Today, we lost a well-known  journalist who want people to know what’s happening in politics, Tim Russert, host of NBC’s Meet the Press; has died at the age 58. Russert suffered a major heart attack while preparing his show at the NBC News Bureau in Washington D.C. Russert had just came back early from his family’s vacation to Italy so he can do this Sunday’s edition of Meet the Press.

The New York Times report that at 3:39pm, former NBC Nightly News Anchor Tom Brokaw announced to NBC News viewers that his colleague has died.

 “Our beloved colleague,” a grave Mr. Brokaw called him, one of the premier journalists of our time. He said this was one of the most important years in his life, with his deep engagement in the network’s political coverage, and that he “worked to the point of exhaustion.” Mr. Brokaw said Mr. Russert was a true child of Buffalo and always stayed in touch with his blue collar roots and “the ethos of that community.”

He said Mr. Russert had just moved his father, who is in his late 80s, from one facility to another in Buffalo. He said he loved his family, his Catholic faith, his country, politics, the Buffalo Bills, the New York Yankees and the Washington Nationals.

“This news division will not be the same without his strong, clear voice,” Mr. Brokaw said.

Russert, the longest running moderator for Meet the Press, has been with the show since 1991. Since then, he has formed of what is today known as Sunday morning government affairs program

As his death happens days before Fathers Day, he had written two books about his father and became a best-seller. In 1995, the National Father’s Day Committee named him “Father of the Year,” and Parents magazine honored him as “Dream Dad” in 1998, and in 2001 the National Fatherhood Initiative also recognized him as Father of the Year.

NBC News has planned to air a tribute to Russert on “Dateline NBC” on Friday at 10 p.m. ET.

Since this week, WNBC-TV and WCBS-TV in New York experienced shake-ups this week with their news anchors.First off, WCBS-TV removed Jim Rosenfield from his anchoring role last Thursday. Replacing Rosenfield is Don Dahler to the noon and 6pm slots.Next is a huge shakeup at WNBC with their anchors, not only the evening newscasts were affected but also the morning newscast “Today in New York.” Rob Morrison, who has been in the weekday morning newscast since 2004, left the station over the weekend; no comments of why he left the morning newscast. This comes up after weeks that WNBC announced that it will have 24 hour news on its digital subchannel 4.4.  According to the Daily News, Michael Gargiulo, who was the 5pm co-anchor, will replace Morrison. (Update: Gargiulo mentioned on air that Morrison is on vacation.)On the evening newscasts, you can now see Chuck Scarborugh and Sue Simmons three times a night; an effort to help organize the new news channel and boost ratings. Replacing Gargiulo is David Ushery, who anchored the 6pm newscast with Lynda Baquero who became a street reporter this week,  will anchor with Sue Simmons, known for her f-bomb on a live teaser on May 12, during the half-hour 5pm newscast. At 6pm, Simmons will anchor with Scarborough, who have been anchoring the 11pm newscast on WNBC for the past 28 years. At 7pm, Scarborough will continue to anchor solo for the “New York Nightly News” newscast. And at 11pm, you will be able to catch “Chuck and Sue.”

The Daily News reported that Jim Rosenfield will be leaving WCBS-TV on Thursday in a round of cutbacks for CBS Owned and Operated Stations. Rosenfield came back to WCBS-TV  from WNBC-TV in 2005 to become a male anchor for the 5 and 11 o’clock newscasts. At WNBC-TV, he co-anchored with Sue Simmons for the 5 o’clock newscast “Live at Five” since 2000 when he then left WCBS-TV.

Since he joined WCBS-TV, his roles changed dynamically in 2006 as he was replaced with station’s former sportscaster Chris Wragge.  Since the change, he anchored the 6 and noon broadcasts.

The Daily News  is also reporting that WNBC will be dropping Lynda Baquero as her anchor role for the weekday 6 o’clock newscast. This decision was made before the “Sue Simmons incident.” Baquero has been with WNBC since 1995; she was first a street reporter, then became a weekend anchor and then replaced Michele Marsh’s anchor-role in summer of 2003.

Finally, the Daily News is also reporting that  Jeff Rossen is leaving WABC-TV. He replied to the Daily News by saying

“My contract is up at the end of the month. I’ve decided to leave, Working with all the great people at WABC has been an amazing experience. I will miss them all. However, I’m ready to spread my wings on different platforms. And I’m excited about pursuing new opportunities.”

The question here is “will each of these reporters swap their jobs at each of the three stations?”

 Updated: May 13, 2008 at 4:10pm.

