mentality by management, believing that having a "face of the station" anchor isn't important anymore, and letting him go frees up money in the newsroom budget.
OK, but who on the staff now can anchor for hours on end in a crisis situation? Frank did a Cronkite-caliber job anchoring the station's coverage of the 2013 Asiana plane crash (this was a few days before the embarrassing pilot identity hoax, read by Tori Campbell). Now, if there's a major earthquake, who will be able to hold things together and ad-lib hours of coverage like Dennis Richmond and Elaine Corral did from the station's parking lot in 1989? By letting go of Frank, a station loses a lot of experience. Does management really think that Alex Savidge or Andre Senior are up to the job?
Heather Holmes and Mike Mibach are of that caliber, no doubt. They have both earned it, and no one at the station really compares to how they both read the news as well as polish-wise.
DeleteHolmes can report from the night club and Miback is the 3rd most interesting thing on his own show
DeleteIf Mike Mibach ever smiled, I think the earth would explode. Imagine him pared with Claudine Wong!
DeleteThey seem stuck on him as the prime time anchor lately, however.
"Heather Holmes and Mike Mibach are of that caliber, no doubt."
DeleteThanks for the laugh, 12:01!
Mike: We're getting word a plane crashed as it was trying to land at SFO. The passengers were no doubt frowning as the plane went down, just as I am now.
Heather: This is why I never wear nice clothes...like this off-the-shoulder animal print...when I fly. Wouldn't want it to get destroyed. Julie, do you have anything to add?
Julie: Such a sad story, Heather. Tsk.
Rich, I’ve noticed that Mike hasn’t worked the morning shift with Gasia ever since you broke the story that he often screams in parking lot out of frustration after working a shift with her.
DeleteOh the humanity, the self-flagellation, you'd think someone had died.
ReplyDeleteNo. You are giving yourself, and your blog, too much credit. Ask around. Do a local poll on Reddit or the like, those two are by far the most watchable...they both read and deliver it like old pros.
DeleteI think KGO Radio 810 would be a great move for Frank Somerville.
ReplyDeleteThat genuinely isn't a bad idea. The guy clearly has opinions, and he's a polished broadcaster. (Except when he's under the influence.)
DeleteIs Frank a good speller? Perhaps he could come back as a spell checker instead of reading the news. This morning shortly after 8:30 AM Steve Paulson's weather visual read "Morrning Rain". Does anybody check this stuff before it gets broadcast?
ReplyDeleteI've noticed the exact same thing, and it's almost always during the KTVU morning shows. At least the writing for the prime time shows seems to be done by people who have a baseline command of the English language. But yeah, the morning show is beyond embarrassing between graphics with spelling and grammatical errors, and Dave Clark and Frank Mallicoat competing to see who can commit more gaffes in their respective newscasts. By gaffes I mean constant mispronunciation of simple words, stumbling over words, omitting words during their reads, pausing at the wrong places while not pausing in between sentences, and then not taking the time to correct errors so they keep botching future reads (since they run the same story about 3 dozen times during the newscast).
DeleteA couple of recent more egregious examples are when Dave Clark referred to Madison Bumgarner as 'former Giants quarterback' on five reads in a row, and Frank Mallicoat referring to Oakland’s ‘Rockbridge’ neighborhood, four reads in a row. Neither he nor anyone in any position of influence told him that it’s actually RockRIDGE. So not only is the writing incompetent, but it's done by people with no local knowledge whatsoever. And then, as you mention, no one proofs or watches out for this stuff.
Sounds about right. Frank M. also referred to 'Lower Pacifica Heights' when referring to downed trees in the the San Francisco neighborhood. They need to pull him off the anchor desk and have him only do pre-recorded 'feel good' folksy reports from the field. Stories about the little old lady in Cotati who took up sewing during the pandemic, or little Johnny who is raising money so he could buy a new frog. Not sure what more it's going to take for them to realize he is not meant for LIVE television.
DeleteHe gets paid thru the end of his contract at the end of January, so KTVU is in contact with him. And like 10:48am, who cares?
ReplyDelete"He gets paid thru the end of his contract at the end of January, so KTVU is in contact with him."
DeleteHow so? You can be under contract and not be in contact.
This is the guy that had to do the DIRTY work and apologize to viewers over KTVU's Asiana airlines pilot name fiasco.
ReplyDeleteSaying...sorry....sorry...sorry
On behalf of KTVU.
Now....they STAB his back !!!
Way to go FOX 2
Racist Fox 2
BTW...they never gave us the correct pilot names.
But that would require actual WORK and fact checking.
The Fox-2 zoo news operation.
SUM-TING-WONG
WE-TOO-LOW
HOO-LEE-FOOK
BANG-DING-OW
....KTVU Asiana Airlines pilot names !!
Tank yu for watching Fox 2
> BTW...they never gave us the correct pilot names.
DeleteYes they did. On the day before's show. That's what I found so odd about that "breaking" story. They were "breaking" something they already knew.
Classic example of the head not knowing what the tail is doing.
@12:45 those names look correct to me.
Delete"I asked him why he thought Fox hadn't communicated with him. 'I have no idea.'"
ReplyDeleteBecause he didn't take the second tag (which you never talk about, Rich) out when told, then lied to the 6pm producer and said it had been okayed by Eikel when it hadn't. That's grounds for suspension, and that, combined with his stints with the bottle, are grounds for termination. Fox is on very safe ground here.
