MediaZone4K

Employees at WROC (CBS 8 Rochester, NY) are picketing over Nexstar's refusal to recognize their union. From my experience, you need about 75% of Staff support for the union to be recognized. According to the article, Nexstar tried to claim that producers are ineligible for unions because they serve in a management capacity. The National Labor Relations Board however ruled producers were union elligable. Do you all think the unionization attempts will be successful? https://rbj.net/2024/06/10/wroc-union-plans-picket-over-stalled-contract-talks/

Good Morning America has been this way since the early 2010s, even worse after Sam Champion and Josh Elliott left in 2013/2014. It's become a mix of Inside Edition and Entertainment Tonight. Right now, I think GMA's hosts are less of the problem. GMA's story choice, tabloid sensationalized tone, and ADHD pacing are the issue for me Watching a GMA broadcast from 1984 or 2004 versus 2024 feels significantly dumbed down. Today has sucked since Meredith & Ann left but its news element tops GMA. CBS Mornings has its flaws but it's the most mature and news-oriented show among the three.

Yes, sets don't need to match graphics. Sometimes a graphics package looks old but a set looks fine (ex Today updating their graphics but keeping their set in 2009). But, on many of the abc o&o stations, both graphics and set happened to reach its outdated point simultaneously. In that case, they might as well update both to improve the overall aesthetic. The only station that a studio update wouldn't make sense for is WABC since they are moving facilities.

Yup. Right now the NBCs have the best sets of the O&Os I'd argue Hearst and Graham stations have the best sets of the affiliate groups. What ABC O&O would you all say has the best set? KGO? KABC?

WAGA's Sharon Lawson is leaving Good Day Atlanta after 7 years. The reasoning is not clear but her Instagram post says it was her decision. The Atlanta Journal Constitution article notes that two other veteran newscasters left the station after accepting company buyouts. Sucks! Sharon was okay. Welp...this is a creative way to reach a younger audience lol.

MSNBC has been very vocal on matters that could affect company interests. From the Rona McDaniel hiring to this. Loosy related... The only other company I've seen that allows this much criticism on company matters is Fox, with shows like The Simpsons and Family Guy routinely mocking the Fox News Channel.

On a similar note if you notice the time bugs above the station logo you'll see the Biden packages were placed in the A block. What sucks about Sinclair stations is that so much of their local broadcasts are made up of national news. Unless it's a major story, local stations typically resort to nation packages to fill airtime by the b or c blocks. In my market's Sinclair, like these stations in the report, I have seen national packages appear as early the middle of A block. And the reports are usually never from the Affiliated Network mostly from sinclair. The nationalization of local news is another issue. As a viewer I don't want to see the same stories rehashed that I can already get from Network or cable.

Fair points. All in all a job should have no say on when and where you seek employment after you leave said job.

— Except small to mid-market stations do little by way of training employees anymore. In my old mid-market newsroom, there was no formal training for reporters, just learning as you go along. There was no hair, makeup, work phones, or any perks attached for reporters. So their argument that investment in employees justifies post-employment non-compete clauses or contract breach fees is null and void. And so what if they did invest in employees? Why do employers feel the need to exercise control over what someone does when they leave your company? Fear of losing viewers? As Katie Couric leaving Today for the CBS Evening News displayed, talent switching channels doesn't mean the viewers will leave in droves as the CBS EN remained #3 and Today remained #1 in their respective slots. Nonetheless, I doubt audiences will abandon a station because a reporter (a more interchangeable face than an anchor) has switched channels. If it's fear of spreading company intellectual property — cameramen and digital writers who weren't under contract were privy to just as much information as reporters and producers who were contracted. So that policy of subjecting one to contract not the other was inconsistent to me.

The contracts should be shorter. Being locked into a $16 to $20 an hour job for 2 to 3 years is insane. Call me an extremist but contracts should be abolished for all low wage employees making perhaps less than $100K/yr. What the news industry seems to not care about is that their toxic work environments, unrealistic timing expectations, the expansion of the MMJ role and low salaries have all contributed to mass turnovers and low recruitment. Many of these conditions were in place before the digital age so we cannot blame loss of viewing habits for the current generation's disillusionment with the profession. This is the "I quit" generation. Millennials and Gen Z are not as loyal to their jobs and not willing to tolerate crap from their bosses so they will walk away faster than previous generations.

