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Did we miss this? Valentine's massacre at WFAA

B

BrainDeadPrez

Guest
I never knew anyone had been hired. Apparently this guy's fresh off the bus from Virginia in the past couple of weeks and is already stirring up trouble...hence Jolene's abrupt departure, and some unusual jazzing-up on the newscast's camera shots, features and music. I guess Michael Rey will know his fate soon. Hope he gets better treatment than Jolene did. She was told to either stand by in the newsroom all weekend and wait for something to happen, or get the hell out of there and not expect any favors should a FT position ever come available. Very sorry treatment for someone who rode the entire TXCN wave to the bitter end, and was making some inroads at WFAA with anchoring and (lately) filing reports and doing some special features. They lost a good one. The last thing the poor morale needed over there was a hard-a$$ who wants to change EVERYTHING the first day he's there. Evolution of all the changes needed takes time. I smell a Chan Gailey in the making...a short-timer who'll be forgotten moments after his departure.

BTW, what market # is Norfolk, VA? Has this guy ever even worked in a Top 50 (or Top 100) market? I'd guess he's either a nice EEOC-compliant employee, or someone Kathy Clements-Hill can manipulate and send orders through.

Who knows...it's pretty early to judge. Maybe there will be something positive to come out of this. Ed, did you realize you gave this guy an award? Read on...

>>>News Release

April 4, 2005

Michael Valentine named executive news director at WFAA-TV in Dallas/Fort Worth market

Dallas, TX -- WFAA-TV announced today that Michael A. Valentine has been named executive news director at the station. For the past three years Valentine has served in a similar position at WVEC-TV, the Belo Corp. station in the Norfolk/Hampton Roads, Virginia market.

In his new role Valentine will oversee the daily news operation at Belo's flagship television station in Dallas. He is only the fourth person to hold the title executive news director at WFAA since 1973.

Kathy Clements, WFAA president and general manager, said, "Michael is a long term player for the station who brings a successful track record both inside and outside of Belo to WFAA. We are excited about his leadership skills, commitment to excellence in journalism, as well as his sense of creativity and ability to innovate."

Valentine (36) joined Belo in 2002 as executive news director at WVEC, the ABC network affiliate in Norfolk. His previous responsibilities have included four years as news director at WEHT, the ABC affiliate in Evansville, Indiana, a stint as a news producer with NBC affiliate WCMH in Columbus, Ohio, and as executive producer with KWES, the NBC affiliate in Midland, Texas. In his new role Valentine will report to Mike Devlin, WFAA vice president, station manager.

During his career Valentine has been involved in a variety of significant news events including his oversight of the deployment coverage of military troops to Iraq, and 51 hours of continuous coverage in 2003 when Hurricane Isabel hit the Norfolk/Virginia Beach area. Valentine's family was evacuated and his home destroyed. In 2004 WVEC earned a Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting.

Valentine is a native of New York City and a graduate of the University of Vermont. He also attended Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism in New York.
 
The award was "xeroxed" and sold On Ebay. Oh he will put hisstamp on things ,worship Kathy's stilletos and do her dirty work,sans responsibility for a once proud professional news department. Histrack record according to a colleague in VA was not that impressive and overblown. He just knew how to pucker.
 
> The award was "xeroxed" and sold On Ebay. Oh he will put
> hisstamp on things ,worship Kathy's stilletos and do her
> dirty work,sans responsibility for a once proud professional
> news department. Histrack record according to a colleague in
> VA was not that impressive and overblown. He just knew how
> to pucker.

Straight on, Ed. "Long term player" and his spreading palm leaves in
Kathy's path all add up to him being the ultimate "company man," who may go down with the rest of the company if things don't improve around the Belo house. Ah, but he's got it knocked now--brought his big ideas to Big D and trying to put wind in the sails of a sinking ship. Land o'goshen, this must be the life.

Wonder if he has any anchors in the cross hairs? Could be there's thought of bringing in some of the folk from Hampton Roads to work some magic here.
 
Wonder if he has any anchors in the cross hairs? Could be
> there's thought of bringing in some of the folk from Hampton
> Roads to work some magic here.
>

Already being a Belo employee, no doubt Valentine's already had conversations with David Duitch, former ND who's still with Belo in Washington, DC...not too far from Virginia, huh. So Duitch likely already tainted Val against Jeff Brady, since Duitch already ran him off before, and likely chafed at the knowledge that Kathy hired him back.

And not to veer too far off my personal policy of picking the best person for the job, no matter who or what or anything...but 36 seems pretty young for a news director, and along with that small market experience, I can't imagine the guy being properly seasoned to run a Top 5 market news dept, and expect that Brad Watson and some of the other older-yet-wiser reporters won't take kindly to a wet-behind-the-ears ND barking orders to them. If we see another sudden exodus of reporters to Channel 11, we can surely guess the cause.
 
