WFLA and WTTA Finally Fess Up: New 10 p.m. Newscast Coming to Tampa Bay Market

It's amazing what one published article can do.

At least, that's what I'm telling myself following the press release circulated today from WFLA-Ch. 8 and WTTA-Ch. 38 finally acknowledging their "news sharing" agreement in which WFLA and Media General personnel will create a 10 p.m. newscast for WTTA called NewsChannel 8 at 10. I ran a story in today's Times and on this blog announcing their arrangement this morning, after management in both stations refused to return my calls for days.

Anchored by WFLA reporter Peter Bernard and Katie Coronado, a reporter for Media General's Spanish-language newspaper Centro, the 35-minute newscast will also feature weather reporters from WFLA's weekend meteorologists, Leigh Spann and Mace Michaels.  It all debuts Oct. 8.

News of the show was common knowledge around WFLA this week. Still, officials at the station refused to even return my phone calls when I tried to ask them about the project (usually, if I ask about something people don't want to discuss, they call me back after the first three phone calls and say they can't talk)

The release doesn't say this, but I'm still convinced this is mostly about creating a newscast which can soak up political ad dollars in a hotly contested election year. Which leads to an important question: Does the area really need another 10 p.m. TV newscast?  And if not, can this newscast be more than a selling point for national advertisers and an audition tape for Bernard and Coronado?

Here's the release:

WFLA-TV/DT ANNOUNCES LAUNCH OF 10 P.M. NEWS BEGINNING OCTOBER 8, 2007

Local News Leader Brings Award Winning Coverage to 10 p.m. Time Period

For Immediate Release…(September 28, 2007)…Tampa, Florida…WFLA-TV, News Channel 8, (NBC 8) announces the launch of News Channel 8 at 10, Monday through Friday on WTTA-TV (MYTV 38) beginning October 8, 2007.

“This is a tremendous opportunity to bring to this market a compelling, live newscast at 10 p.m. from News Channel 8, the area’s news leader,” said President and General Manager of WFLA-TV, Mike Pumo.

“News Channel 8 at 10 will be the news of record at 10pm for breaking news, weather, and top stories,” added Pumo. “Our partnership with WTTA-TV is the vital connection that allows us to provide this coverage for viewers at a time that’s important to them.”

"We are very excited to announce this partnership between News Channel 8 and MY TV TAMPA BAY,” said Julie Nelson, General Manager for WTTA. It provides another choice for live, late-breaking news at 10 o’clock, which viewers have requested.  We’re proud to be working with the market’s news leader, News Channel 8, to help meet the community’s needs and bring more local programming to Tampa Bay.”

News Channel 8 at 10 p.m. will be anchored by WFLA-TV’s Peter Bernard and Katie Coronado, with  weather reports from meteorologist Mace Michaels and Leigh Spann.

“This newscast will be a headline-driven, top-story format, with heavy emphasis on bringing viewers up-to-date on local stories as well as continuously updated weather,” said WFLA-TV News Director, Don North.

News Channel 8 at 10. will capitalize on the resources of WFLA-TV, The Tampa Tribune and tbo.com to provide the market with the area’s number one choice for local news and weather at 10 p.m.

As the news leader in the Tampa-St Petersburg television market, WFLA-TV currently broadcasts local news weekdays from 5 – 7 a.m. and 11 a.m., and evenings at 5, 5:30, 6 and 11 p.m.

News Channel 8 at 10 will air weeknights from 10-10:35 p.m. on WTTA-MY TV TAMPA BAY.

About Media General

WFLA-TV is owned my Media General.  Media General is a multimedia company operating leading newspapers, television stations and online enterprises primarily in the Southeastern United States. The company’s publishing assets include three metropolitan newspapers, The Tampa Tribune, Richmond Times-Dispatch, and Winston-Salem Journal; 22 daily community newspapers in Virginia, North Carolina, Florida, Alabama and South Carolina; and more than 150 weekly newspapers and other publications. The company’s broadcasting assets include 23 network-affiliated television stations that reach more than 32 percent of the television households in the Southeast and nearly 9.5 percent of those in the United States. The company’s interactive media assets include more than 75 online enterprises that are associated with its newspapers and television stations. Media General also owns a 33 percent interest in SP Newsprint Company, a manufacturer of recycled newsprint.

