Barbara Walters Will Announce her Retirement Today on The View

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Barbara Walters Will Announce her Retirement Today on The View

Remember when Barbara Walters went on The View and said all those reports that she was going to retire from the show were wrong?​

Well forget what she said.​

This morning on The View Walters is going to announce that she is retiring from the show. ​

Ba Ba will tell viewers that next summer, she will retire from TV journalism. Until then, she will continue to anchor and report for ABC News, appear on The View and anchor specials throughout the year including a “20 Years of 10 Most Fascinating People” special in December, an Oscars special, and a May career retrospective.

What Babs has to say and why she denied those (correct) reports back in March after the jump.  ​

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Ouch! This one has to Hurt....

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Ouch! This one has to Hurt....

It's the rating book and that means it's the time when Anchors and former Anchors talk about their medical problems, i.e. cancer, addiction, strokes...because after all it is all about them.

Down in Houston, there is a bit of a twist to the story.​

Most often when Anchors and former Anchors talk about their "problem" they do so on their current or former station. That's not the case with former longtime KTRK sports anchor Tim Melton.

Melton suffered a stroke back in October 2011. FTVLive told you last month that Melton had parted ways with KTRK when is contract expired. ​

Now, Melton is talking about his stroke and his effort to recover from it, but he's not telling his story to his old station KTRK. ​

So who is he talking to? and Why? After the skip.  ​

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Miami Station Continues to Pimp New Weather Hire

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Miami Station Continues to Pimp New Weather Hire

FTVLive was the FIRST to tell you that WSVN morning weather anchor Julie Durda was leaving the station and headed across the street to WPLG. ​

Now, WPLG seems to be using every avenue they can to tell South Florida viewers that Durda is on their station. ​

Billboards, bus ads, radio and TV spots, and social media pages all promote her new role as the weekday morning meteorologist at WPLG-Ch. 10 in the Fort Lauderdale-Miami TV market.

Although local stations typically promote their anchor teams with spots, WPLG's recent campaign is different in that station officials are plugging one air personality — best known for helping drive morning ratings at her former station, WSVN-Ch. 7 — and it's stirring up all kinds of attention in the social media sphere.

More on the morning TV wars after the leap.  ​

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Bounced in Buffalo?

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WIVB General Manager Chris Musial is leaving the station at the end of month and more than a few insiders believe that he is being pushed out.

​Musial started as an intern at the station and then moved through the ranks.

He was bumped up to news director and finally to GM after the sudden death of the station's last General Manager.

​When Musial took over the station as GM, it was a solid number 1. Now it's number 2 and Musial says he's leaving to....say it with me.... "spend more time with his family". 

No one is officially saying whether ​Musial is leaving on his own or if he's being pushed and Musial isn't returning phone calls. So we're betting he was pushed. 

It also means that the deathwatch is also on for WIVB News Director Joe Schlaerth.

Schlaerth is not well liked by the staff and really does not seem to be very good at his job. Both of those add up to.....say it with me.... leaving to spend more time with my family.

Stay tuned....​

ABC to Launch App with Full Time Streaming

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ABC to Launch App with Full Time Streaming

ABC is set to do something that hasn't been done before, but should have been done a long time ago.

The Disney network is finally giving into the fact that people want to watch TV on other devices such as their television.​ They also maybe one upping Aereo in the process.

ABC announced the launch of its Watch ABC app to allow pay-TV subscribers access to live, linear streaming of viewers' local ABC station programming -- including network, local and syndicated content -- starting in the New York and Philadelphia markets.

What the network say about the app and when it will launch after the leap.  ​

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Robin Roberts Message to Mom

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Robin Roberts Message to Mom

Robin Roberts posted a message on her Facebook page to her Mom that she lost about 9 months ago.

Last year, Roberts was diagnosed with MDS, a rare blood and bone marrow disorder. She announced that she would take medical leave and undergo treatment for MDS, which included receiving a bone marrow transplant from her sister, Sally Ann. Days before the transplant, Roberts' mother, Lucimarian Roberts died at the age of 88.

Roberts posted a message to her mom on her Facebook wall. Roberts and her mother wrote a book together, which came out about one year ago. The "Good Morning America" host posted a photograph of her and her mother at their book party.

The note after the hop.   ​

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Blip: Seth to Replace Jimmy after he Replaces Jay

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Seth Meyers will take over “Late Night” in 2014.

The “Saturday Night Live” head writer and host of the “Weekend Update” segment will be the fourth host of the 12:30 a.m. show on NBC when he succeeds Jimmy Fallon, who is getting promoted to the “Tonight Show.”

“Every discussion led to Seth,” said an NBC source. “He's brilliant, got the talent, the chops and Lorne (Michaels) loves him.”

