There are those that get it and those that don't.
I have been dogged on the KTVU story since its inception and will continue to pursue its course even if the majority of the Bay Area press, (and some of you), insist that I back off and offer up relentless there's no there there's --we'll really, that's not so.
First off, we all make mistakes. It's an everyday occurrence. In all walks of life and professions, even local TV News stations.
This was NOT one of your run-of-the-mill mistakes. It was, yes, epic. It involved people in the business, as many as 6-7 initially, and many more later, who escalated the mistake and only added fuel to the fire. To this day, we still have No Idea how it all went down, although I'm beginning to get some information on the missing pieces and hope soon, one day, that we know all the details.
This was not my doing. A local anchor-friend joked with me yesterday that "this Channel 2 'thing was handed to you on a silver platter." Sure, just what I ordered. Fact is, just when you think the whole thing can't get even more bizarre, it gets more bizarre and confounding. Now we're hearing more of what actually took place in the KTVU newsroom that fateful Friday afternoon.
Frankly, I'm getting tired of the complaining from people who tell me I'm beating a dead horse. I don't think that's the case. I don't believe a TV station with the reputation of a KTVU is above reproach. If it was a simple mistake, it would have been buried a day after it happened, but it didn't disappear . The sheer zaniness of what actually took place right on the screen before all of us hasn't evaporated. And in spite of people who insist this go away; many of whom work for KTVU, and a few sorted trolls who will always bitch no matter what, the story is still fluid: WHO, ultimately, was behind all of this incompetence? How could 4-5 people with a plethora of experience and TV journalistic savvy, working for a Legacy station, allow this to happen? Furthermore, how can people in upper management--people who should know better, handle this as poorly as the folks at Channel 2 have? It still, after almost the month, boggles the mind. Conundrum personified.
If the Bay Area media chooses to ignore this, so be it. The trades have NOT. The TV people and the media folks want more coverage. They too are interested in what went down and who and what might be going down in the future. They want to know. And in case you haven't read my latest post, there's a helluva lot more back stories to this than you could imagine. Believe me.
There's a way to handle this and a way not. The GM, whom I'm told is a "good guy", refuses to talk about this; it's been that way since day 1. The News Director, who has more fingerprints on all of this than an Newark, NJ crime lab, has said nothing. In fact, KTVU has still placed a complete gag order on all its personnel, from the phone operator to the interns in the newsroom. Are they that paranoid? Do they lack the basic functions of how to handle a crisis and not look like a bunch of rank amateurs?
There is more coming. Inevitably, I'm told, the dismissals are not final. There likely will be more. That's not on me, that's KTVU and Cox Media. Evidently, Cox and Channel 2 think this is still alive because the internal investigation is ongoing.
And I will be here to continue my pursuit of the truth until the very end. Even if the Bay Area media has moved on, I have Not.
UPDATE: Well, the SF Chronicle has picked up the story, (again): http://blog.sfgate.com/stew/2013/08/07/pilot-consultant-source-of-ktvus-fake-pilot-list-report-says/
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