WFLA to Produce Newscast for WTTA; Local Officials Clam Up

For a reporter, there's not many things more frustrating than when sources won't return your calls.

That's why I was surprised and a little disappointed when officials at WFLA-Ch. 8 and WTTA-Ch. 38 declined to return my phone calls about an interesting rumor I had heard: WFLA was going to produce a newscast starting next month for WTTA, the MyNetworkTV affiliate in town.

Dan Bradley, vice president of news for Media General's broadcast division -- who rose from the ranks of WFLA's photographers to become news director in Tampa before taking the top news job at the parent company -- confirmed to me that WFLA expected to close a deal with WTTA, but didn't know specifics.

"Why do we do this?  Because it is a good way of extending our local news brand and image in the market place," wrote Bradley in an email, noting that Media General stations have similar agreements in five other markets. "Much the same reason you and other folks from the St Pete Times appear on Bay News 9." Back in 2000, WFLA created half-hour 7 and 10 p.m. newscasts for Pax TV-owned WXPX-Ch. 17, using anchors Keith Cate and Stacie Schaible, but those newscasts have long since ended.

With five TV outlets producing news, including 24-hour local newschannel Bay News 9, Tampa isn't a market starved for television news. But when WTTA established a 10 p.m. newscast in 2003, officials there said more than 30 percent of all TV advertising comes from sponsors who only want space in the newscast -- especially political advertising.

So, with one of the most-contested presidential elections around the corner in 2008, a new newscast for WTTA may make lots of financial sense for the station. Hopefully, there will be information to come on who is anchoring, when the show will debut and what the set looks like.

Perhaps when someone returns one of my calls, I can tell you.   

Deggans Tells you More on NPR; Matt Lauer Apologizes for Bill O'Reilly on Today

I've been telling National Public Radio for months that there are fun, audio-friendly TV critics of color who can talk about media and television for their multicultural shows, Farai Chideya's News & Notes and Michel Martin's Tell Me More.

On Tuesday, Martin's show took me up on the offer, pulling me and two other black TV experts together  to talk about the fall TV season, the network TV business and race issues. So Tanika Ray, correspondent for the entertainment program Extra and Detroit News media critic Mekeisha Madden Toby joined me and Michel for the discussion.

We wound up talking about how Hispanics in Hollywood are finding success placing shows such as Ugly Betty and Cane on networks schedules, the growing use of the black best friend in series and, of course, Cavemen.

Click here to hear us dish on all this stuff and more.

Matt Lauer Apologizes for Bill O'Reilly on Today

I was really disappointed with this exchange aired this morning on the O'Reilly mess.  Not only did they have a white guy trying to explain why O'Reilly was racist while a black Republican stood there insisting he wasn't, anchor Lauer ot involved to help pooh-poo the notion that the Fox News pundit sad anything offensive.

I just wish they had taken some time to find a black person who didn't have a vested interest in defending O'Reilly. See for yourself....

O'Reilly Goes To Harlem, Leaves More People Convinced He's a Racist

I've written before about the ways in which O'Reilly couches racist ideas -- treating gangsta rap culture like the primary voice of black America and then blaming a host of ills affecting black people on that cartoonish caricature.

Now, after an attempt at rapprochement with civil rights advocate Al Sharpton, O'Reilly has stepped in it again, this time by marveling at how he had dinner with Sharpton at a Harlem restaurant and people were civil to him; no cursing, crotch grabbing or ugly behavior in sight.

