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The cowardice is staggering

Does anyone have online access to TVNewsCheck for the article "As Media Consolidates, TV Stations Consider Their Programming Options"? If so, can you cut and paste the content here? Thanks!

AIPAC Bari Waste, as I like to call her, needs to go. But sadly it won't happen. CBS News is officially state media. RIP CBS News and 60 Minutes.

The company is owned by the Ellisons, who... well, you know... Anyway, I'm sure they have full faith in Bari to not only continue CBS News' steps in the wrong direction, but also take it far right. "60 Minutes" and its hard-earned credibility are being sacrificed because of that shift. It used to be the outlier at a time when CBS News was (and still is) undergoing a period of instability, and for good reason. It was the perfect example of long-form journalism. Now, not anymore.

Sure. The Kansas City Star had an article: https://amp.kansascity.com/news/local/article313775394.html And so did the FOX affiliate there: https://fox4kc.com/news/entertainment/kansas-city-channel-4-news-station-featured-in-new-steven-spielberg-trailer/amp/ It occurs to me in a scene like this they can keep some actual folks who are working on the production in the far background in a scene like this and have it still look legitimate. I agree there are an awful lot of folks there when they might have 1 to do the floor directing.

Two Boise recordings in this holiday-themed batch.

Once again, a Christmas tradition at WABC-TV is coming with the 24th annual reading of Christmas messages and greetings on Eyewitness News This Morning. With Bill Ritter now in semi-retirement, he's no longer doing it, so this year, its David Novarro, Chanteé Lans, and Lee Goldberg (the usual one) who'll be a part of the broadcast. If you wanna send your message in, here's the link and form to do so: https://abc7ny.com/post/send-christmas-morning-greetings-eyewitness-news/18272088/

NBC10 could barely hack it at creating a brand new news operation even with NBC's deep pockets. Gray would be even worse, it's an LPTV that has no must-carry. The FCC issued clarification on LPTV rules on the 18th when this petition was filed, it gave LPTV stations more displacement protection vs old rules that would often result in an LPTV being eliminated. Given LPTV is not anchored to a DMA and TV licenses as spectrum, it looks like an ATSC3 speculation or Gray simply increasing the value of their license to about $4-$6 million just by relocating for ~$500K cost. Snatching FOX from WFXT is a possiblity, if FOX doesn't care about having a local newsroom so not quite a ABC-WPLG

I know WMUR is in the Boston-Manchester market, but I don't see it as contributing to the oversaturation of news outlets in Boston as it generally stays focused on NH. Maybe Gray's looking to purchase Coxapollo and wanted to get their foot in the market in advance of that.

Wooooow. I see that it would move from Channel 33 in Springfield to Channel 23 in Boston, and it would have to give up the CBS affiliation and programming to a WGGB subchannel, since we all know there's only one 'BZ in Boston. It would also mean that WGGB and WSHM (and WFSB by a certain connection) would no longer be connected, though they would remain as sister stations. Let's say this does happen... what are Gray's future plans for WSHM-LD? An introduction of YET another local news department in Beantown? I mean, sure, but it's VERY saturated. WBZ/WSBK, WCVB, WHDH/WLVI, WMUR, WBTS/NECN, WFXT (which itself almost airs news 24 hours a day, both live and repeats!), and that's only in English (we had seven at one point until WBIN gave up too quickly). That's six in total with this possible seventh addition from Gray's WSHM? My oh my. Even if Gray wanted to expand to Boston (my unofficial fourth home market), one... it still wouldn't have a full Bay State presence because you're still missing Providence/New Bedford (my third home market), and that market is already ruined by evil corporations, and two... good luck launching a new news department in a market already oversaturated and still has loyality to either 4, 5 or 7 (or even 9 for those in New Hampshire) since 15 and 25 are still way off in the ratings. This is just my two cents, but it will be very hard for Gray to break through in Boston with WSHM when there's enough loyalty for other stations already in existence for decades.

https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/fox-13-seattle-new-broadcast-studio-axis9-2026 SEATTLE - Lake Washington Partners (LKWP) and FOX Television Stations today announced that the FOX-owned Seattle duopoly, KCPQ FOX 13 and KZJO FOX 13+ will relocate its broadcast and newsroom operations to Axis9, the newly redeveloped 16-story office tower located at 1800 9th Avenue in Seattle’s Denny Triangle. The station is expected to begin broadcasting from the new facility in November 2026.

nice to see Bill doing well. Downtown Seattle is a cesspool and the LWP CEO beating up those buzzwords makes me think FOX saved some money "as anchor tenant" on what was a 100% vacant building until KCPQ signed up. Not mentioned, KCPQ are leasing a 27K sq ft space (currently operating in a 54K sq ft space), the floor above them is available, but they didn't lease it, so either the operations will be shrunk significantly, everyone will be packed in, or the rest of the team like sales will be somewhere else offsite.

