An interview visit by Mayor Katie Wilson on that hard hitting bastion of journalism, KING's New Day Northwest.
Wilson's been under fire for dodging questions and being protected by lower tier PR handlers, so what better way to curry favor by appearing on a lifestyle show.
She was introduced by host Hanson as "a person who's a pretty big deal around here, and we wanted to get to know her a little bit more."
Sheesh.
I am embarrassed for KING - it is going off the tracks. A lifestyle show is the wrong aperture for a mayor that is getting very negative national press. Not a good look for Wilson or KING. I certainly hope the powers that be didn't let Katie out the building without a real interview. Chris Daniels and KOMO are cleaning KING's clock on coverage of the mayor's office.
ReplyDeleteCouldn't t agree more. King's best reporter is Drew Mikkelsen but he's south bureau. I like Jim Nelson, who has some potential gravitas to tackle city hall. As an observer, it's a bit surprising with Frame as ND, with her incredible reporter legacy chops, to not make this a priority. The anchor merry go round is hurting the product as well. Their bench is getting depleted.
ReplyDeleteWhen Frame was named ND, I fully expected that KING's journslism wouldn't change too much in the short term (long term changes would be up to Nexstar assuming their merger with Tegna goes through) because she is very much a hard hitting, serious journalist herself. This interview shows that KING's journslism has changed, and not for the better. I hope that this interview wasn't Frame's idea, and that the newsroom played no part in it.
DeleteI hadn't thought about Nelson as Seattle City Hall reporter, but now that you mention it, Wayne, I think it would be worth a try. He seems like he could be the serious, no-nonsense reporter that KING needs to cover Seattle City Hall.
DeleteNew Day run by Programming. Check a previous comment IDC
DeleteJust checked. Should have checked prior to posting. My apologies.
DeleteDreadful. My expectations for journalism on this show are low, but not one follow-up question was asked. Wilson delivered a campaign-style stump speech nearly uninterrupted. The final segment — questions about favorite coffee drinks, movies, and vacation spots — was cringeworthy. High profile politicians often appear on national talk shows during campaigns, but competent hosts still manage to ask at least one or two substantive questions about policy. This host had no business interviewing the mayor, and KING should not have allowed such a shallow, softball interview to happen. Viewers deserve far better.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't tune in to New Day expecting serious, hard hitting journslism. Its a lifestyle interview/chat show. Its okay for what it is. The finsl segment of Wilson's interview fits New Day well. The other segments did not.
DeleteThat was sarcasm about hard-hitting....LOL
DeleteYour comments are spot on. Sorry you had to watch. Glad I didn't waste my time.
ReplyDeleteNew Day is not under King News jurisdiction (Programming runs it, like Evening), but I also hope a news reporter was waiting until she was off air to confront her with real questions before she left. There may also have been agreed-to ground rules for her even showing up, like a promise for a future news interview. Would not surprise me.
ReplyDeleteAnother day, another KING5 fail (or two)...
ReplyDeleteWayne: In your opinion, has the ship been sinking for a while (possibly factoring into the departures) or is the staffing crisis creating an environment where bad decisions are made?
Small history lesson. Chapter 1 response-IMHO. The beginning of trouble at KING started with the buyouts in April 2016 when the great, longtime leaders of the station decided to take the money and escape Tegna when they could. One talent called it a terrible company, even though being run by a previous KING GM and ND. Bounds, Brill, Byron, Renner and other top players took the buyouts.. Jean Enersen had already been pushed out prior. The sale of the Dexter property ran parallel to the buyouts as Tegna wanted to cash in on the location and move to a Sodo rental with the Tegna-ordered, faddish, trendy high-ceiling newsroom for everyone and one tiny studio. Then, the initial talent replacements didn't work at all, and I don't believe they've ever fully recovered. Another GM was running the show back then and running interference for Tegna brass.
DeleteThe King ND and I both left (our calls) before the buyouts, seeing the trouble ahead.
Chapter 2 to come. Stay tuned.
Chapter 2 IMHO
ReplyDeleteKing has churned thru news directors since early 2017; a promoted Assistant ND who left for DC, succeeded by a newspaper investigative ace who had never managed a TV newsroom but was already there and a handy replacement, then to an SFO #2 or #3 newsie outsider who didn't last, a Louisville Tegna ND who got installed and then promoted out to a BS VP job, and now recently to another great KING investigator, who has no major market newsroom management experience. Big market newsrooms are no picnic. She's a great person and journalist but was caught in the continuing Tegna-Nexstar mess. Everyone was waiting for the shoe to drop.
Meanwhile, during all of this, the hiring of reporters continued to deteriorate with a bunch of mixed choices, some of whom left after short stints. Amazon grabbed some people, too. I think that the ownership mess has accelerated life decisions over work decisions there for many over the past few years, including now. So much was in doubt over ownership that loyalty, K5 tenet, was disabled. People want to primarily take care of their life happiness, not stress over a fading news linear platform that requires triple the work at times. Winning awards means little anymore when they are given away like chiclets with baker's dozens of categories.
The KING brand is called iconic by many of the new arrivals, but there is tarnish and I must attribute it to inconsistent management, corporate interference by a new CEO with no real TV knowledge waiting for the sale and his parachute, and some weak field reporter hires along the way. Their best reporters are Bureau Chiefs. The big buyouts killed many key sources and institutional memory. That's one reason why Daniels is beating KING at City Hall and cops, along with Harris at KOMO.
All of this is how I view it after 11 years of seeing KING at work from the cable floor above. I have been gone for 10 years, yes, but I study the local biz, possess a good memory, and have insights, eyes, ears and inside sources. Fox is out programming KING and KOMO is out reporting it. I would love to hear a different story from someone closer to it. I could be wrong.
A final post-script. In 2016 at a major Tegna meeting in DC, NWCN and I was personally promised to go HD to keep up with the Joneses. I was lied to by the CEO and subsequenlly by other officials in Tegna and KING about NWCN getting a new shared studio with KING. After I left, the studio idea was killed, NWCN was not given its own switcher and the newscasts were put together on a timeline editor in chunks from a corner newsdesk in the new environ. Just a mess top to bottom and I don't see much improvement either with Tegna or Nexstar. EIther owner sucks, IMHO.
ReplyDeleteThese two yahoos could be sisters
ReplyDelete