Here's the quote, fresh from the admittedly liberal media watch Web site, Media Matters: "(O'Reilly) reported that he "had a great time, and all the people up there are tremendously respectful," adding: "I couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." Later, during a discussion with National Public Radio senior correspondent and Fox News contributor Juan Williams about the effect of rap on culture, O'Reilly asserted: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.' You know, I mean, everybody was -- it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all."

Here's my first column, written in 1999, about how O'Reilly uses racially charged language about gangsta rappers to scare his presumably white viewership and press his points. Here's my second column about O'Reilly's racist rhetorical tricks, employed this time to criticize those stuck in New Orleans during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.  Here's his response to the Katrina column -- a typically personal attack in which he cites his radio comments, not the TV appearance I criticized.

I think these comments are typical of O'Reilly's technique. Too smart to personally use an epithet in the way Don Imus finally did, he instead turns rap culture into a straw man used to represent all of black culture. Then, he's free to tee off on the stereotypical excesses of THAT culture, rather than talk about real, live black people with all their contradictions intact.

Fox News executive Bill Shine, speaking to the Associated Press, had a different take on his channel's star pundit: ""This is nothing more than left-wing outlets stirring up false racism accusations for ratings," said Shine, senior vice president for programming at Fox News Channel. "It's sad."

O'Reilly seems amazed to meet black folks who don't fit his disconnected stereotype of what we are. That he finally got introduced to some real black people may be the best thing to come of this bizarre meeting -- and yes, Sharpton critics, it took the Rev Al to make that happen.

NPR's News and Notes Covers Jena and White Supremacy

NPR's black focused show had an interesting segment today on material posted online by the leader of a white supremacist group who claimed to have a supportive interview with the mayor of Jena, La., where thousands of people converged last week to protest the prosecution of six black youths.

The Chicago Tribune published a piece on the interviews, which quote Jena mayor Murphy McMillin praising efforts by white supremacists to mount counter demonstrations. News and Notes interviewed the Richard Barrett, the leader of a white nationalist movement in Mississippi, who said he didn't tape record the conversation but wrote it down later from memory. Murphy declined to speak for the radio but sent NPR emails denying the most controversial quotes. 

Eric's Fall TV Report Card: Miss Tampa Survives a Week, Heroes Kills Off Sulu

One day into the new TV season, and the report card looks good.

Dancing With the Stars was cheesy as ever -- kicking off with the female stars dancing first Monday night. It's an odd combination of sex appeal and anticipation which drives this show, as viewers line up hoping to see a hottie or two and hoping someone falls on their behind.

No such luck Monday, though a surprisingly chubby Sabrina Bryan (The Cheetah Girls) nearly ripped up that dance floor with hip hop-inspired moves which predictably pissed off the old school judge. Fortunately, blockhead co-host Samantha Harris was off having a baby, so she was replaced by the much less inept Drew Lachey (something tells me Sam should take a looong time enjoying her new motherhood). Marie Osmond keeps working the nostalgia vibe -- and, I'll admit, that odd Osmond sex appeal -- to get a better score than she probably deserved.

On ABC's The Bachelor, former Miss Tampa Erin Gardner made the cut in an episode filled with lots of giggling, vapid BS. Watching the Bachelor feels like time-traveling back to my college years, when dating was mostly about looking cool and imbibing lots of mind-altering substances. Unfortunately, Lady Lake resident and Villages News Network anchor Jessica Kiss didn't make he cut, so we're down to just one Floridian in the hunt for the hand of hunky Austin business-dude Brad Womack.

And then there's Heroes. Seemingly killing off Hiro's dad, Star Trek vet George Takei, was only the beginning. Lots of cool storylines thrown in the air, including the notion that a cadre of older heroes may be bad guys here, Mohinder and HRG teaming up to take down the Company, the cheerleader hooking up  with another superpowered teen and Peter Petrelli lost in Ireland with no memory. I don't care what anybody said about last year's finale -- I loved last year's ride and I've enthusiastically signed up for more based on last night's premiere. But that's me: Once I buy into characters, it's awfully hard to get rid of me (see ER).

In all, a pretty decent night for the fall season.

