wabceyewitness

According to the latest WSJ reporting, George Stephanopolous has said the lawsuit is correct in its account of his actions notifying ABC lawyers. Meanwhile, Disney/ABC executives were caught off guard by ABC News President Kim Godwin’s call for an independent investigation. Disney unsuccessfully tried to settle the claims through mediation in June, reports WSJ. https://www.wsj.com/articles/disney-held-unsuccessful-mediation-talks-with-alleged-sexual-assault-victims-11630330552?st=b9jloni85gqf2es&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Here is more reporting, with more context from the plaintiff’s lawsuit. The FOX article, which quotes an “ABC insider” saying George Stephanopolous did nothing, is at odds with the actual lawsuit which says he notified managers and encouraged the victim to go to an ABC attorney but she ultimately decided not to come forward at the time. https://variety.com/2021/tv/news/michael-corn-lawsuit-good-morning-america-abc-news-1235048782/

Rosanna’s father passed recently (today was the funeral). Steve may be in because Rosanna’s absence was not planned.

I wonder when the owned stations will start rolling out the new logo? I’d presume around Labor Day for the new fall season?

Always LOVED that signature line leading into the 6pm news. Wish they kept in place and adapted for current times… “the news continues NOW with Bill Ritter and Liz Cho”… certainly sounds better than, “There’s still much more news ahead. Eyewitness News at 6 starts now.”

“This Week” has switched to the new logo.

And it reminds me of the late 90s/early 2000s flat look of ABC and ABC News promos. https://youtu.be/r2KrtLHzdNA

here are some screen grabs:

Ugh.

Glad to hear there’s push back on the proportions. Hopefully the stations can keep their current proportions. I imagine that for most stations — both the owned group and affiliates — the logo proportions would be a huge and unnecessary burden on top of swapping in the new logo on all their on-air products.

Good Morning America and World News Tonight now use the new logo in their opening graphics and on the studio and anchor desk screens. For WNT, it looks odd and low budget alongside the graphics already in place. For GMA, it sort of fits in since their graphics already had a flat theme to them.

Yes, anchoring the 11pm news was a prime factor in Roz leaving for Ch. 2. What’s sad is that after it didn’t work out, they shifted her to Noon and 5pm and then just pulled her off the air and paid out her contract. Her only real farewell to viewers came from her Ch. 7 send off a few years prior. Bill Beutel started showing symptoms of his illness in his finals years at the anchor desk, though, I’m unsure when it was officially diagnosed. He passed only a few years after retiring. WABC did not see Greg or Robb as their future newsroom leaders so let them go elsewhere. For Robb, they actually let him out of his contract early. I always enjoyed when Lori filled in at 5pm with Diana. They made an excellent team and she was excellent filling in at 11pm also. I understand Ch. 7 wanting to keep ratings steady in the mornings but they missed several opportunities to keep Lori. I’m glad she’s doing well at Ch. 5.

Sad news from WABC-TV News Director Rehan Aslam — he announced publicly today doctors recently removed a tumor from his head. The pathology report determined that is a glioblastoma, a very aggressive type of brain cancer. He continues treatment later this week at Sloan Kettering. Aslam just joined WABC-TV in May of this year as VP & News Director after six years in management positions at sister station KTRK-TV in Houston.

Really enjoyed the Matt and Meredith combo…. And what a shock (and a relief) to learn years later that it was Meredith who encouraged a victim of Matt to get a lawyer and go straight to NBC HR.

My personal favorite version of CBSEN was when Bob Scheiffer was interim anchor from spring 2005 thru summer 2006. I think Norah is a solid journalist but I haven’t been thrilled with her version of CBSEN.

that’s odd and unlike Bill. What was the context of your message to him?

Ryan Field, fully vaccinated, was off air recently after testing positive for the COVID-19 Delta variant and needing to isolate for 10 days. For 48 hours, he experienced all the symptoms, according to his Facebook post, and credits being vaccinated with preventing his symptoms from becoming much worse. https://www.facebook.com/100057991483165/posts/231987635410951/?d=n

The shades are back up… and the distancing at the desk isn’t station-mandated. Kelly & Ryan have been sitting alongside each other for over a month now. had the same thought — rush order from network.

IF there are indeed anchors not yet vaccinated, there could be various reasons. An individual may have had a severe allergic reaction to previous vaccines and their primary care physician has advised against this vaccine. An individual may have an autoimmune condition that their doctor feels the vaccine will trigger or enhance. The individual may be pregnant and has either chosen or has been advised to wait until giving birth before receiving the vaccine. The individual may be on medications that would require pausing while the body responds to the vaccine and the individual or their doctor feel it is best to stay the course of the medication right now. There are plenty more. Most people are fine getting the vaccine and most of us are lucky to have been able to receive it, but not everyone is able to and they are unfortunately usually in a vulnerable group.

It’s possible not all of their anchors are vaccinated just yet so they may not want do it for just some shows and not others.

he does have that schedule but it’s because he has the ability to ask for and receive it after decades of experience and work at ABC plus being able to bring in / keep viewers watching after Bill Evans left. Similar to how Robin Roberts is now able to work Good Morning America just 4 days per week.

you’ll be a great manager one day. That’s not how “full-time”/part-time status works with television news talent. There is no counting of hours as there is with regular 9-5 jobs. Somebody could work 10 hours a week and anchor an hour show weekly and get paid a handsome salary.

Do you think it is possible that Sam Champion is human just like us and might have a variety of reasons why he could not or did not want to be available to work on his scheduled day off? We have had storms classified as tropical storms hit the area before — twice last summer — and storms hit that have done far worse. There has been much talk of how early in the season Elsa is for a hurricane/tropical storm, yet, just last year we had a tropical storm affect NYC on July 10. While it was a news event that warranted additional coverage and some special reports, there was nothing unique or extraordinary about it that warranted a mandatory all hands on deck.

… isn’t it also possible that either Jeff or Amy plan to leave, or that Sam plans to retire (again) at the end of this contract ?

Exactly — and it seems the most noticeable it will be is at the local level where many affiliates will need to modify their co-logos to make the ABC portion larger.