Salt Lake News Director: I Have Nothing to do with it
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The business is called "Blankets by Brian" and Brian is also the partner of KTVX News Director George Severson. A fact that was never pointed out in the segment by KTVX.
Well, Severson emailed FTVLive to say that it was all done on the up and up. He writes, "Brian’s business, Blankets By Brian, is indeed a legitimate sales client of our stations. I’m proud he chose our stations to do business with rather than one of our competitors, whom I’m sure he will one day also be advertising with since he is a smart businessman and knows he must secure exposure on a variety of platforms and media outlets.
I can assure you that I am not involved with the scheduling, negotiating or execution of any of my husband’s advertorial segments on our stations. He is treated exactly the same as any other sales client. Our station is one of the leading media outlets in America when it comes to fully disclosing advertorial content on our news and local programming. I’m very proud of our station’s efforts and attention to this very important content disclosure responsibility."
Now, it is here, where I could go all off on the line, "advertorial content on our news" which just disgust me to no end, but I'll save that for another day.
KTVX GM General Manager, Richard Doutre` Jones, also released a statement about the station's relationship with blanket Brian:
“In regards to Blankets by Brian, I want to be clear that Brian Severson is a sales client and a vendor for our client gifts this Christmas all interactions had Zero to do with George who has had no involvement nor was he the conduit to working with B-by-B. Our contact to Brian as a client originated from many people who had purchased blankets from Brian for gifts for friends and family members and were blown away at the high quality of the product, which is what caught the attention of sales management.”
OK, I lived a longtime on this earth and I have never heard a single person talk about their blankets, more or less going to a TV sales department and saying you need to land this blanket guy as a client.
But, I will give KTVX the benefit of the doubt.
We will still stand behind the story, that anytime you have spouse or relative of station management on the air, it should be disclosed. It seems that a few simple words, acknowledging the relationship, would take away any look of impropriety.
Just saying....
