Steven Stock currently an I-Team reporter at WESH, the NBC affiliate in Orlando will be joining the WFOR I-Team shortly. By all accounts very experienced he’s been at WESH since 1991 and has received numerous state and national awards for his investigative work.
RogerSimmons tv- Veteran WESH reporter heads to Miami
/hat tip ccc229
Former WSVN health reporter Marilyn Mitzel has filed an age discrimination lawsuit against the station’s parent company Sunbeam Television. Mitzel says she was fired in December of 2005 even though she had 2 years left on her contract and alleges Sunbeam didn’t giver her a reason for terminating her other than that they were ‘changing directions’ in their health reporting. She also alleges that once she turned 50 the station stopped assigning her to fill in for missing news anchors and instead used younger talent.
Sunbeam’s lawyer says the case is without merit. In 2006 Marlyn Mitzel filed a complaint with the EEOC which was dissmissed after an investigation because the comission says was it “is unable to conclude that the information obtained establishes violations of the statutes.”
Mitzel worked at WSVN for 17 years and was the health expert for two segments - ‘Doc Talk’ and ‘Health Cast’. Since her departure Channel 7 has no medical reporter and they only kept the ‘Health Cast’ segment which now consists mostly of repackaged content from the CNN health unit reported by Judy Fortin.
Miami-Herald - Suit: Firing unhealthy for 50-plus health anchor
7’s Charles Billi got some bad news on Saturday. While he anchored the news at 10pm thieves broke into his home and took everything they could get their hands on. A neighbor tried to spook them and they dropped his HDTV on the front lawn and ran away. Other than trashing his house the thieves made away with close to 300 DVDs, some electronics, even a jar full of change and “boxes full of Billi’s belongings”.
They probably monitored his schedule and when they knew he won’t be around made their move.
Miami Herald - While on air, TV anchor’s home ransacked
TV veteran Peter D’Oentch is joining WFOR. He was a reporter at WPLG for over 15 years until the station began transitioning away from 5pm news in 2004 when he was transfered to a producer position after which he left for a job in Nashville. D’Oench’s first day on the air at WFOR is Labor Day.
The FCC has denied the United Church of Christ challenge to the licenses of WFOR and WTVJ who refused to run ads for the church in 2004.
The ad in question depicted would-be worshippers at the entrance of a church guarded by bouncers who refuse entrance to a gay couple, young Hispanic man, man in a wheelchair and African-American woman with the tag line ‘Jesus didn’t turn people away … Neither do we. No matter who you are or where you are on life’s journey, you’re welcome here’. CBS and NBC took issue with the content and banned the ad
The FCC says their decision was based on the fact that it was CBS and NBC who refused to run the advertising and not the stations themselves and that UCC could have gone directly to WFOR and WTVJ and ask for reconsideration.
The United Church of Christ issued a statement saying they are “appaled that a few network executives can decide
that it is ‘too controversial’ for a church to publicly welcome every
member of society.”
Broadcasting and Cable - FCC Denies United Church Of Christ Miami License Challenges
United Church Of Christ statement on the FCC dismissal
WPTV just announced they have gone HD, first in South Florida. All newscast are now 16:9 wide-screen 1080i format.
Video from the broadcast introduction
WPTV.com - WPTV Broadcasting News in High Definition
WPLG donated over 5000 hours worth of video to The Louis Wolfson II Florida Moving Image Archive. The footage is mainly from the 70s and 80s and will be digitized and stored at the archive which is based at the main brach of the Miami-Dade Public Library.
Local10.com video - Local 10 Donates years of historical video
Miami Herald - News tapes expand eclectic Wolfson archive
Video - Inside The Wolofson archives
WPLG hit the big 50 on August 2nd. Congrats to them.
Here’s a nice video from August 2nd broadcast looking back 50 years with some interesting history such as Sally Jesse Rafael being a WPLG alum. Wow!
Laurrie Jennings blogs 50th Anniversay Quiz
Looking for no doubt their next sweeps story stunt, NBC sent a producer to the DEFCON convention wired with hidden cameras to try and get people to confess to a hacking crime. But the dumb producer got caught.
According to ZDnet Michelle Madigan was offered official press credentials no less than four times but refused them opting instead to put her hidden camera gear on and film and interview without disclosing it to attendants. She was told video taping was not allowed, and not knowing she’s speaking to a conference staffer said that she sees nothing wrong with what she’s doing and that people in Kansas would be very interested to know what was “really” going on at DEFCON. Redneck pandering much?
She didn’t take the oliver branch and DEFCON organizers set her up by announcing the “spot the undercover reporter” game at which time Madigan bolted as fast as she could followed by about 150 people armed with cameras all the way to her car.
ZDnet says there’s speculation Madigan was also after uncovering federal agents attending the conference. Which would seem pretty sensational to Bubba in Podunk, KS but it is something anyone who’s ever read anything about DEFCON because the feds go there to gain knowledge how to fight cyber crime and protect IT infrastructure. You know - Russian and Chinese hackers, probing US Government web sites looking for sensitive information, exploiting hardware and software …
Hype and pandering is so much easy tho.
ZDNet - Undercover NBC Dateline reporter bolts from DEFCON 2007
DEF CON - Official website
WPBF anchor Kristin Hoke just gave birth to a baby girl a couple months ago and now the Palm Beach Post reports she just found out her cancer has returned. Her doctor found cancerous spots on her lungs and sternum during a bronchitis check-up so now she has to start chemotherapy.
PalmBeachPost.com - Channel 25 anchor Kristin Hoke’s cancer returns
PalmBeachPost.com - Hoke suffers a setback: Cancer Returns
WPBF.com - Kristin’s Journey
New Feature: Reporting Comments
Due to some people’s habitual bashing and name calling in the comments, and my inability to constantly monitor what people are posting, I’ve added a feature that allows you to report comments you think are inappropriate.
Now under every comment made by blog visitors there is a ‘Report Comment’ link which will take you to a page that will give you the opportunity to say why you find the comment inappropriate and report it. Please make sure to fill the form out otherwise I’ll have to guess