MediaZone4K

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.

Yeah I feel you on that. LA's theme worked for LA.

The WABC theme is still powerful and catchy... the bumper theme is still pretty good. The *only thing I'd want to see replace it is the return of Cool Hand Luke....the orchestral bumper theme for that was the best.

Not sure. If they're salaried probably not. There is no traveling involved as CBS 2 and CBS News are in the same building.

I agree. This package was an upgrade for the visually stunted WABC but a downgrade for KABC & KGO that already had solid appearances. I did like that the ABC O&Os — despite duplicating ABC 7 Eyewitness News in multiple cities —let each station still maintain some uniqueness. As someone said, the average viewer doesn't care... but us niche crowd comes here to harpe about these things lol.

All in all If Sports will fill this gap as others say then cutting the third hour is unnecessary. But all three networks should consider this in the future as they continue to struggle to fill programming.

IMO, CBS Local and National don't necessarily need to be under one brand. I get why CBS is doing this because they need something to boost their station's performances. The brand unification would be better if national CBS's product (outside of 60 Mins/Sunday Morning) were stronger. As I've said before, I think the national/local synergy is hurting CBS O&Os as it further rips them of local flavor. In contrast, Fox O&Os are especially adept taking the adding local spice to the corperate station blueprint. That being said I do love seeing the national talent anchoring the local newscasts.

If he's solid in his position as lead co-anchor at their flagship station, I would assume they don't want to mess with his role. And Maurice hosted again tonight!

What is the issue? So no one can comment on a thread that hasn't been active in a while? And I think my comment fits because many people in this thread have discussed the hesitancy to break up the Dick Wolf blocks as an obstacle to slashing 10pm. I'm just mentioning that they have. So I see no issue with what I've commented.

Well one of the solid Dick Wolf blocks has been broken up. Law & Order Organized Crime is moving to Peacock. I'm surprised by this because the strength of this block came from having Stabler and Benson on back to back shows. Admittedly I find myself having to rewatch during streaming because if you miss details during an episode you might end up lost. To your point yes, it would probably work work better as 10-episode show focused on one crime ring for the entire season rather than moving on to a new crime ring after 2 to 3 episodes. Interesting thought on sports.