Article: Former CBS 21 reporter Kirk Wilson confirms news director's connection to prostitution sti

[susquvalleywgal 494]

LINK: http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index.ssf/2013/06/former_cbs_21_reporter_kirk_wi.html

 

DETAILS: Looks like Kirk Wilson, who was dismissed from CBS21 WHP-TV is getting the last laugh here. CBS21 news director, who has just been on the job for about 2 months, has been arrested for his involvement in a prostitution ring. Not good for CBS21/SinCrap ... or should we now call them, SlutCrap.

 

I wonder what happens now to Kirk Wilson. Yeah, his delivery was rough, but the community, especially the Carlisle community loves him. Does he have ground for a wrongful termination suit, since The Patriot-News reached out to him to confirm the ND's identity, or does this mean nothing??? Thoughts??

 

-- Matt

[hathawaynson2 38]

let us not forget what happened in the late 90's with David "Massa" Smith and his prostitute

http://la.indymedia.org/news/2004/05/109300.php

 

David Smith (of Sinclair, A/K/A Slut Crap) was arrested for this!

[Breaking News 805]

It will probably be a slap on the wrist, because David Smith was out catching hookers, so hey it ok for the ND at a local television station does the same.

The Sinclair company as a whole is pure crap, and a source who worked for one of their shops told me they've made porn in the basement of the company Maryland headquarters in the 80s, so nothing will happened to the ND....

 

Poor Fisher Station my heart goes out to you guys-

[Rusty Muck 4225]

I guess they were looking into a new definition of 'Action News.'

 

There are other jokes I'd love to make, but I kinda like the fact I have no negative points to my name on this account (so far).

[GoldenShine9 1509]

If I recall correctly, WGAL creams them (and everyone else) in the ratings so much they might as well shut their news department down. Why is it, besides VHF vs. UHF, that they do so?

[Samantha 2878]

 

If I recall correctly, WGAL creams them (and everyone else) in the ratings so much they might as well shut their news department down. Why is it, besides VHF vs. UHF, that they do so?

 

The market is multi-city, and while WGAL asserts dominance over the Lancaster and York areas, WHTM apparently is the leader in the Harrisburg-Lebanon-Carlisle portion of the market. WHP and WPMT sit below those two in the ratings.

[TheTalk 1]

And it is only getting better for 27. Heard they just experienced a 15 to 25% jump in total audience in several newscasts. Must be doing something right.

[Guest NewsHound]

 

It will probably be a slap on the wrist, because David Smith was out catching hookers, so hey it ok for the ND at a local television station does the same.

The Sinclair company as a whole is pure crap, and a source who worked for one of their shops told me they've made porn in the basement of the company Maryland headquarters in the 80s, so nothing will happened to the ND....

 

Poor Fisher Station my heart goes out to you guys-

 

I'm not overtly religious, but they really do put the "Sin" in Sinclair.

[hathawaynson2 38]

 

It will probably be a slap on the wrist, because David Smith was out catching hookers, so hey it ok for the ND at a local television station does the same.

The Sinclair company as a whole is pure crap, and a source who worked for one of their shops told me they've made porn in the basement of the company Maryland headquarters in the 80s, so nothing will happened to the ND....

 

 

what??? I didn't know that Sinclair Broadcasting Group was making porno movies in the 80's. please explain!

[tyrannical bastard 3488]

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/200511/sinclair-broadcast-group-news

 

If anyone hasn't read this article....it's a must read (even though it's from 2005 and MUCH has changed)

[sanewsguy 509]

Waste of time reading that article. Bunch of BS and you're right, a lot has changed, especially with Sinclair. They have more sound news judgement now if you ask me.

[Mrtraveler01 737]

 

http://www.gq.com/entertainment/movies-and-tv/200511/sinclair-broadcast-group-news

 

If anyone hasn't read this article....it's a must read (even though it's from 2005 and MUCH has changed)

 

What exactly has changed? They did get rid of News Central but they are still editorializing the news, which is one of the biggest criticisms people have had with Sinclair, that and airing political programs with a pro-Republican bias days before an election.

 

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/sinclair-executive-defends-election-special-it-was-hard-hitting-but-it-was-fair_b68713

 

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/sinclair-under-fire-for-airing-partisan-special-on-stations-in-battleground-states-on-election-eve_b68439

 

That said, it is a pretty fascinating read as it seems to show the fact that even Sinclair doesn't believe the crap they air on their own stations as long as their political allies benefit from it.

[sanewsguy 509]

 

What exactly has changed? They did get rid of News Central but they are still editorializing the news, which is one of the biggest criticisms people have had with Sinclair, that and airing political programs with a pro-Republican bias days before an election.

 

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/sinclair-executive-defends-election-special-it-was-hard-hitting-but-it-was-fair_b68713

 

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/sinclair-under-fire-for-airing-partisan-special-on-stations-in-battleground-states-on-election-eve_b68439

 

That said, it is a pretty fascinating read as it seems to show the fact that even Sinclair doesn't believe the crap they air on their own stations as long as their political allies benefit from it.