Not to mention, their outgoing facility was a leaseback set up under Tribune when they sold the building 2016ish as they prepared to cease existing as a company - likely negotiated for maximum cash up front for Tribune and higher monthly payments for the duration of the lease. Also appears they're downsizing square footage substantially as well.

Downtown Seattle has a TON of vacant office space. I'm sure they're getting a good deal. The other three stations have very visible locations in the core of the city: KOMO across from the Space Needle; KIRO a few blocks away in Belltown; KING across the street from the baseball stadium. KCPQ has been the least-visible of the four. They'll now be closest to the interstate, but those blocks are often pretty gridlocked. Not sure it will get them out of the city any faster during breaking news.

Well hold on to that thought for a second... The same thing could've happened to WTAP. Remember when WTAP and WSAZ became commonly owned by Gray in the early 2000s? There was thought that WTAP's news department would shut down in favor of WSAZ's own news but because it was such a revenue-generating machine for that market, Gray elected to keep WTAP with their own news department. If WBBJ's finances are well enough and bring in enough significant dough for the station and for Gray, then don't expect that. WBBJ is the 800-lb gorilla in Jackson, Tenn. since it, honestly speaking, has no competition. They'll be fine.

Interesting contrast. While Gray moved KMOV away from downtown St. Louis, Fox is ponying up a ton of money to move KCPQ to downtown Seattle.

More or less, WBBJ proper would operate as a satellite of WMC since Jackson is only a 1 hour drive from Memphis compared to Nashville. Outside of that possibility, I'd expect WBBJ to be treated like WWSB in Sarasota.

NewsNation is adding another live hour at 11 p.m. plus expand Morning in America on weekends to start at 6 a.m. All of this begins in late January. https://tvnewscheck.com/journalism/article/newsnation-expanding-live-news-programming/

Paramount has a rebuttal.

In the case of WCCB, it could be sold now without an issue, as it is likely ranked 5th, and Gray only has WBTV.

It's likely bad news not only for WBBJ, but also for the entire Jackson market. I wouldn't be surprised if the station is decimated in favor of being run out of either Memphis and/or Nashville. As for the rest of Bahakel, if ownership rules can be loosened, and if Bahakel is willing to sell, WCCB, WOLO and WFXB are easy targets for Gray. The stations in Montgomery are VERY unlikely to sell because once Gray gets WCOV from Allen Media, that only leaves Bahakel as the other owner in the market, and there's no way a total monopoly would fly unless Bahakel sells them to another owner.

Hunt Valley loses again! I think their failed Tribune deal blacklisted them.

That brings them 2 steps away from full coverage in Tennessee. Chattanooga is probably a case of them waiting to grab WRCB (which I am sure they have high interest in and would fit Gray extremely well), but the Tri-Cities will likely be out of reach barring a trade.

Scripps has denied Sinclair’s proposal to buy them.

Ellison wants the entire company.

Well it’s official, Irika Sargent made 10 years with CBS 2. Not only that, but she has surpassed her female predecessors of the evening newscasts of the 21st century.

TEGNA has decided to follow in Allen's footsteps and hub some meteorologists for extra severe weather coverage and "conversation"

WHO's long-running nightly 9 pm newscast, produced and aired for KDSM, is being transitioned to streaming. Sinclair will more likely replace the newscast with The National News Desk, as usual. https://who13.com/news/who-13-news-at-nine-moves-to-streaming-a-new-way-to-watch-local-news/?fbclid=IwY2xjawO1zhJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBicmlkETFpMFZCeGhJeWJFdTJzNG9Ic3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHtqaJ-PYPWbQpSTb_HofBXu8CLYlB1TlYZwr6GDuO3wnJKvIR-XRlN2TBecH_aem_kuaQVMuprD-2245NbCAMDA

A planned report on a notorious El Salvador prison, “Inside CECOT” was pulled prior to airtime, with this statement at 4:31 ET. Here’s the Mediaite write-up on the dropped story https://www.mediaite.com/media/news/60-minutes-abruptly-yanks-segment-on-prisoners-sent-by-trump-to-el-salvador-mega-prison/ The trailer for the now-dropped story would later re-emerge and people are demanding explanations from the network https://x.com/marcofoster_/status/2002889641268285661?s=46 https://www.mediaite.com/media/critics-lash-out-at-bari-weiss-after-60-minutes-yanks-segment-on-trump-deportations-last-minute-shame-shame-shame/