The Mile High Ego? No Way!
FTVLive FIRST told you that KUSA Anchor Adele Arakawa was leaving the station.
The FTVLive story prompted Tenga/KUSA and Arakawa to move up her announcement by weeks.
Arakawa claimed when she announced she was leaving that, "approached me 18 months before my current contract expired to ask me to stay for another term."
An former TV Agent tells FTVLive, "When she proudly recalls that Tegna came to her “18 months before the end of my contract!” — it made me laugh. She’s so naive — or egocentric — that she doesn’t understand how business works. They were doing some long term planning and wanted to see what was next, and convince her that SHE was the one making the decision. She doesn’t understand that if she hadn’t made that decision, they would have put powers in motion to create a publicly palatable exit," the former Agent said.
In our stories FTVLive called Arakawa a "FTVLive favorite". We watched Arakawa years ago in Chicago and loved her work.
But since our story, a number of people inside and outside KUSA claim that Arakawa possesses a mile high ego. Not uncommon in the world of TV news, but these people insist that her ego is out of control.
No! To me that's like a kid finding out there is no Santa Claus (don't believe them kids, there really is). Now, I come to find out that one of my favorites is really just another Anchor with a giant ego? The first few people that told me that, I blew them off, but then more and more came forward, people that work with her. They were saying she thinks she's queen of the station.
In Arakawa's announcement that she was leaving, the ego certainly did seem to show. At one point she said this, "I had wanted to wait at least a few more weeks to announce my retirement, one: because I believe Cheryl Preheim, whose last day at 9NEWS is December 16th , deserves the attention and accolades for her many years here and her contributions to this community...."
Really? You're so huge that announcing that you're leaving will take the entire spotlight off poor Cheryl? Is that what you think?
People can tell me about Arakawa's rants in the newsroom. They can tell me about her huge ego. Like the kid wants to believe in Santa, I'm going to still believe Arakawa is a beautiful woman, that Anchors the news and never acts as if she is bigger than anyone else. And in between newscasts, she's out feeding homeless cats and helping kids.
You believe what you want, Santa and I will be sitting over here, with our own beliefs.
Here's Arakawa's announcement if you haven't seen it.