Stepping outside the specific issue--- working for free is a common expectation in newsrooms. News directors fully expect their reporters to come in with pre-vetted developed enterprised pitches EVERY DAY even though they may not have time on the back end of their shift to do so. How can this be accomplished? I worked in a newsroom where the news director basically told reporters "I'm not asking you to work for free, but it does help to be following the news , browsing for stories, and making calls on your off time." Those things may help but when we speak about work-life balance I don't think that's really what you want to be doing after an 8 to 10 hour work day.

From my experience, news directors in mid sized markets are now hiring people who just graduated or are about to graduate from college. I'm not against that as no one wants to start in market 177. The problem is many colleges ONLY teach written journalism (print/online article writing) and theory of journalism (bias, philosophy etc). Broadcast skills like teleprompter reading, video editing, conducting interviews, mastering extemporaneous speech during live shots, mmj cameras and meeting tight deadlines are learned on the job in sink or swim environments.

Just discovered this WTVT open from the 90s and it was excellent. 90s saxophone, love that marimba like instrument, and love the way the set lights up when the announcer Charlie Van Dyke says "Tonight" https://youtu.be/E995_PjHbUM?si=nMkHN7WKJG44jobq

KXAS (not surprisingly for an NBC o&o) is the best looking station in the market.

Wow! The previous graphics looked like ones from a fictional news report on a TV drama.

Thank You! Exactly.

The nerve of the government for preventing companies from monopolizing the public airwaves so an oligopathy of companies can't control the flow of information to the public Pardon my lack of knowledge. So local station owners can't broadcast to more than 39% of Americans, but the national television networks can? Is it legally okay for networks to do so because they don't own all stations they broadcast on?

Speaking of building conditions at Fox O&O's FTV live suggested (make of that what you will) anchor Christina Park left WNYW out of frustration with building conditions/construction. https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2018/5/18/new-york-anchor-quits-fox-oo

I would respectfully disagree. I like what I've seen of Steve's personality, but seniority isn't a pass to insert editorialism as fact. Keep tonality neutral and as others have said, if you insist on giving your opinion, have a clearly labeled commentary segment. In this divided age where we have so many pundits, clear concise and non biased information is important.

While we're here, when is KDFW gonna update their 2006 era set? It's perhaps the worst in the group at this point...(WAGA's heavy blue set isn't fantastic either).

Anchor Steve Eager basically says "despite claiming his hands were tied for years regarding border security a looming election likely changed President Biden's mind..." during a report on Biden's new executive order. I know this is a Fox O&O and it's Texas but I'm still surprised to have this level of editorialization (wether or not it may be true) written into the script on local news. Typicay you'd get this as an adlib from anchors like Rosanna Scotto in NYC, and we don't even have to mention cable news. If I repost content from a local Fox station, I end up having to explain to people bias is generally centered at the Fox News Channel not really on the local level but this doesn't help lol. Note: this is not a critique on political policy or viewpoints just an observation on inserting editorial language into a newscast.

While I tune into the networks no matter who anchors during Special Reports, I do like to hear from the main anchors. While I notice when anchors are absent, everyone has a life so I don't fault them. I enjoy going to heavyweights when news breaks. When reviewing historic events on YouTube like 9/11, though there are a plethora of outlets with uploaded footage, I primarily look for Rather, Jennings and Brokaw's coverage from that day. Talent matters from the pov of having consistent voices with you during major events. It amazing that during everything from Challenger to OJ and Iraq those same 3 men ushered millions through coverage. During the Trump guilty verdict, I was thinking of George during Muir's coverage. All in all both are very capable but Muir is more flexible in balancing light hearted and serious stories. David has a good voice, great presence, I just don't care for WNT's doomsday overly sensationalistic tone.

And despite all the similarities now the sets are sill different. KABC *tops WABC in that reguard, although their *video wall feed is beginning to look grainy.

Agreed I suppose they initially wanted to emphasize network branding more, then opted to return to their roots. Instresting observation. The the flagship NYC ABC/NBC and CW stations really don't verbally emphasize network branding. In PIX's case not even the network logo. But NYC has long been like this. Look at WABC, it barely featured the abc logo until the mid 90s. Desite the current ABC O&O streamlining they're still less identical than the 80s when they all had nearly identical sets.

This looks better than when it extended leftward. The time/temp bug would look better in black like the screen crawl.