No! You Can't Be serious?!

OK cable news networks, please tell us you guys are doing this on purpose and Ashton.....errrr Chris Kutcher is going to jump out of our TV set and say we've been punk'd.

A day after FTVLive showed you how MSNBC moved Buffalo, Syracuse and Binghamton across the state on a map, HLN does them one better. 

Nancy Grace's show didn't even get the city in the right state. The show moved  Morehead Lake, Idaho into the middle of Oklahoma. 

I'm sure there is a good Morehead joke to go along with this story, but it's too early.  

Ummmm..... I Think I Can Guess

WABC Reporter Sarah Wallace was covering the story of the NJ Transit bus driver that was accused of masturbating while driving the bus. 

According to her Twitter post, Wallace asked the guy "What were you thinking?" 

Let's see he was Masturbating... do you really want to know what he was thinking Sarah?

If the bus driver had not been caught, word is he would have gotten off at the next stop.

Thank you...... I'll be here all week.  

Newt already Rocking the Boat at CNN

Fresh new CNN employee Newt Gringich is taking his network to task and his show hasn't even hit the air.

Gingrich is complaining about CNN's planned Hillary Clinton documentary.

Though the CNN newsroom is not involved in the project, it will still air on the network -- something that has caused Republican National Committee chair Reince Priebus to pledge that CNN will be banned from any upcoming Republican debates.

Gringrich says that CNN should grant the RNC equal time if they run the Hillary documentary.

Newt isn't the only CNN staffer who doesn't like the idea of the doc. Candy Crowley has said that the documentary would make things "more difficult" for her and her colleagues.

But at least Crowley has been at CNN for years and maybe has more of a right to question her network. 

Newt hasn't even got his CNN employee idea and orientation packet yet.

Look out Jeff Zucker!

H/T HuffPo  

The Redhead on Today

Al Roker posted a Vine this morning showing Savannah Guthrie's new hairdo.  

Guthrie has gone with red as her new hair color.  

FTVLive likes it...in fact we like it so much with think Matt Lauer should change his hair colo......... errrrrrrrrr..... never mind.  

The Viewers Demanded It!

In our 20+ years of working in TV News, not one time (NEVER) have we heard a viewer says they wanted the station to add a newscast.

Yet it seems like every time a station does add a newscast, they claim it was because the viewer demanded it.  

The latest station to give us this baloney is WMTW in Portland, Maine. Starting Sept. 9th the station will start doing a 5PM newscast.

Why?  

"Viewers want more and continually tell us that they want News 8 earlier in the afternoon," GM Dave Abel said. "We're thrilled that WMTW is growing each year and across so much of our programming and platforms." Adding a 5 p.m. newscast was "a logical step," he said.

"By strengthening our product we will reward our longtime watchers with more local weather and news while attracting a growing audience seeking something new and fresh," Abel said.

Well it's good to know that the new newscast will be fresh and not just some news from like a month ago. 

Anchor Tracy Sabol and meteorologist Roger Griswold will be part of the news team for the new broadcast, Abel said.

We've heard from the GM, but doesn't Anchor Roger Griswold get an obligatory sound bite that says absolutely nothing and panders to the viewers?

The new newscast, "opens up a large opportunity for hard-working Mainers to watch our reports, our forecasts and prepare them for the rest of the day and the week," Griswold said.

Ahhhhh...now the press release is complete.  

Al Jazeera America to be Like NPR

If you are wondering (and aren't we all) what the new Al Jazeera America will be like?  

The net promises it won't be like it's middle eastern conutrepart that pissed many Americans off by broadcasting video messages from Al Qaeda terrorists including Osama Bin Laden.

No...this will be the kinder and friendlier Al Jazeera.  

AJA network officials are promising measured, down-the-middle news reporting more reminiscent of NPR than anything on TV.

Will this win over American viewers and brings ratings? 

Of course not, but you got to give them credit for trying.  

It Took 49 Years....

.....But Glenn Beck finally admitted that he is in fact a clown. 

Anchor Comes Out and is Promptly Fired

It didn't take long after breaking the news for a Russian anchor to lose his job.  

Anton Krasovsky, a host and editor-in-chief of the Kremlin-backed KontrTV, came out during a broadcast Aug. 9 and was promptly fired from his job.

"I’m gay, and I’m just the same person as you, my dear audience, as President Putin, as Prime Minister Medvedev and the deputies of our Duma," Kravosky said. 