But forget about me -- what did you think? 

Weather Guy Kicks Serious Behind in San Diego

What to do if you're a jovial weatherman suddenly set upon by protestors representing off camera workers shouting the URl or a protest Web site during your live shot?

If you're KGTV-Ch. 10 weather guy Loren Nancarrow, you stop the live shot and go after the protestors before the camera has even cut away from your spot (I swear I heard the word s---head just before the audio cut away!)

See for yourself, thanks to the magic of YouTube:

The Problem with Dan Rather's Lawsuit: He Thinks He's Telling Us Something We Don't Already Know

Here’s the problem I have with Dan Rather’s $70-million lawsuit against CBS: He thinks he’s telling us something we don’t already know.

“Somebody, sometimes, has got to take a stand,” Rather intoned somberly last week on Larry King Live. “Democracy cannot survive, much less thrive, with the level of big corporate and big government interference and intimidation in news.”

Makes me wonder where Dan was in the run up to the Iraq war. Or what happened to his sense of separation from government interference when he went on David Letterman’s late night show, right after the 9/11 attacks, and pledged “George Bush is the President, he makes the decisions, and, you know, as just one American, wherever he wants me to line up, just tell me where.”

But I digress.

Rather, in speaking out on this lawsuit, seems to think we don’t know that CBS was caving to enormous  political pressure in its reaction to the furor following his infamous “Memogate” 60 Minutes II story. He also seems to think we didn’t notice that CBS hired a famous Republican – former attorney general for Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Richard “Dick” Thornburgh – to co-chair the investigative committee looking into the story, or that the eventual report minimized CBS News executives’ missteps to focus on the producers’ failings.

He thinks, for some reason, that most Americans haven’t already come to terms with the focus of his story – that our current president, George W. Bush, got favorable treatment when he served in the National Guard during the Vietnam War.

We know these things, because many of us reported on them when they happened.

But here’s the reason why a lot of that doesn’t matter, and why Rather’s lawsuit bothers me most: The onetime CBS anchor won’t admit his own mistakes.

“I want to make this clear, nobody to this day has shown that these documents were fraudulent,” said Rather, speaking about the questionable documents his team used to prove that Bush was not fulfilling his duties in the Guard. “Nobody has proved they were fraudulent, much less a forgery.

But that isn’t the question at hand regarding Rather’s story. The problem is that no one at CBS, including Rather, could say they were not forgeries – despite the fact that Rather’s 60 Minutes II story presented the documents as authenticated by an expert, with no hint that their validity was an open question.

And when the story finally came out about how Rather and his team received the documents – memos from Bush’ squadron commander expressing reservations about his notable subordinate’s efforts to avoid service – it turns out they came from a known, vehement Bush critic who could not credibly explain how he came to possess them.

It seemed CBS’ primary reason for guarding the source of its information was the knowledge that he was highly impeachable – with tons of motive for fabricating the documents and no explanation for how he got them, the network’s source was a serious weak link they seemingly could not afford to reveal.

Eventually, the internal report concluded that the story had erred by making it seem as if the expert it featured on camera had authenticated the documents, when he had only authenticated a signature on one of them. Producers also erred by not requiring the source of the documents, Texas Air National Guard Lt. Bill Burkett, to produce the person who he said provided them to him.

Here’s what Rather said about it all back then: “If I knew then what I know now – I would not have gone ahead with the story as it was aired, and I certainly would not have used the documents in question.”

That jibed with what the then-president of CBS News, Andrew Heyward, also said in a statement then: “Based on what we now know, CBS News cannot prove that the documents are authentic, which is the only acceptable journalistic standard to justify using them in the report. We should not have used them. That was a mistake, which we deeply regret.”

Now, because CBS didn’t live up to its promise to give him a high-profile spot on 60 Minutes after he was ousted from the anchor chair, Rather wants $70-million and an apology, wrapping his hurt feelings in a stand for journalistic freedom.

To state the case gently in Rather’s own unique patois: That dog won’t hunt.