If we see
> another sudden exodus of reporters to Channel 11, we can
> surely guess the cause.
>


With former Ch.8 staffers trying to make the transition to Ch.11,Ifeel That KTFA{(combined call letters)or KFAA should be filed quickly ."Wednesday's Child" should move and be called 'Tuesday's Tots".Good Morning Texas"should move and be called"
"Mornin Tejas". Meanwhile at Ch.8 shows that originated In Norfolk suchas profiling dead beat Dads as"Chesapeake Cheapskates""should be titled "Ch.8 Cheepskates"with the title serving a double meaning.

Ch.11 is the last bastion of hope in reporting news with journalists.
 
I realize this is probably old news by now, but whatever happened to Steve Ackerman as ND? Was he too good to keep?


> I never knew anyone had been hired. Apparently this guy's
> fresh off the bus from Virginia in the past couple of weeks
> and is already stirring up trouble...hence Jolene's abrupt
> departure, and some unusual jazzing-up on the newscast's
> camera shots, features and music. I guess Michael Rey will
> know his fate soon. Hope he gets better treatment than
> Jolene did. She was told to either stand by in the newsroom
> all weekend and wait for something to happen, or get the
> hell out of there and not expect any favors should a FT
> position ever come available. Very sorry treatment for
> someone who rode the entire TXCN wave to the bitter end, and
> was making some inroads at WFAA with anchoring and (lately)
> filing reports and doing some special features. They lost a
> good one. The last thing the poor morale needed over there
> was a hard-a$$ who wants to change EVERYTHING the first day
> he's there. Evolution of all the changes needed takes time.
> I smell a Chan Gailey in the making...a short-timer who'll
> be forgotten moments after his departure.
>
> BTW, what market # is Norfolk, VA? Has this guy ever even
> worked in a Top 50 (or Top 100) market? I'd guess he's
> either a nice EEOC-compliant employee, or someone Kathy
> Clements-Hill can manipulate and send orders through.
>
> Who knows...it's pretty early to judge. Maybe there will be
> something positive to come out of this. Ed, did you realize
> you gave this guy an award? Read on...
>
> >>>News Release
>
> April 4, 2005
>
> Michael Valentine named executive news director at WFAA-TV
> in Dallas/Fort Worth market
>
> Dallas, TX -- WFAA-TV announced today that Michael A.
> Valentine has been named executive news director at the
> station. For the past three years Valentine has served in a
> similar position at WVEC-TV, the Belo Corp. station in the
> Norfolk/Hampton Roads, Virginia market.
>
> In his new role Valentine will oversee the daily news
> operation at Belo's flagship television station in Dallas.
> He is only the fourth person to hold the title executive
> news director at WFAA since 1973.
>
> Kathy Clements, WFAA president and general manager, said,
> "Michael is a long term player for the station who brings a
> successful track record both inside and outside of Belo to
> WFAA. We are excited about his leadership skills, commitment
> to excellence in journalism, as well as his sense of
> creativity and ability to innovate."
>
> Valentine (36) joined Belo in 2002 as executive news
> director at WVEC, the ABC network affiliate in Norfolk. His
> previous responsibilities have included four years as news
> director at WEHT, the ABC affiliate in Evansville, Indiana,
> a stint as a news producer with NBC affiliate WCMH in
> Columbus, Ohio, and as executive producer with KWES, the NBC
> affiliate in Midland, Texas. In his new role Valentine will
> report to Mike Devlin, WFAA vice president, station manager.
>
>
> During his career Valentine has been involved in a variety
> of significant news events including his oversight of the
> deployment coverage of military troops to Iraq, and 51 hours
> of continuous coverage in 2003 when Hurricane Isabel hit the
> Norfolk/Virginia Beach area. Valentine's family was
> evacuated and his home destroyed. In 2004 WVEC earned a
> Regional Edward R. Murrow Award for investigative reporting.
>
>
> Valentine is a native of New York City and a graduate of the
> University of Vermont. He also attended Columbia
> University's Graduate School of Journalism in New York.
>
 
> BTW, what market # is Norfolk, VA? Has this guy ever even
> worked in a Top 50 (or Top 100) market? I'd guess he's
> either a nice EEOC-compliant employee, or someone Kathy
> Clements-Hill can manipulate and send orders through.