 

It's really a market-to-market thing with their news for the most part. In San Antonio, KABB tries to air as little Sinclair-corporate pieces as possible "because it doesn't resonate with our audience" (a producer friend of mine there told me this). Usually if they are forced to air them they air them Fridays or Saturdays (the least-watched nights of the week for local news). Trust me, even the employees at the individual stations don't take the stories seriously. I remember Michael Valdes from KABB laughing his way through a "Waste Watch" story one time. It was clear he or his co-anchor couldn't take it seriously, especially the part where the Washington Guardian awards its weekly "Golden Hammer Award".

 

WOAI has also tried to avoid the Sinclair garbage as much as possible too. Heck with sequestration coverage they tended to be very liberal with it and mostly used coverage from NBC News. They do air Kristine Frazao's reports regularly and those tend to take a rather conservative tone. Most of the people interviewed in her "stories" are from the Washington Guardian (a Sinclair news affiliate).

 

I'll never forget this line WHP used in one of their stories in March to discuss the impact of the sequestration:

Headline:

The language behind the sequester, and why some believe there is a silver lining

Making sense of what's happening in Washington is like peeling an onion, both will make you cry before the first cut is made.

 

That's one way to digest sequestration, truly a manufactured crisis. Solutions to end the stalemate are few but there’s plenty of rhetoric to pass around.

....

Finally, some Republicans say the sequester could help jump start talks of reducing wasteful spending.

 

Copyright 2013 Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

I could post the rest of the article but I won't. You get the idea, they took a very liberal approach. I don't think Sinclair corporate liked that though.

 

The Sinclair corporate stuff is very conservative, but it's hit or miss with the local stuff. Some of the local stuff is liberal, some conservative, some middle-of-the-road. A lot of that depends on the individual station management.

 

WOAI is known for rip-reading their news stories, a bad habit that dates to Newport ownership and has continued under Sinclair.

As an Express-News staff writer tweeted back in April:

Nice to see that @News4WOAI still reads the paper. Their @cpsenergy bonuses VO was a straight rip & read from this morning's Express-News.

--Nolan Hicks, Express-News Staff Writer (@ndhapple)

The point is, everything bad about Sinclair shouldn't be the fault of the local stations, especially since most of them have a lot of talented people working there. Blame corporate but don't assume Sinclair's news is conservative just because of a few corporate pieces they have to air. WSYX, WPEC airing those specials was an order from corporate and not local. KABB aired their own election special in late October and it was all local. They did a far better job and put out a far more balanced product than corporate.

[DirtyHarry 719]

 

 

The point is, everything bad about Sinclair shouldn't be the fault of the local stations, especially since most of them have a lot of talented people working there. Blame corporate but don't assume Sinclair's news is conservative just because of a few corporate pieces they have to air. WSYX, WPEC airing those specials was an order from corporate and not local. KABB aired their own election special in late October and it was all local. They did a far better job and put out a far more balanced product than corporate.

 

Columbus has always been an important market to Sinclair. Their third station (start-up WTTE) was here and Columbus is still important to them because between all the battleground state political advertising, their triopoly, and the fact that there are few overlapping signals in the heart of their market makes their stations huge profit machines.

 

WTTE was kind of a joke throughout most of the 1980's. It was a start-up station and everything was done on the cheap. Then they merged with River City and got control of WSYX and slowly were able to up their game to now where they may not be the content leader, but I would argue that they absolutely are the technology leader. We had a major storm blow through here several weeks ago, and they were the only station able to broadcast out in the field with their Wi-FI backpacks. Their coverage was far more interesting than the other channels, which only showed radar images.

 

I also like the way they have assembled stations in adjoining markets (Columbus, Dayton, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh, Charleston, Toledo, Michigan) and I see a little news sharing between the stations. I think there is a huge opportunity to produce relevant content if someone has the vision ... a more localized version of NewsCentral, if you will.

 

Anyway, ran across this interetsing article with David Smith ... he really seems to get the technology side of TV. It is an interesting read.

 

==========

 

Sinclair Broadcast Group CEO David Smith has a vision. It's that broadcasting can go toe-to-toe with cable, satellite, wireless broadband and any other medium in providing multichannel TV that lets advertisers target ads to the individual consumers most likely to buy. That’s why he’s adamant that broadcasters need to adopt ATSC 3.0 as the next-generation TV standard as quickly as possible. Without it, he says, "we can’t compete."

 

By Harry A. Jessell

TVNewsCheck, June 26, 2013 6:23 AM EDT

 

The Sinclair Broadcast Group has been much in the news lately, buying up stations at an unprecedented pace. The spree has boosted the Baltimore-based group to No. 4 on theTVNewsCheck-BIA/Kelsey Top 30 Station Groups, and it’s still shopping for more. ...