Congratulations on the Exclusive, Rich
ReplyDeleteI would imagine that there must be a tremendous amount of relief inside the KTVU building. Now they can put this episode behind them and move forward.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to my Frank the Tank aka Ron Burgundy fumbling the easiest words on the teleprompter every night. Breathing in deep before he starts mumbling words, all the cigs have gotten to him. I'm kind of sad. I guess I'll have to find another comedy show to fill my 6 pm slot.
ReplyDeleteFUCK ALL OF THEM FRANK, YOU DID
ReplyDeleteGOOD, AT LEAST THE PUBLIC KNOWS
KTVU IS NOW FOX NEWS
Rich congratulations on getting Frank on the record. it’s only a matter of time before one of the patethic local lamestream media outlets plagiarizes your work without giving you credit.
ReplyDeleteNice one, Rich...nice high, short, lob shot that is easy return.
DeleteFrank needs an intervention by people who know him, because if he slurs his speech off camera as he did on camera for close to a year, they need to get him help. He"s going to get liver damage if he drinks heavily or very often, ditto if he uses non-prescription or prescription drugs that are causing that problem. If he has some other health issue causing it, then it needs to be addressed. If it's an organic problem, and can't be completely fixed, then he needs to explain it publicly and maybe viewers can accept a speech defect acquired later in life and career. I don't know if they would have suspended him for the commentary issue alone, since they had suspended him previously for performance issues. If Frank can accept that he has some type of issue that needs to be addressed, that he has a speech and sometimes-confusion issue that he did not have even a year or two ago, then he may have a chance to get some kind of career back. His statement seems to demonstrate a denial issue.
ReplyDeleteThey already did. Mercury writer Martha Ross takes stuff from this blog and doesn't credit Rich for "the interview" with Frank. Published at 1:52 and updated at 3:42. Dirty work by the Mercury.
ReplyDeleteFigures. The Mercury and the San Francisco Comical have absolutely no journalistic integrity. Any fewer standards and they'd be on par with that lame clickbait rag written for and by 5-year-olds otherwise known as SFGate. Oh wait, nevermind, the Comical and SFGate are one and the same.
DeleteChronicle also attributed the story to the Merc, I call BS. Thanks Rich and you deserve proper credit for the story.
DeleteThe Santa Rosa Press Democrat has also attributed this story to the Mercury News.
DeleteSo they shamelessly steal stories with no attribution. Makes you wonder what other kind of sleazy ‘journalism’ tactics they use. I wouldn't put anything past them considering the Comical/SFGate have a millennial ‘burrito editor’ on their payroll. Herb Caen would turn in his grave.
DeleteWhat I thought when I saw the stories in the Murky News and Comical.
DeleteI made a comment on Murky's story on their website saying 415 had it first, but it was removed
Talk to her on twitter. Her in depth analysis involves stories on the Kardashians and Aaron Rodgers.
DeleteFrank Somervilles' on air apology & the pilot names read by Tori Campbell.
ReplyDeleteyoutu.be/c7PSv33qBtY
I logged on to this story to se what Otis III had to say and he didn't check in.. THATS THE BIG STORY!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThis just in: Julie Haener is taking the night off for the 293rd time this year.
ReplyDeleteBOOM! Thought I was the only one who noticed that. Imagine going to your employer and telling them that you want to make half a million dollars per year AND you expect to take vacation days 90% of the time. These people are living in an alternative reality.
DeleteGive her a break. Her son plays college football for a mediocre program down the street. His games are on weekends so that requires her to have to take vacation the entire week before and the entire week after his game. Isn’t that what all working mothers do when their little Johnny plays sports?
DeleteDo you work for ktvu? How did you know Julie would be off tonight?
DeleteThis is one hell of a scoop by RL. Rich is playing chess. Everyone else is playing checkers!
ReplyDeleteAnd the big papers just went and ripped him off. Sad sad sad.
DeleteImitation is the most sincere form of flattery. So we now know that the Murky and the Comical 1. have no journalistic integrity 2. have no sources 3. have thrown in the towel and conceded that YOU are the preeminent source for all things media in the Bay Area. Lamers.
ReplyDeleteKTVU has become too much "FOX" for me.The typical superficial blonde, Haener, and the witchy type, Holmes, posing as journalists. I just heard about this story. I don't watch this crap. These people are WAY overpaid. Right wing slant is very obvious now. Fox has tried to make it a slow transition but it's obvious propaganda now. Do yourself a favor and DUMP FOX KTVU.
ReplyDeleteWell stated, 10:44. If there's any doubt just watch one newscast and you'll quickly notice that 50% their stories are directly from Fox News or Fox Business. Of the remainder, 25% are from the local Fox affiliates in Sacramento and then the other 25% are from actual KTVU 'reporters.' And boy do they get mileage out of those stories. Last week they ran a story about a woman being scratched by a bear in Tahoe FIVE DAYS IN A ROW. I'm not kidding. They began running the story on Thursday night, ran it through the weekend and then on Monday night they ran it again. No edits, no tweaks, nothing. Literally re-racking the exact same package five days in a row.
DeleteMike Mibach will mostly get the evening news spot. The morning news is so hard to watch with Claudine and Gasia I tune to CBSN SF.
ReplyDeleteIf Mike gets the evening slot, it’s because he can’t stand working with Gasia, as Rich recently reported.
Delete