Or, to cop a phrase CBS’ attorneys will surely use if this litigation ever sees a courtroom: Were you lying when you apologized for the story two years ago, or are you lying now?   

Eric's Fall TV Preview: Multimedia and More, Including Politifact Video

Here is the cover for Sunday's Floridian, which really isn't reproduced on the Web site anywheres.

You can't really read the clever lines in this version. But if you click on the image, you get a large, sharp version of it, and you can see all the cool spaces we invented to describe fall TV.

The full shebang hits the newspaper on Sunday. As I noted in the previous post, it's important for couch potatoes to get something they can pull out of the newspaper and hold onto. We ran it a little late this year, but that just means we have the benefit of time to contemplate it all.

It's also why we also decided to give you something you could look at online -- hence the way cool multimedia presentation, which you can see by clicking here.

WAIT - THERE's MORE - POLTIFACT VIDEO HERE - TIMES MAKES HISTORY BY MAKING VIDEO

My other life includes some work as a musician. So when the folks at Politifact said they were going to do a music video to publicize the site, I quickly offered to play the part of boneheaded drummer.

I do believe this is the first time a major metropolitan newspaper has ever done a music video. And it's a newsroom affair from top to bottom -- our Deputy Metro Editor Chris Ave wrote the song and a member of our web publishing team, Adrian Phillips directed it.

Eric's Fall TV Preview: TiVo or Ti-No - That's the Question

One of the biggest decisions I may make as a TV critic is when you get to see our Fall TV preview.

I know this, because every year, I get masses of emails and phone calls from local couch potatoes wanting to know when they're going to get our annual roundup of what works and doesn't in the new TV season. I know it doesn't feel like it -- thanks to 10,000 promotional ads aired touting all the new product -- but the actual 2007-08 TV season doesn't start until Monday.

So that's why we waited until today and Sunday to roll out my analysis of the 30 new network TV shows coming your way this month and next. The newspaper version consumes next Sunday's Floridian. And to surprise myself, I worked with our online crew to film a special presentation talking up what's worked and what hasn't on TV this fall.

Doing this gig gave me new appreciation for Ryan Seacrest, I'll tell you. It's a lot harder to face a camera, say something entertaining, and not look like you're staring down the barrel of a gun. I didn't always achieve that magical balance, but I hope you can check out my picks, and some samples of the new shows, without bumming out too bad on my delivery. I boiled it down to a simple slogan: Ti-Vo or Ti-No.

As you know from reading this space, I didn't love any new show this year, But here's a quickie list of good to bad, just to help you out. Tivo the top two tiers and Ti-No the rest.

The Best (Check them out):

Pushing Daisies (ABC); Reaper (CW); Back to You (Fox); Samantha Who? (ABC); Chuck (NBC).

Promising (Keep an eye on these, they may soar):

K-ville (Fox); Cane (CBS); Dirty Sexy Money (ABC); Gossip Girl (CW); Nashville (Fox); Aliens in America (CW); Carpoolers (ABC); Journeyman (NBC).

Disappointing (Tough to sit through; probably won't get better):

Viva Laughlin (CBS); Private Practice (ABC); Bionic Woman (NBC); Women's Murder Club (ABC); Life is Wild (CW); Big Bang Theory (CBS).

Just Awful (Likely lost cause; watch only if relatives are in the cast):

Cavemen (ABC); Kid Nation (CBS); Life (NBC); Big Shots (ABC); Moonlight (CBS); Kitchen Nightmares (Fox)

Media Matters Says Florida Newspapers Dominated by Conservative Op-Ed Writers

You may recall that I wrote a bit about the liberal Web site Media Matters' analysis of op-ed columnists around the country. (I asked, for example, how the heck George Will wound up as the nation's most-published columnist?)

Now Media Matters has crunched the numbers for several states, concluding that Florida's newspapers are also dominated by conservatives, with nationally syndicated conservatives reaching the state's readers nearly 4-million more times each week than progressives.