At 10:27pm Monday evening during a live teaser for the 11PM news on WNBC NY Channel 4, news anchor Sue Simmons slipped “a word that many people find offensive.” This happend on the same day as an old video of Bill O’Reilly, from the O’Reilly Factor on Fox News, turned up on the Internet showing O’Reilly angry during a recording of the “Inside Edition.”

After the incident occured, I wrote my reaction of what I thought happened.

“As an observer of WNBC News 4 New York for the past many years, I noticed something different about the teaser that was aired. After my observation of watching the clip online several times, it seems like it is not Simmon’s fault; it feels and looks like they were unaware that they are live. One hint during the teaser, Chuck Scarborough, the co-anchor of Simmons for the past 28 years, was not looking at the camera; something that Scarborough will never do during a live teaser. If in that case, the director in the studio did not tell Simmons and Scarborough that they are live; the audio and video was perfectly done just like the other live teasers at 10:30pm. But it is what Simmons said that outraged the audience. My prediction is that there was a similar situation just like in the O’Reilly video posted on Monday that might have been going on in Studio 6B; an argument between the anchor and the director. On the 11 o’clock newscast, she apologized to the audience.”

During the mid-day on Tuesday, the Daily News is reporting that she slipped on the word “heck” that caused her to say the F-word while teasing the first story when the video switched to a cruise-ship story.

It is expected that Simmons will not be on the air tomorrow during the 5 o’clock and 11 o’clock newscast if the situation is not resolved.

In my views, Simmons seems like she won’t be fired; Simmons and Scarborough is the anchor team that represents New York news. Simmons joined WNBC back in 1980 with Scarborough.

Because videos and links contains strong language, links were not posted.

Left image: snapshot of the May 12 live teaser, Right image: Sue Simmons in February 2007.

For FiOS and over-the-air TV viewers living in New York, cable’s local regional news may not be something important anymore. NBC Universal is creating a 24-hour local channel on WNBC’s DT feed, it was first reported in the New York Times website.

“It will de-emphasize the identity of the NBC network’s flagship station, WNBC, Channel 4 in New York, rechristening it a “content center,” and making it one part of a larger local media effort.” (Carter)

This operation will compete with Cablevision’s News 12 organization and Time Warner’s NY1. Currently, Verizon FiOS does not offer a local news service like cable. The new news platform will be delivered on the cable’s digital service on Cablevision, Time Warner, Comcast, Satellite, and FiOS. The channel will also be available out-of-house, such as taxis, gas pump televisions, and PATH stations.

No employees will be layed off, but a change of shifts is expected. The new channel will have “live headlines” every half hour, including weather and traffic. Currently being planned is the new space needed for such an operation. It is unconfirmed if the local newscasts will be relocated out of studio 6B, where The Tonight Show was once held, or if the news studio will have a new set.

WNBC’s website will experience a change as it might leave the IBS (Internet Broadcasting Systems) platform, which they have been with since 2001; most NBC owned stations use the same platform. Instead, it will go completely video and on-demand, (of what we understand, something similar to NBC Nightly News website).

“This is the next step in WNBC’s mission to diversify its operations and become the leading multi-platform content provider for the New York market,” said John Wallace, Local Media Division President.

The expected move is to be complete by quarter 1 of 2009. If a success, the seven other owned stations: KNBC, WRC, KNTV, WMAQ, KXAS, and  KNSD, may follow a similar move.

 Rumor has it that Britney Spears is set to make another appearance on How I Met Your Mother. 

Spears will be playing the nerdy dermatologist that falls in love with the main character played by Josh Radnor.

This decision to reappear on the show is mutual. A source has said that, “she had so much fun the first time around she really wanted to come back. It was a mutual decision to work together more.”

Even the cast took well to her. “She was hilarious in the table-read, and I got to see her do the run-through as well, and she was great,” cast member Jason Segal said.

Fox studios has yet to confirm this appearance.

source: people.com

Former consumer reporter from WNBC Asa Aarons is making his move after his departure from the station since October. Asa Aarons, who brands his reports “Ask Asa,” has opened a new website, www.justaskasa.com. On television, he is to appear on HDNews on the Voom HD network which is available on Cablevision and DishTV, the station is owned by Cablevision so he may also appear on the News 12 networks, including News 12 Long Island and News 12 New Jersey.

Asa Aarons is still continuing his column “Ask Asa” in the Daily News. He has been with WNBC since 1993, and was previously at WDIV-TV, WPXI-TV, and WKYC-TV in 1980s and early 1990s.

