Carol Anne Riddell remarries

[TellyGenic 33]

This feature article about former WNBC reporter Carol Anne Riddell is in today's NY TIMES Weddings section:

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/19/fashion/weddings/19vows.html?_r=1&ref=weddings

 

Perhaps not the most flattering of articles.

 

Do we know why she left WNBC?

[stevieboy247 42]

Do we know why she left WNBC?

 

She was laid off from the station along with 2 others in January 2009.

[WizOz 3]

The Times article is disturbing. especially for the damage of revealing the details to the children at a young age. Her Husband must be devastated. She comes off like a cheap whore. Can't tell me they didn't sleep together before they were divorced. Shame on her.

[WizOz 3]

Homewrecking Couple's Scandalous New York Times Wedding Announcement

Headline

[WizOz 3]

The Story Behind That Controversial NYT ‘Vows’ Column

Dec. 20 2010

 

Wedding announcements in The New York Times often elicit a certain amount of resentment and schadenfreude, but the reaction to yesterday’s “Vows” column was of a whole different order of magnitude. That column told the story of TV reporter Carol Anne Riddell and advertising executive John Partilla, who divorced their longtime spouses and split up their families in order to be with each other.

In addition to strong condemnation from numerous bloggers and many of the paper’s own commenters, the article, as a first of sorts for the Times, invited a number of questions. Why were the ex-spouses of the newlyweds not mentioned by name in the story? Did the reporter call them for comment, as basic journalistic practice would dictate? Why did the Times open up the comment board when most Vows stories are off-limits? And above all, what were the couple thinking in telling their story in a space normally reserved for feel-good, soft-focus meet-cute tales?

“We did this because we just wanted one honest account of how this happened for our sakes and for our kids’ sakes,” Riddell told me. “We are really proud of our family and proud of the way we’ve handled this situation over the past year. There was nothing in the story we were ashamed of.”

Riddell says the backlash is “sort of surprising to me. I think people are focusing a lot on the negative, but there was a lot of positive.” But, she notes, “we’ve had a lot of people say to us how brave we are to do this, how commendable it was that we were as honest as we were.” Indeed, while most Times commenters expressed disapproval, there were also some like the one who wrote “Thank you Carol and John for the honest reflection…I wish them a long and happy marriage.”

Riddell declines to say whether she or her husband asked for their exes’ consent to tell their story in the Times, or at least notified them that it was in the works. “I really don’t want to wade into this any further than we already have,” she says. “It’s not helpful to anybody.” She says, however, that she and her groom did not ask the paper not to interview the exes or negotiate any other preconditions: “They made their own decisions on that front.”

So did the story’s author, Devan Sipher, seek comment from the exes? “I would assume not, but I don’t really know,” says Riddell. Asked that same question, a Times spokeswoman says, “We do not comment on the process of editing and reporting including who was and was not contacted for interviews related to a specific story. The Vows/Wedding column adheres to the standards of the Times.” The paper’s Weddings/Celebrations editor, Robert Woletz, did not return a message; nor did the exes, who, like their former spouses, both have high-level jobs in the media industry. (In both cases, the first marriage was also written up in the Times.)

That leaves the question of why this story, unlike most “Vows” columns, was opened for reader comments. “We open up comments on articles that are engaging to readers,” says the Times spokeswoman. “This is a very interesting story.” That is undoubtedly true — though it would be even more true had the exes been interviewed as well.

[njlady 1]

They are covering this story on the Today show this morning. It has really hit a nerve.

[IceManNYR 240]

The View covered it to today.

[TellyGenic 33]

The View covered it to today.

 

I'm sure those ladies had A LOT to say about it, too....

[IceManNYR 240]

WCBS will have a segment during the 5pm newscast on the article.

Has WNBC mentioned it?

[RGSJenkins 435]

WCBS will have a segment during the 5pm newscast on the article.

Has WNBC mentioned it?

 

They did on LX NY at 5, and they did mention that she used to work at WNBC.