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Bloomberg Reporters in Snooping Scandal

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Bloomberg Reporters in Snooping Scandal

Bloomberg reporters have been keeping tabs on Wall Street using their company's financial terminals, the New York Post reports. Bloomberg terminals, which cost $20,000 a year or more to lease, are a fixture in the banking world. But according to the NY Post, Goldman Sachs executives recently discovered that reporters could track when investors were logging into the terminals, as well as what they were doing — from looking at a wire story to using the messaging tool. In one case, a reporter apparently asked a Goldman Sachs executive whether a partner had left the bank, mentioning that he hadn't been logging into his terminal.

Mora efter the jump.  ​

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Motown Reporter in Jail after Violating "Super Drunk" driving law

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There's "drunk" and then there's "super drunk".

WDIV (Detroit) reporter Kevin Dietz crossed over the line into the "super drunk" category and is now sitting behind bars and has been for a while.

Dietz sits in Motown Jail for violating what is called the "Super Drunk" driving law.

Cops busted Dietz back in February. They say he was driving with a blood alcohol level of .17 or more. THat is more than double the legal limit. 

Dietz sits behind bars, where he has been since April 18. He's serving a 30 day sentence.

Dietz's driving license has been suspended through May 2014 for violating the "Super Drunk" driving law and for his refusal to take a breathalyzer.

WDIV's web site posted a statement from Dietz, which says, "I am deeply sorry for my actions. I made a mistake for which i apologize to my family, WDIV and to the viewers. I accept full responsibility and am taking the necessary steps to deal with this matter."

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Sponsor Love - NWT

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Sponsor Love - NWT

Another week comes to a close and once again we want to thank each and everyone of you for stopping by FTVLive.​

Our inside the media website continues to grow each and everyday and it is because people like you talk about us, tweet us or Facebook us and we really do appreciate it.​

More and more websites are going behind paywalls and that is one of the main reason FTVLive came out from behind the paywall. ​We want to give you the best coverage of the news media, but we don't want to bust your budget.

How dod we do it? With great sponsors! 

Sponsors like No Whining Talent. An awesome company founded by a couple of News Directors.

 More on their story after the jump. 

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Howie Kurtz Goes Silent on Twitter (Updated: He's Alive!)

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Former Newsweek/Daily Beast TV "except for CNN" Critic Howard Kurtz has gone eerily ​silent on Twitter.

Kurtz was fired....ummmm....parted ways with the Daily Beast after catching a lot of flack for the mistakes he made on the NBA player Jason Collins story.​

Kurtz appeared last Sunday on his ​CNN show ironically named Reliable Sources to apologize for his awful reporting and since that day he hasn't tweeted even once.

Kurtz who had been Tweeting almost non-stop and using the social media site to pimp his "friend's" website the Daily Download, has been quiet on Twitter all week. ​

Looking back it appears to be the longest amount of time that Kurtz has ever gone without tweeting since he joined the social media network.​

Here is the last tweet he sent out: ​

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Updated: It's Alive!!! After reading our story, Howie finally sent out a Tweet on Saturday morning. 

NBC Rolls the Rock Right off the Schedule

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When NBC first launched Rock Center with Brian Williams they promised that they would give the show a three year commitment. ​

Less than two years after the show launched, NBC has already given up on the show.​

NBC insiders tell FTVLive that the network will be naming Deborah Turness as the  new News President next week and they wanted to ​pull the plug on the show before she took over.

"They didn't want to make it look like she canceled the show just after taking over as President," said one NBC insider to FTVLive. 

NBC never had any patience with the one hour news magazine show. They continued to move it around the schedule and never gave it a chance to ​pick up an audience. 

It was a huge mistake that hopefully the new boss won't be making. ​

NBC This/Close to Hiring New News Boss

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After the guys screwed it up, NBC is ready to let a lady be in charge.​

NBC is expected (most likely on Monday) to name Deborah Turness the new President of NBC News.

She will replace Steve Capus who was pushed out at the Peacock. back in February 

Turness is currently the head of Britain’s ITV News.

ITV is known for doing a very good job with a small budget any many inside 30 Rock think that is exactly ​what Comcast is looking for.

Sources tell FTVLive that ​Turness will be announced as the first female President sometime next week.

Stay tuned... ​

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Jeff Zucker Makes Bold Claims about "New Day"

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Jeff Zucker Makes Bold Claims about "New Day"

CNN news boss Jeff Zucker is becoming the car salesman of cable news.​

Each person he hires and each show he puts on the air he makes claims that some would say are over the top.​

Today, Zuck and the gang met the press for CNN's next attempt at a morning show that won't suck. But, if you listened to Zucker, "New Day" is the next Today Show back when the Today Show was good.​

Never mind that the show hasn't even hit the air yet. ​

More after the jump.   ​

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