"I have made a lot of money in television and I understood that I’d lose everything," the 37-year-old said about his decision to come out publicly. "But I also understood that I couldn’t do anything else. I didn’t do it so that I would get hundreds of likes on my Facebook page. I did it because I wanted them to hear it in the Kremlin. And they heard it, and were surprised."

Video of Kravosky’s coming-out announcement was deleted from KontrTV's website and YouTube. 

Anti-gay Russian laws have made it virtually impossible to be an out gay or lesbian. Violence against LGBT people, particularly gay teens, is on the rise among Russian neo-Nazi groups. Law enforcement implicitly condones the violence and often participates in it.

 Wisconsin Gazette 

Weatherman Being Phased out in Buffalo

WKBW is slowly kicking their longtime weatherman out the door. 

At the end of this month, Meteorologist Mike Randall will have been working at the station for 30 years.

So how is the station rewarding their longtime weatherman? 

But cutting his pay and taking away his title of Chief Meteorologist. 

Randall is now the station's "senior meteorologist."  Aaron Mentkowski is now being referred to as the station’s "chief meteorologist." 

Randall is also having his hours at the station cut by about 20%.  

Sources add that the plan to reduce Randall's hours isn’t his idea.

Channel 7 General Manager Mike Nurse this morning confirmed that Randall's hours are being reduced but painted a more positive picture about why it is happening than sources have told me.

Nurse said the reductions in hours in the new deal "gives Mike more time for his other endeavors."

Nurse declined to say whether Randall took a pay cut. 

Yeah, like we can't figure that one out. 

H/T Buffalo News

RIP

Sad news coming out of Egypt.

Sky News cameraman Mick Deane was shot and killed in Egypt this morning.

Mick had worked for Sky for 15 years, based in Washington and then Jerusalem.

He was part of the team covering the violence in Cairo. The rest of the team are unhurt.

The Head of Sky News John Ryley described Mick as the very best of cameramen, a brilliant journalist and an inspiring mentor to many at Sky.

Sky's Foreign Affairs Editor Tim Marshall called Mick "a friend, brave as a lion but what a heart… what a human being".

He added: "Micky was humorous in a dry way, he was wise and when you're on the road with small teams, people like that are diamonds to be with.

"Our hearts go out to his family. He died doing what he'd done so brilliantly for decades."

Prime Minister David Cameron tweeted: "I am saddened to hear of the death of cameraman Mick Deane, covering Egyptian violence.

H/T Sky News

Arizona Weatherman "Resigning" from the Station

Call me cynical, but I don't believe one bit of this stuff that is being shoveled out at KOLD in Tucson. 

The station issued a statement saying that chief meteorologist Chuck George has "resigned." He's leaving the station to pursue a doctoral degree.

George has been on and off the air for years. Over the last few years, George has left the station a number of times for long absences. 

He came out during a rating book and said that he was battling depression. Then a few weeks after that interview, he was suddenly gone from the air again. He never did come back. 

Now word is that George has decided to leave the station.  

Here are the sound bites from George and the station, neither of which we lend any credence to what-so-ever:

“This is the right time for me to pursue my lifelong dream,” George said in the news release. “I want to continue my love of science in the academic community by pursuing a career in teaching and science in academia. It is a tough decision to leave my friends and family at KOLD as well as the wonderfully supportive Southern Arizona community". 

“Chuck is known for teaching viewers about the science of weather,” KOLD Vice President and General Manager Debbie Bush said. “He made weather informative and fun in Tucson. He helped hire a great team of meteorologists that, together, made KOLD the leader in severe weather coverage. He was a great team member and we’re going to miss him. We also know that this is what he wants and we want to support him.”

How refreshing would it have been for the station to be honest and say something like this: 

"Chuck has taken for extended leaves from the station and while we did our best to be patient while he battles his personal demons, it was just time for us to move on."

God that would be so nice. 

What The?

If you get lost anywhere in the State of New York, I wouldn't go asking MSNBC for directions.  

The cable news network that admits they really don't like covering news, shows they really aren't big fans of geography either. 

Check out this screen shot from Martin Bashir's show. 

FTVLive grew up in Buffalo, NY and we are certain that it is not located there. In fact despite living over 20 years in NY state, we have never been to where MSNBC thinks Buffalo is in the Empire State. 

Syracuse and Binghamton have also been moved to locations nowhere close to where they really are. 

Maybe it's a good thing that MSNBC doesn't like covering news, it's more than likely with their geography skills, they would never find it anyway.