According to their analysis, conservatives appear 121 times each week, compared to 40 appearances by centrists and 75 times for progressive columnists. Cal Thomas is the top columnist in Florida, appearing regularly in 17 different newspapers. The highest progressive on the list, Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts (11 regular newspapers), is also the only person of color among the top ten, though the Chicago Tribune's Clarence Page is 11th.

The St. Petersburg Times is shown featuring more progressives than conservatives, with 43 percent of columnists considered progressive and 29 percent considered conservative. Just three other newspapers in the state featured more progressive voices than conservative: The Palm Beach Post, the Ocala Star Banner and the New Smyrna Beach Observer.

According to their study, 80 percent of op-ed columnists featured by the Tampa Tribune are conservative -- only the Winter Haven News Chief, the Villages Daily Sun and the Fort Walton Beach Northwest Florida Daily News had highest percentages of conservative columnists. Only one newspaper among Florida's 38 daily newspapers, the Gainesville Sun, declined to reveal information to the site's researchers or offered no way to track their use of columnists from Washington D.C.

Read the full report here.

 

Jena Six Case Explodes Onto National Stage

Hard to believe now there was a time when people worried whether the Jena Six case would get enough attention.

Yesterday and today, news outlets across the country have focused on a civil rights march planned for the small Louisiana town today, pulling the story of six young black men charged with attempted murder into the light of a near-media frenzy.

The whole situation started last year, when a black high school student in Jena, La. asked to sit beneath a tree in the schoolyeard traditionally reserved for white students. Though he wasn't prevented from doing so, the next day three nooses were placed on the tree.

That incident heightened racial tensions in the school, culminating with a fight in which six black teens beat a white youth. The black teens were arrested and charged with attempted murder -- a crime which could result in decades of time in jail and which activists have said was too harsh.

The news of these struggles in the small town of 4,000 have spread -- first through black oriented media and now, with a march organized by Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, mainstream media outlets.

The protests were covered buy cable news outlets yesterday, morning shows and evening news  broadcasts have presented stories and CNN has planned an hourlong documentary at 8 tonight.

The story has stood as a litmus test for race issues: black activists have cited it as evidence of unequal treatment under the legal system; others have said it is an example of criminals trying to escape punishment for black-on-white crime.

Rocker David Bowie has given $10,000 to the Jena Six's legal defense fund. It has even become a political hot potato for presidential candidate Barack Obama, who Jesse Jackson supposedly criticized for not speaking out sooner on the issue -- only to take back his words once they were broadcast nationally.

The question I have: Will all this media attention add up to any greater understanding of what happened? Or is it just going to be a lot of conflict regurgitated for the world press?

Here's what CNN is planning tonight:

  CNN anchor Kyra Phillips reports on racial tensions within Jena, a small Louisiana town where whites and blacks have existed in the sort of separate, yet civil existence typical of many rural Southern towns. One of the places where whites and blacks do come together on a daily basis is Jena High School.  In August 2006, a black student asked the school administration if he and his friends could sit under what was known as the "white" tree on the school grounds.  Although he was told that he could sit anywhere he wished, a day later, nooses were seen hanging from the tree.  The intimidating reaction touched off a series of racially-charged incidents: in December, a large section of the school was destroyed by fire. Whites blamed blacks, blacks blamed whites and the crime remains unsolved.  Action and reactions continued to escalate: a black student was hit in the head with a bottle by a white student at a party; a white student brandished a shotgun at three black students he said were menacing him.  When a white student was badly beaten by a group of black students, six were arrested, five of whom were charged as adults with charges that included attempted murder which may result in years – perhaps decades – of incarceration.  The prosecution of the so-called “Jena Six” has inspired outrage among those who see lesser charges for the white students as evidence of a racially-motivated prosecutor and judge.

Former Miss Tampa Competes on The Bachelor

Whenever a big reality show such as Survivor or The Bachelor annonces its cast, I look over the list of names with trepidation.