WABC Sends Out Reporter to North Korea

WABC, once again sent a reporter (Jim Dolan) to do a report out of the viewing market, this time in North Korea for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra’s trip to the country. Other New York stations used the Associated Press, network content or obtained material from PBS (WNET). The last story was the California Wildfires that made the station send out their reporters; instead of using the power of a “network” to report the story. WNBC and WCB,S for example, used reporters from the local affiliate station (KNBC and KCBS) to report the story. What WABC-TV is doing is that they are reporting national and international with their own local reporters going to the scene but the question is “is it good for the viewer?” My answer is that it might be good to see a familiar face reporting where the story is happening, but sometimes it might not be necessary. For example, back to the wildfires, the local reporters are more familiar with the landscape and have seen many wildfires in the past, but a New York reporter may have never seen a California in the past and is most likely not familiar with the landscape.

WABC “Eyewitness News” Is Number One Again, Sadly

WABC’s Eyewitness News is still number one in the New York market for the 39th survey ranking. With the old looking graphics (which looks worst in HD), 80’s music, and sending local reporters to other parts of the world; the question is “how can you watch this?” Lately, they have been reporting many car accidents and house fires (just like how sister station KABC covers every car chase in Los Angeles) which viewers have been complaining about. They have also been trying to create the next “rat” story that happened at a KFC last year that was first discovered by WNBC and became a national headline and yet they’ve been failing it since. In terms of awards, WABC is usually on the bottom of the list of the New York News Emmy, and critics say that the news reports are worst than what you watch on News 12.

WPIX Tops New York Emmy Nominations

WPIX topped WNBC with nominations for the the New York Emmy’s. We will be seeing the results by the spring! Here are the nominations:

WPIX - 30 Nominations
WNBC - 27 Nominations
WCBS - 22 Nominations
WABC - 16 Nominations
WWOR - 12 Nominations

Dan Forman Out of 4

This may be a good sign for WNBC fans (News 4 Junkies), Dan Forman is leaving WNBC at the end of March. Forman has been responsible for the crash of the ratings on the local newscasts on WNBC with changing anchor slots, changing timeslots for the evening newscast, and for removing consumer report Asa Aarons with the many budget cuts of the station.

In a memo to staff, station President Frank Comerford called Forman “an important part” of the station’s history. Forman joined NBC in 1993, and was a news director at WABC from 2000-2002 and joined WNBC as a news director in 2002.

Chang Goes To MY9

Ti Hau Chang, reporter for WCBS, is now moving over to WWOR as a general assignment reporter. Previsouly, he has been with WNBC, ABC News, and WNYC.

Rob Morrison was on the 7PM and 11PM news slots this evening on WNBC, filling in for Chuck Scarborough. Since 2004, Morrison has been on Today in New York from 5-7am and newsbreaks from 7 to 12, which I rarely have time to sit down and watch the morning news. It was great to see him again for the evening, as he was the anchor on the weekend evening editons of Newschannel 4 before he landed into the morning shift. Since his arrival, he was able to keep the morning newscast at the #1 slot.

WNBC, has yet again changed its news schedule for the fourth time since last year. Since adding the 7PM newscast, the 5 o’clock slot have been a mess since. After getting rid of News 4 You in October, WNBC had a segment at 5:30 after a showing of television-magazine Extra at 5 anchored by Sue Simmons and Michael Gargiulo. Now its flipped, the news is on 5 then Extra is on at 5:30, with the news coming up again at 6. I’ve heard that the schedule changes was a rumor the week before Christmas but I decided to wait to confirm the rumor before publishing this post.

An email from a WNBC fan that was sent to us by the schedule changes wrote “Maybe they’ll cut their idiocy and bring it back to sanity - like the way it was!!!”

I agree with the comment that I recieved. I understand that the budget of the newscast is up to 2 hours of production during the evening slots, like most other television stations. NBC O&O station WTVJ in Miami, which also has the news at 7, removed the 5 o’clock hour of news completely; there is only a 6PM, Nightly News, then the half hour 7 o’clock news. This was my evidence in September that the 7PM newscast was forced by the network.

I believe that the previous schedule was alright to fit the 7PM news (starting at 5:30), it was just non-stop news for 2 hours, including Brian Williams at 6:30. But now there is a block of no news, its going to cause distraction.

But overall, I think the 7 O’clock news is at its best of a 2.5 rating in October. But if the schedule is going to keep on changing, then the NBC network should force WNBC to stop the 7PM newscasts.