I don't often troll the boards at TVSpy.com but every now and then when there's a headline of local interest to newsies I will lurk, which is what I did last week after WPXI general manager Ray Carter showed news director Corrie Harding the exit door.
Although I don't think there's much accurate in this anonymous response to a post about the WPXI situation, I did get a kick out of the last paragraph and the amusingly healthy way the author sees the differences between on-air and behind-the-scenes TV talent:
Sep 30, 2009 11:17 AM EST
Maybe he decided that he wanted a real life.
Think about it: Being a news director isn't exactly wine and roses.
If it was, we would all want that job instead of the one where we get to be on TV, have people buy us drinks, and go on message boards complaining about how idiotic the news director is.
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Meanwhile, WPXI has been falling back on its scare tactic tradition in the past week since Harding's departure (GM Ray Carter now runs the newsroom), giving more time to swine flu stories than other local stations with screaming promos about flu fear. It would be funny if it wasn't pathetic. (Sadly, I wonder if the tactic worked to goose the ratings; by Thursday at 11, WTAE seemed to be going down the same path.)
Channel 11 also shows an odd contempt for filmmakers who come to town. I wrote about WPXI going overboard in its coverage of inconveniences created by the local filming of the TV series "Kill Point" in 2007. Yesterday, WPXI's Alan Jennings attempted to go muckraker on the Russell Crowe movie that's filming at the Allegheny County Jail.
According to Jennings, filming shut down visitation to the jail, but the outrage seemed limited to Allgheny County Council member Matt Drozd, who was the only one Jennings could find who was upset that county council had not been told all the details of having the film crew there.
Jennings' most ridiculous question to Drozd: "Did they tell the council how they were going to protect the jail form being breached during the movie?"
Really? Does anyone think Russell Crowe is going to run into the jail? Normally he's trying to avoid the law.
The security question just seemed like an excuse for Jennings' kicker: The film's plot includes someone who sneaks a key into the jail "to break out a dangerous criminal." Not just an inmate, mind you, a fictional "dangerous criminal."
Posted
Oct 09 2009, 12:16 AM
by
Rob Owen