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Should the anchor wife/husband of a politiican leave?

N

Nertz!

Guest
In Philadelphia, NBC 10 anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah is married to congressman Chaka Fattah who is running for mayor. It is an obvious conflict of interest that the station and anchor just laugh off . The Philadelphia Inquirer said "Chenault-Fattah was so concerned that some might see her name on the air as a form of campaigning that she offered to go back to her maiden name for the duration of the race.”
She really shouldn't have been on TV anyway since her husband is a congressman and having her co-anchor handle city hall and mayor's election race stories seems like a big cop out.

Has this occured anywere else and has it been handled better?
 
When Rudy Giuliani first ran for mayor in 1989, his wife Donna Hanover was an anchor on WPIX. She stepped down, to avoid a conflict of interest.
When Rudy was mayor, she did work at WNYW as a feature reporter, covering fluff stories and nothing serious.

Ms. Chenault-Fattah and her station are obviously in the wrong and she should either leave or be covering fluff stories. When she married a politico, she should have had her duties changed or did the honorable thing and quit. She obviously has no honor and her station has no honor either.
 
When Grant Woods was Attorney General of Arizona in the mid '90s, his wife Marlene Galan was a news anchor at KSAZ-TV in Phoenix. She never reported any stories that her husband was involved with (or even read any from what I remember), but the conflict of interest was obvious.

Of course, the "incestuous" relationship between Phoenix media and Arizona state government is legendary. A few ex-broadcasters have become Governor, and former Governor/Senator/Supreme Court Justice Ernest McFarland was the founder of KTVK.
 
In San Antonio, one of the TV stations had Deborah Knapp-Bonilla as an anchor. She is/was the spouse on Representative Henry Bonilla. As far as I know, it was never a problem. So long as she doesn't do any political stories, I don't see a problem with it. After all, she should be able to make a living for herself if she wants to. I work in government during the week and in radio on the weekends. It's okay with the powers-that-be in my office so long as I don't have a radio at my desk, put my station's bumper stickers up at my desk, or talk politics on-the-air.
 
Kent said:
In San Antonio, one of the TV stations had Deborah Knapp-Bonilla as an anchor. She is/was the spouse on Representative Henry Bonilla. As far as I know, it was never a problem. So long as she doesn't do any political stories, I don't see a problem with it. After all, she should be able to make a living for herself if she wants to. I work in government during the week and in radio on the weekends. It's okay with the powers-that-be in my office so long as I don't have a radio at my desk, put my station's bumper stickers up at my desk, or talk politics on-the-air.
Click to expand...

Being Philadelphia-market born and bred myself, I must point out that in the early '80s, when I still lived in that market, Ms. Knapp coanchored (with Larry Kane IIRC) "Live at 5" on then-CBS O&O, now NBC O&O WCAU-10. She married Mr. Bonilla (who IIRC was a NYC TV producer at the time) while she was at WCAU. By the mid or late '80s the couple had moved to the Alamo City.

I had moved out of the Philly market by the time 1) WCAU hired Ms. Chenault I believe and 2) Mr. Fattah came into prominence.

ixnay
 
I think that Chenault-Fattah should step down from the anchor chair to avoid any possible problems with this. BTW She will only anchor the 11 PM newscast as part of major changes to WCAU's news broadcasts during the week (http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/061109/ph00719a.html?.v=1) in a few weeks. She wants to spend more time with the family is the reason that she wants to do one newscast daily.
 
Gail Huff-WCVB TV Boston is married to Senator Scott Brown-and they are the parents of American Idol finalist Ayla Brown :) Sorry, had to throw that in.

But since Gail goes by her maiden (it is her maiden, right?) name, she can probably report on any story and no one would know she is married to a senator.
 
The difference here is that Cheanult-Fattah is one of the lead anchors and - being married to US Rep. Chaka Fattah (say that name rapidly 3 times!) - is a clear conflict of interest at that level.

Her credibility, and the credibility of NBC 10 during the run up to the elections, was adversely impacted by this obvious relationship. And, going forward, she's on pretty thin ice with respect to almost any political story - as we all know that her husband is an outspoken Democratic congressman. Those views are easily transferred to her and they impact any appearance of objectivity that she may have.

She should have had the class to step down or, at the minimum, accept a different assignment that involves apolitical stories. That would have been the "professional" thing to do.

It's enough to make me switch to a different channel when she's on.
 
BRNout said:
The difference here is that Cheanult-Fattah is one of the lead anchors and - being married to US Rep. Chaka Fattah (say that name rapidly 3 times!) - is a clear conflict of interest at that level.

Her credibility, and the credibility of NBC 10 during the run up to the elections, was adversely impacted by this obvious relationship. And, going forward, she's on pretty thin ice with respect to almost any political story - as we all know that her husband is an outspoken Democratic congressman. Those views are easily transferred to her and they impact any appearance of objectivity that she may have.

She should have had the class to step down or, at the minimum, accept a different assignment that involves apolitical stories. That would have been the "professional" thing to do.

It's enough to make me switch to a different channel when she's on.
Click to expand...
I agree with you. We should convince WCAU that Renee should leave the station because of this. Contact link to NBC 10: http://www.nbc10.com/contactus/index.html
 
So have her do non-political stories...problem solved. It's not as if there's a lack of fires, car chases and other pieces of news she can read while having the co-anchor read the political stuff.
 
Nertz! said:
In Philadelphia, NBC 10 anchor Renee Chenault-Fattah is married to congressman Chaka Fattah who is running for mayor. It is an obvious conflict of interest that the station and anchor just laugh off . The Philadelphia Inquirer said "Chenault-Fattah was so concerned that some might see her name on the air as a form of campaigning that she offered to go back to her maiden name for the duration of the race.”
She really shouldn't have been on TV anyway since her husband is a congressman and having her co-anchor handle city hall and mayor's election race stories seems like a big cop out.

Has this occured anywere else and has it been handled better?
Click to expand...

Isn't she the same one who made news by making a baby with a turkey baster a few years back and her own station covered it as a news story? Where was this husband then or is he infertile?

In as much as she coloured and female there is no way they can ask her to leave.
 
imhomerjay said:
So have her do non-political stories...problem solved. It's not as if there's a lack of fires, car chases and other pieces of news she can read while having the co-anchor read the political stuff.
Click to expand...

There sure are enough homicides in the city of Philadelphia to provide her with full-time work. But, I'm sure that she is too *important* now to dirty her nails by doing some street-level reporting.

Bad on her and bad on NBC management for allowing it.
 
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