Newly-minted PortlandTrailblazers pxp man out same day. Team announcement after a KGW uncovered bad tweets from a decade ago.
Her goodbye post below! After an almost five-year stint, FOX 13 meteorologist and part-time news anchor Abby Acone ends her run there with a final show on this Sunday morning. Married earlier this month, she left no word on what's next. Not sure if it is fully her decision, but I'm told she had 'favored nation' status with news management. Before joining 13 in December of 2021, she worked three years at KOMO and also did a stint in Tri-Cities. Fittingly, this last shot on IG is studio appropriate. I've been frequently critical of her on this site for using the station's studio to post questionable videos (IMO), but for now, good luck. Here's Abby's goodbye post: My heart is so full as I reflect on my final week at FOX 13 ❤️ 🥹 I’m incredibly grateful for my time here and for the remarkable people who made this place feel like home. I’ve had the joy of working alongside some of the most talented, hardworking, and genuinely wonderful people in th...
Yes, folks hoping for the Mariners to be sold, perhaps, should be careful what they wish for. From what I've heard and read, the Blazer sale has been one calamity after another.
ReplyDeleteAnd you would be right about that. That said, I A. don't think the Mariners will be that same path and B. many fans are willing to take that risk to get rid of that ownership group.
DeleteBut back to the topic at hand here and that is that this is another PR problem for Dundon, and frankly, one that could have been avoided. AwfulAnnouncing blog has a story up on it (https://awfulannouncing.com/nba/trail-blazers-fire-braiden-bell-statement.html) and one of their commenters took a shot at KGW's reporter suggesting I'm presuming this investigation he did of Bell was out of bounds considering these tweets were from 15 years ago but what I feel this was and probably a lot of you will agree was that reporter Devon Haskins and KGW were doing the deep dive the Blazers themselves should have been doing. The station I don't think was doing anything nefarious, they were just doing a standard investigation of who this guy is and this is what they found. Nothing more, nothing less.
Moving forward, a guy I think the Blazers should probably look at as a safe option is Jordan Kent, who replaced KC after Kevin left the first time from the Blazers. Kent works nationally now but I don't believe would be terribly expensive and his knowledge and familiarity with the market could make him a comfortable choice for Dundon and crew to get them through this coming year.
Dundon's MO is well-known and is something the NBA themselves should have done a better job vetting too, but they didn't and now they have to deal with it. This current situation with the TV announcer is nothing compared to the arena situation and the battle there, and that is one Adam Silver is going to have to get involved with I believe, and should. He wants to avoid the mistake his predecessor made in allowing the Sonics to go to OKC, he'd better show some leadership.
Should add as an addendum now to my above comments that there are others criticizing the reporter too. And it appears some of them are using the same tactics on Haskins he used in investigating Bell for that story: https://x.com/DanClarkSports/status/2106010783498809779. The link is to a post from this guy Clark in which he has a screenshot of a similarly questionable tweet from around that same time period from Haskins regarding election workers and their age. So we may not have heard the end of this
ReplyDeleteIndustry website "The Desk" is reporting tonight that Tegna, parent company of KGW, is now conducting its own internal review of the story.
Deletehttps://thedesk.net/2026/10/tegna-investigation-kgw-braiden-bell-tweets-story/?utm_source=mailpoet&utm_medium=email&utm_source_platform=mailpoet
This entire story is turning into quite the debacle for both the Trailblazers and KGW.
It is and it didn't need to get to this but did because of the Blazers. I'll address that in a moment. First, this was also at The Desk, IDC: https://thedesk.net/2026/10/braiden-bell-hired-for-the-right-reasons-fired-for-the-wrong-ones/. The guy who wrote the story on there reporting the investigation, Matt Keys, also wrote an accompanying column. Had a read of both of these guys and I strongly encourage all of you, including you Wayne, to have a read of both of these. The commentary, Keys IMO literally let the station have it and basically accused them of violating journalistic ethics with how they handled this.
DeleteThe Blazers are at fault because the decision they made they made I think because they were trying to get out in front of something that they thought would give them negative press in the market. What happened instead was a worse PR nightmare that also has caught KGW and by some extension TEGNA in their crosshairs.
This I believe has damaged KGW's reputation in the market and I don't they're going to be able to fix all of it. As such, I feel that no matter how this internal investigation turns out, both of them are probably going to be out the door there over this.
Control Alt Delete. It will be around at least until a new person is named. Good thing Diana or Brittany didn't know about this in PHO.
ReplyDeleteNot sure if Taurasi/Griner were playing there with him on the mic but you are right. And that is I think the big takeaway here for everyone. Regardless of how you feel about whether he should have been fired or not (I don't believe this was fireable but do understand the Blazers' rationale, I explained that in my latest comment above) the takeaway here is that this is another reminder for us to teach our kids or students about the importance of being good citizens on social media and to think before they post. Because what kids may think is goofing off (and TBH I saw the offending posts and viewed them as nothing more than him being a HS jerkoff, we've probably all been there before as teens) can come back and haunt them later, and in this case much later and likely costing Bell a chance at a big-time sports broadcasting career before it starts.
DeleteSeems like neither the Mercury nor ASU vetted Bell along with the Blazers. I found that failed drug tests and criminal records were the only disqualifiers over the years. Bell probably thought nothing about the old tweets. One mistake followed by another.
ReplyDeleteThe franchise is basically in full disarray with the Chauncey mess, the cheap owner and a battle with the City Council, so Bell wasn't getting anything more than the usual cursory. attention. Bigger fish to fry, but another mistake. They've lost a lot of goodwill in town and they didn't want to lose more. If it would have eventually come out later they would have been criticized for hiring a misogynist in the first place. So they cut losses.
On the reporter/ND side Bell absolutely needed to be contacted for a response before the story hit. Ethical lapse. That was a rush to beat the competition and KGW hates KATU, the Blazers TV partner, which KGW used to be for years. No love lost? Was this story done maliciously or just reporting the truth.
Bell can sue for wrongful termination/defamation with a law firm that only gets paid if the win. Bell's tweets were made as a teen but the excuse that we were all dumb as teens doesn't work for me. He says he's changed, but we also all harbor secrets at any age . Dumb is not a defense when you are the voice of a franchise.
Just throwing some thoughts out there.
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The Blazers also seem to be overlooking the well documented mass Ja Morant has made of himself. Selective canceling?
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