During morning talk shows they usually show pets that are up for adoption. Mr. Flufferskins and Dr. Smooches are cute additions to anyone's family. But it takes a certain badass to adopt and tame the untameable beast that is Robocat.
If you're a local New Yorker—and either home by 5:30 or awake at 3:00am—odds are that you've stumbled upon the fledgling LXTV. Today the hosts couldn't fake enough professionalism to prevent their laughter about their new set design.
Lawndale, California has quite a pungent issue at hand—garlic flowers. The city planted them eight years ago to keep vampires away and now are discussing paying thousands of dollars to remove them. Why? KTLA investigates.
A drunken woman is determined to see her ex-boyfriend. She won't let something petty like being arrested for drunk driving AND a hit-and-run stop her. She'll just steal the ambulance and take it for a joy ride.
This isn't shaping up to be a very good day for local TV news personalities. Mike Sheehan, the former cop and Fox 5 reporter who was dismissed from his job this spring after crashing his car into an NYPD horse has pleaded guilty to drunk driving charges. Meanwhile NY1 political anchor Dominic Carter goes to court today on charges he beat up his wife. [NYDN, NYP]
Pity the poor reporter dispatched to the Vegas strip to get "man on the street" reactions from drunk tourists on the death of Michael Jackson. Steve Ryan of "ABC13 Action News" was one such reporter, and he struck back hard.
Chuck Scarborough has yet to be given a pink slip by WNBC, as per the rumors making the rounds yesterday, but the same can't be said for sports anchor Len Berman. The 20-year veteran of Ch. 4 will stick around for the next 30 to 60 days before bidding goodbye to his $1-million-a-year salary. Whether his "Spanning the World" bit lives on without him is unclear, although on a positive note, he'll no longer have to commute home to Long Island at 11:30pm every night. [Newsday]
Is Chuck Scarborough's tenure at WNBC coming to an end in the near future? He's been at the station for 35 years now, but Gawker reports his reported $3 million-a-year salary may be too rich for the local station, and it may be seeking to buy him out of his contract. In the meantime, a WNBC rep is denying the story: "He is not being bought out. Chuck is a big part of our station." [Gawker]
Something called the Project for Excellence in Journalism has just completed a decade-long study on local television in America. You may be shocked to hear that this study, conducted by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, found that people wanted more excellence in their journalism! According to their report, "the more local TV invests in quality reporting, the bigger its audience tends to be." Oh, "quality reporting" apparently does not mean "crime news and celebrity news," though where on the spectrum skateboarding dogs or tanning bed-related health scares is not specified. Hey, wouldn't you know, their methodology is flawed. As CJR notes, the study's claim that "hard news with high journalistic standards attracts viewers" doesn't take into account the cost of quality journalism, which may outweigh the benefit in audience size. Also, there is the correlation versus causation conundrum that (ironically!!!) bedevils pretty much all local tv "reporting" on "health" and "science." Like, maybe networks with large audiences and therefore high revenue can afford to do more and better reporting! And if their ratings drop they cut the budget and then can not longer afford real reporting. But the Project for Excellence in Journalism wishes very much that there was actually a market for Excellence in Journalism. Maybe there is! People always say they want better news. People also say they hate negative campaign ads. People also say they're totally going to eat better and work out.
One awkwardly rapping local television reporter might be written off as a crackpot. Two might simply be a coincidence. But six different videos of TV reporters breaking into rhyme? It's a trend that has spanned decades, but has only recently been teased out into the open by the hard work of YouTube skimmers. Complex puts together a definitive list of this painful but hypnotic media meme. We've included just one example for you after the jump: an apparently 17-year-old traffic reporter from North Carolina delivering her morning traffic report in the form of a spasmodic (drug-fuelled?) freestyle rhyme. Let's battle, girl:
To pimp its sugary, 200-calorie iced coffees, fast food giant McDonald's offered to pay some local TV newscasts for product placement. And of course the newscasts went for it, since local TV journalism is where ethical standards go to die. Meredith Corporation is putting the drinks in front of anchors at the Fox affiliate in Las Vegas (pictured) and at two CBS affiliates elsewhere. Tribune Company has the coffee at its Fox affiliate in Seattle. Even national Fox News is playing ball, placing McDonald's product at the News Corporation-owned station in Chicago. Station operators offered the Times any number of excuses, but the best has to be from the news director at the Las Vegas affiliate: He argues the placement is ethically OK because it is restricted to the "lighter, news-and-lifestyle" portion of his morning news show. Sounds like the portion of the program that might normally be given over to, say, segments on weight loss, fitness or preventing kids from becoming obese. But these days, if the station wants to do any reports that might upset McDonald's, it is supposed to yank the lucrative cups:
We can't actually improve on that headline. Kudos, City Room. But yes, a giant beaver was pulled to safety this afternoon by NYPD scuba units, who "were patrolling the United Nations in connection with the visit of Pope Benedict XVI and said the beaver appeared to be struggling to swim." Also: "It was not known if the beaver was male or female. ('It has pretty big claws,' Lieutenant Harkins said.)" [NYT]
The Executive Directory of the Port Authority—the nebulous but reliably corrupt and incompetently managed organization that owns all New York's airports and the WTC site, soon to be home of the Target Presents 9/11 Memorial Office Park and Citibank Playground at Ground Zero—resigned this morning. Anthony Shorris, appointed by hooker-lovin' ex-guv Eliot Spitzer last year, "told his staff that he has advanced every goal he tried to set for the agency—including growth at the ports, upgrades to the PATH commuter rail system and buying a fourth airport for the region." He advanced them all from "daydreams" to "fantasies." He was forced out because current adulterous New York Governor David Paterson is replacing everyone Spitzer appointed, and also because of 9/11. [NYT]
