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It doesn’t take a genius to realize that there has been a severe decline in quality at what was once was the envy to all TV stations around the country. I remember speaking to a long-time WTVJ tipster, who said that when they first joined the station, they had this excitement because she was joining ‘the famous WTVJ – the first in Miami!’ When did NBC6 become the laughingstock of the nation? When did WTVJ stop being “South Florida’s News Leader?” When did the famous WTVJ become a station NBC Universal is dying to drop?
How the hell did this happen?
A lot of people have different opinions of when this astounding decline began – what’s your take?
Talk about it here, and don’t forget to sign up while you’re there!
On Sunday I noticed that at 03:04am early Friday or Saturday morning someone, anonymously, had left us a message in our meebo tip box saying the following:
“All posts about [...] must be deleted by June 30th from your site or you will be sued for defamation”.
I am not certain if this was meant as a joke by someone with nothing better to do in the middle of the night. Usually with issues such as an alleged defamation one doesn’t (and any lawyer will tell them should absolutely not) go around threatening anonymously with a lawsuit unless do this or that. That is not how things work.
And not only because it is a felony in many states to intimidate and harass but also because when you go to court and a judge looks at your behavior he or she may not look kindly on threats of this nature. Threats meant to intimidate and harass someone from exercising a lawfully given right!
Blog post vs blog comment
It also appears that this person, or persons, if they are not joking, does not make a distinction between a blog post and blog comment. Me and Alex make blog posts, visitors make comments!
And … as our disclaimer (by which everyone who comments is bound whether they have read it or not) states SFLTV is not responsible for what commenters do or say.
Is this claim even lawfully accurate?
The Communication Decency Act of 1996, Section 230 says yes. And The Electronic Frontier Foundation in their Blogger’s Legal Guide expands further on it in more detail. Wikipedia has more on Section 230 which states:
No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider
The law defines an “interactive computer service” as:
“interactive computer service” means any information service, system, or access software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer server.
The Washington Post’s former assistant legal counsel David Ardia explains Section 230 of the CDA and in a recent speech where he also said the following:
One big question that comes up when I talk about these immunity provisions is: What happens if you’ve been notified by someone that a statement on your site is defamatory, or invades privacy, or somehow opens up a lawsuit? Do you have to take that material down? The answer to that is no.
The cases have been very clear in saying that you have no obligation to remove material from your site if you’ve been notified that it’s defamatory or otherwise problematic. If you think about that, it might strike you as: “Geez, that doesn’t sound right.” But courts don’t want to put you in the position of having to determine whether or not if something is defamatory or not.
We have a hands off policy in regard to comments, our disclaimer states we don’t actively monitor them and especially that users are responsible for what they say. And the law is on our side backed up by years of legal precedent even if we had no disclaimer.
In the past however I have, as a courtesy, removed comments that made some current and former TV talent uncomfortable. They contacted me and very respectfully mentioned their concerns and asked for assistance which as the law clearly states they aren’t entitled to. They didn’t resort to threats, name calling,
We will not however be threatened or intimidated and if this continues we will have the proper authorities and our lawyer look into it.
And to those of you out there running blogs it’s a good idea to read up on that EFF link I posted above and visit The Citizen Media Law Project, former assistant counsel to the Washington Post David Ardia is it’s director. The site provides a wealth of information and if anything can inform you and answer a lot of questions as to what you can can’t do as a blogger.
Oh the drama! Thursday night, just before closing time here at the SFLTV world headquarters and newsroom, we discovered to our shock that we were banned and blocked from following WTVJ’s Today in South Florida! In the past, I’ve spoken with their executive producer (as well as some of the on-air talent) via their twitter account, @TodayinSF. When I realized that I wasn’t “following” them, I clicked follow and: SHOCK! We’re blocked! Both accounts, @AlexSFLTV and the main one @sfltv are blocked from following WTVJ’s Today in South Florida twitter account!
Really?!
Not sure who… or even why someone with access to that twitter account wanted to block us… More importantly, what’s the point of blocking us? I am guessing someone wanted some kind of reaction from us; I’m just not sure which kind of reaction whoever pushed the “block button” was looking for.
For now we’ll stick to mocking, laughing and pointing fingers at this someone who apparently thinks that somehow not allowing us to follow their work’s twitter will resolve whatever personal vindictive issues they have with the blog and/or its commenters. Nice work!
SFLTV has NOW launched it’s forums! Log-on now to SFLTV.com/Forum to sign up!
We’re working out all of the kinks, but hang in there for now. Go and check it out, and sign up!
We’d like to give a quick thank you and shout out to all of our commenters on SFLTV.com! See if you made the top 35 list of SFLTV commenters.
Here they are:
1. admin (531)
2. Alex (344)
3. Michael (294)
4. Brandon (294)
5. Joe (278)
6. David (241)
7. Mike (215)
8. Chuck (175)
9. Diego (171)
10. murrow (159)
Photo Via: Joel Connable
On April 27th, Joel Connable was dismissed from WTVJ with a sea of controversy and questions following soon behind him. After much persistence, I had the chance to speak with Mr. Connable and ask him some questions about what happened at WTVJ, and what he’s doing now.
The big news is a lawsuit has been filed against NBC. Gina Cadogan of Schnall and Cadogan is representing him in this case, currently filed in Florida state court. NBC claims Mr. Connable violated NBC policy by accepting a trip free of charge, in exchange for taping a story featuring the Ritz Carlton in St. Thomas. When we asked Connable about the allegations, he said this.
“I did not solicit favors from anybody… and I am truly hurt by the allegations” Connable said.
The lawsuit claims a producer at NBC6 suggested Connable and another NBC employee shoot a story for his travel segment, called “The Departure Lounge,” while they were on the trip. The lawsuit says Connable never agreed to shoot a story and they were all going on a personal trip and not taking any NBC equipment.
What were your thoughts on the Joel Connable interview? How do you feel about Connable’s sudden departure from NBC6, or about his lawsuit. Do you have an interesting comment or point of view? Call us anonymously! We may just use your message on the blog in a future post.
A Year Here
Almost a year ago, I joined the SFLTV.com staff (meaning, joined one other person) on this blog as a hobby. 167 (and counting) posts later, I’m still loving this hobby known as blogging. It’s just that, a hobby. Many of you may or may not know that I blog free of charge, as a hobby and something interesting to do in my free time.
I cannot explain how much I’ve learned over the past year. “Admin” as you all know him, has taught me a ridiculous amount about blogging in general, and the technical aspects that come along with it… and for some of our slower readers, YES there are two bloggers on this site. I swear, I don’t understand 98% of what he says… what with the “MYSQL’s” and the “PHP’s.” I just agree and say “ahh, interesting.” Whatever. I just write.
I’ve learned that you can’t just publicly call a reporter a diva, and ranting isn’t always the best route to go. The things you learn.
Anywho, I think I’ll stay a tad longer. I feel like I’d miss the mean comments too much.
~Alex