 

http://www.tvnewsche...v-standard--now

[Samantha 2878]

The technological side of Sinclair is one of the better things about the company. We may disagree with Sinclair's management philosophy, but I think that David Smith has some important ideas about television's technical aspects. I agree with him and would almost say we made a mistake going with the current ATSC system.

[sanewsguy 509]

We should've been on DVB-T like most other countries but that discussion is for another thread...

 

 

WTTE was kind of a joke throughout most of the 1980's. It was a start-up station and everything was done on the cheap. Then they merged with River City and got control of WSYX and slowly were able to up their game to now where they may not be the content leader, but I would argue that they absolutely are the technology leader. We had a major storm blow through here several weeks ago, and they were the only station able to broadcast out in the field with their Wi-FI backpacks. Their coverage was far more interesting than the other channels, which only showed radar images.

 

You mean those LiveU backpacks? In my market, only KSAT and KABB have them. KSAT tends to use those as much as they can; KABB tries to avoid them because the quality can be choppy. They only have one live truck that actually works (yes, that's Sinclair for ya, and they have two others in the parking lot one from 1995, one from 2000 that haven't left the lot in YEARS) so they try not to go live if they don't have to. That;s usually why their standups are either in the studio or the newsroom.

 

I'd imagine WOAI will be getting them soon now that they're under Sinclair.

 

I do think Sinclair is a great company from a technological standpoint, but once that technology gets perfected, they manage to find a way to screw it up as a cost cutting measure.

[DirtyHarry 719]

If you want to make any predictions based on what happened in Columbus 15 or 20 years ago, WSYX became the lead partner and instantly upped WTTE's game. That means WOAI will be the lead partner and that will produce an almost immediate upgrade to the look and feel of KABB's news.

 

Here's something that might surprise you guys, however. Based on what happened here, Sinclair seems to be very loyal to its employees. In fact one of the main anchors here was first post office of the Fox 28 Kids Club. In other words, their people moved over to the WSYX building and some of them are still there almost 20 years later.

 

Check this out: Yolanda is now main anchor, and Suzi still works there (Susan Burton), along with her sister Shawn Ireland.

 

[sanewsguy 509]

 

If you want to make any predictions based on what happened in Columbus 15 or 20 years ago, WSYX became the lead partner and instantly upped WTTE's game. That means WOAI will be the lead partner and that will produce an almost immediate upgrade to the look and feel of KABB's news.

 

Not necessarily. As the local newspaper reported back in December after the acquisition closed:

NBC affiliate WOAI-TV and Fox affiliate KABB-TV recently became sister stations under one owner: Maryland-based Sinclair Broadcast Group.

Yet, the two will remain competitors with separate news staffs, according to WOAI's recently appointed general manager, John Seabers.

“You will not see changes in the products. You will not see merged news operations. You will not see reporters and anchors switching from one station to the other,” Seabers said in a phone chat Tuesday from the downtown offices of WOAI, which remain quite a distance from KABB's base of operation at 4335 N.W. Loop 410.

Furthermore (bolded portions for emphasis),

He characterized the plan to keep the stations autonomous as “extremely unusual,” not only here but across the country. “Normally, when you have a duopoly in a market, you use your same talent and same news resources.”

He mentioned a situation in Columbus, Ohio, where Sinclair owns “an ABC station and a Fox. The 10 p.m. news runs on the Fox station and you have a similar newscast running on the ABC station at 11 p.m.”

“But we're not going to do that here,” he added. “We're a company that likes to do the right thing, and in this case we think this is the right thing.”

But they will be consolidating operations in one common location later in the year.

WOAI will be moving to KABB's current building off of NW Loop 410 and Babcock Road sometime during the fourth quarter of the year, said John Seabers, Sinclair's group manager who oversees both stations. The anchor teams at both stations will remain the same, but the stations will be consolidating news assets.

“You'll see more of a bleeding of reporters back and forth,” Seabers explained. “We don't have to send duplicate reporters and camera persons to the same story. Therefore, we'll have resources to send for another story. We'll be able to create a lot of new, different and varied content that I don't think any other news station in town has the opportunity to do.”

OK, this has gotten way off topic and I'm done now.

[IsitCC? 6]

Update as 07/03/2013:

 

Dave Baer, the CBS21 ND who was busted in this prostitution sting as mentioned above, has parted ways with the TV news station. It won't even mention if he was actually busted by the cops or even dismissed from the station. Sources said that he has left there.

 

http://ftvlive.com/todays-news/2013/7/3/bouncing-the-baer

 

Stacy Hanrahan has been appointed as the acting ND. What has really interesting about her is that she happens to be the wife of Robb Hanrahan, the CBS21 evening news anchor (http://www.whptv.com/content/bios/RobbHanrahan/RobbHanrahan.aspx).

 

Conflict of interest, anyone?

 

This, along with the incident of CBS21 meteorologist/reporter being attacked while jogging at 2:30am, is getting good at CBS21.