Norfolk/Portsmouth/Newport News/Hampton is the #41 market in the US, according to Nielsen's 2003-2004 list. Norfolk has around a third of the TV households that D/FW has. IMHO, having seen WVEC/13's newscasts while on travel to Hampton, I have to say I'm not impressed. WAVY/10, while more sensational (it _is_ an NBC affiliate, after all), still seems to have more solid reporting. WTKR/3 isn't much better than WVEC/13. Overall, they don't seem as big a market as they really are.

I can't imagine a reason for an ND in a #41 market making the jump to #7 without having some serious "yes-man" issues. I'd look for WFAA/8 to experience a serious slide, both in on-air product and reporting, within the next couple of months.

Sad to say I don't watch KTVT/11 that much. For some strange reason I'm addicted to KXAS/5 at 6 and 10 and KDFW/4 at 9. What I've seen of 11, though, I like...except for Kristine Kahanek. Mike Burger should be the CM over there, and Clif Caldwell shouldn't be doing weekends. Whatever happened to Ken Malloy?

(I realize this post has begun to ramble, so I'm going to shoot it and put it out of its misery.)<P ID="signature">______________
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." - Robert Heinlein

dan</P>
 
Here's another tidbit...Doug Aronson, investigative reporter at WVEC/13 in Norfolk (Valentine's old station) left the station as of 5/27/05. Hmmm...might we be seeing the beginning of the import of some Norfolk talent to WFAA? Aronson is pretty good, from what I hear, but it's going to take him a while to get up to speed in D/FW. Apparently he's going to be doing some substitute news announcing work at a Norfolk radio station while that station's ND is on vacation. Don't be surprised to see that name pop up within the next few months on Ch. 8.<P ID="signature">______________
"Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." - Robert Heinlein

dan</P>
 
It's never pleasant when people lose their jobs, but it is pretty clear too that the "old guard" at Ch. 8 hasn't produced anyone who has or can step forward and right the ship, from management on down. That said, there is only one place to look for infusion of hope - outside. They've done that and we can all speculate about this and that but time and numbers will tell.

It is the same many times over, also not pleasant, but to be part of the future of change one must adapt. Those who sit back and bitch and moan very likely will not be part of any future. There's a very tough lesson in this and most in the industry have learned it the hard way at least once in their career.

Like I said, still doesn't make it pleasant...but then again, watching the numbers tumble can't be joyful either.
 
> It's never pleasant when people lose their jobs, but it is
> pretty clear too that the "old guard" at Ch. 8 hasn't
> produced anyone who has or can step forward and right the
> ship, from management on down. That said, there is only one
> place to look for infusion of hope - outside. They've done
> that and we can all speculate about this and that but time
> and numbers will tell.
>
> It is the same many times over, also not pleasant, but to be
> part of the future of change one must adapt. Those who sit
> back and bitch and moan very likely will not be part of any
> future. There's a very tough lesson in this and most in the
> industry have learned it the hard way at least once in their
> career.
>
> Like I said, still doesn't make it pleasant...but then
> again, watching the numbers tumble can't be joyful either.
>
Your summation puts about the best face possible on a lamentable situation at the fallen giant. And there will be weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth.
 
As I stated before; "it's like mowing grass". You start at the top. Kathy Clements Hill needs to be replaced. Let a "proven"GM take over and see how to do more than a temporary fix. Call an all day staff meeting on a sunday. Forgo the 5:30 p,m news and put on a pre recorded special program.Address the serious foul ups on air during the news, find out why,who,what and how to fix it. Cut the dead weight and refurbish the garden,then grow with success.
 
> Very sorry treatment for
> someone who rode the entire TXCN wave to the bitter end...

Has TXCN since closed down for good? Last time I heard, they were operating with a skeleton crew, using resources from other Belo stations.

Though apparently, they already know the obvious answer.
 
> I realize this is probably old news by now, but whatever
> happened to Steve Ackerman as ND? Was he too good to keep?

Steve has since moved to Cincinatti Ohio to take on the Fox Affliate there-- he is News Director, has moved his wife up there recently-- and soon his mother will make that move to be closer to them- Steve's wife is originally from St.Louis so this move is good all around for him.

I happen to know Steve quite well, and what Cincy gained.. DALLAS truly lost-- I wish him well-- and hope that one day-- someone will wake up at the Belo IVORY TOWER and figure that being a station that used to be the standards in this market-- has since fallen to a station that just 20 years ago was nothing more than a dumping ground for re-runs-- and now has a pretty class act in their news reporting and their programming in general!

WFAA/8 has to reach back into their past before they can concern themselves about their future-- LEARN! (read: Marty Haag old play book-- how to succeed in tv news without really trying)

Just a thought!<P ID="signature">______________
Dave Michaels
Davradio Productions
Dallas, Texas</P>
 
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