The Inbox...

FTVLive received a couple of emails that we thought we should share. One is about the state of working at Sinclair, and the other is a take on CNN these days.

Both are posted below.

Email:

Good morning Scott,

You document more than anyone else the comings and goings of tv news talent, I would be curious if your reporting has reflected a significantly larger portion of people leaving the business are leaving from Sinclair stations?  Anecdotally, it seems like that's the case, and it seems like Sinclair has the most job openings.  I know because I am at a Sinclair station and like almost everyone else here, I've been looking at my exit plans.

I'm wondering if these people are truly getting burned out by the industry or if Sinclair has just found it profitable to hire talent on the cheap and run them into the ground?

Email:

Hey Scott,

So I have an unproved theory but I think David Zaslav is that way over bearing boss that hovers over Chris and he can't get out of the way to let chris do what he needs too. Case in point this past friday the 9-midnight blocks on cnn fell below 200K viewers and it was taped shows. Even if it's friday night, no one would cede 3 hours in primetime like it's a Saturday night given how down ratings are for the network. It's too risky. 

Then David Zaslav appeared on cnbc recently - basically running his mouth but not informed enough to ward off CNN's past stance and defend the new stance. Basically if chris was on there or anyone who works in news would say that clearly it was all zucker and that this is a new page. He doesn't do it and fumbles the ball then admits something that's not true given CNN has a new editorial which takes seconds to see. He's friends with zucker and given how Zas works publicly I wouldn't doubt that he talked with zucker about cnn and made the choice for the rally for ratings based off that convo. 

The third piece to this is that on monday nights and some other nights MSNBC lets morning joe team air a 8pm special which leads me to believe (and quite obvious) that Chris must've offered mornings, nights or both to joe and mika and msnbc to counter the offer allowed them specials to stroke their egos. The only reason joe & mika would leave msnbc is for primetime.

But when you put al these things together and the randomness of the schedule and on air talent it looks like Zas is the kind of guy who calls the shots uninformed despite all the people working under him. I had a tv station manager I used to work for who couldn't get out of his own way and it's all the same pattern. We would have to work 3 times harder to give him what he wanted but try to course correct behind his back. Chris and co at cnn can't say this publicly obviously. But with chris's record, even if he failed in his own way it would not be like this at all. Given the way Zas handled hbo max as well the dude can't get out of his own way.