Because I know, if there's a local face in the crowd, I'm going to spend lots of time watching a TV show I'd rather avoid.

But no luck this year: turns out a former Miss Tampa 2004, Erin Gardner is a contestant on ABC’s reality-romance TV series The Bachelor.

She joins Lady Lake resident Jessica Kiss, an anchor for the Villages News Network, as the two Florida-based contestants among a field of 25 women vying for the affections of 34-year-old Brad Womack, a entrepreneur from Austin, Texas.

Gardner, 25, is shown admitting to a freak sports injury in which she broke her face with a football in the show’s initial episode, released to TV critics this week. ABC declined to make the University of South Florida graduate available for interview until after she is shown getting ejected from the show, if she ever is.

The last Tampa woman to compete on The Bachelor, Mary Delgado, competed in the show’s fourth and sixth seasons, eventually becoming the final choice of competitive fisherman Byron Velvick.    

Public Forum on News Media in Tampa Tonight; Dexter Author Jeff Lindsay Down the Street

I gotta say, the Taser guy story hit me where I live.

Tonight, at 7 p.m., I'm going to be moderating a public forum on bealf of the Tampa Bay Association of Black Journalists at the University of Tampa's Plant Hall  on news coverage and the community. I'll be directing questions to editors from all the top media outlets in town: the St. Petersburg Times. Tampa Tribune, WUSF radio, Creative Loafing, WFLA-Ch. 8, WTSP-Ch. 10, WTVT-Ch. 13 and WFTS-Ch. 28 (only Bay News 9 among the big news outlets blew us off). After my short Q&A, we plan on taking questions from the crowd; admission is free and open to all.

But now Andrew Meyer's got me scared. Here's a guy who walked into a public forum, talked past his allotted time and wouldn't give up the microphone. When it was turned off and police tried to escort him out of the building, he physically resisted them. (His cries of "Don't tase me bro!" were featured in the New York Times, Miami Herald and the Washington Post; expect a YouTube-based music video on the phrase before long) See how the Gainesville Sun benefitted from having a freelancer onsite to video it all here.

Now people are saying the organizers suppressed his free speech rights. What if we get another Taser-dude in Tampa? Can we ask police to remove him without getting accused of robbing his free speech?

At the same time, at Inkwood books on Armenia Ave. in Tampa, will be a public forum of a different sort, featuring Dexter author Jeff Lindsay talking about his legendary character -- a serial killer who murders other killers.

For Monday's Floridian article on Lindsay, I drove down to his Cape Coral home and hung out for a few hours, stepping on this boat, the Dexter-Us. and meeting his wife Hilary Hemingway, neice of the legendary author.

What I couldn't fit in the piece, was Lindsay's story about how he writes -- essentially getting up so early in the morning, that his conscious brain hasn't fully kicked in.

"I think part of it is my writing technique is … as I say, I’m acting it but most of the stuff I’m doing really early in the morning before I’m actually awake. So it’s just my subconscious, and I’ve found that, you know, I can get out five or 10 pages real early in the morning and then come back later in the day and whip it into shape, and it works better that way. If I was to go in right now, wide awake, and try to write, most likely what would happen is that I would have the critic sitting in the chair with me and going, you know, you did that in the last book, oh, that’s stupid, can’t you think of anything better?"

So, if you're a media geek in the Tampa Bay area, you've got your pick of two compelling events tonight. Just be nice and respect the rules for discussion. I don't want to have to Tase you bro.

Tasered in Gainesville: A Free Speech Issue or a Personal Conduct Problem?

TV newscasts yesterday and today have been filled with video of University of Florida journalism student Andrew Meyer getting wrestled to the ground and tasered after asking questions during an appearance by former Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry. See the AP story here.

Meyer's Web site is filled with links to the video and an exhortation to join a protest at noon today on the UF campus. But after watching the video, I'm wondering why folks are rallying to protect a guy who refused to obey the format of the Q&A session and then physically resisted police when they tried to escort him from the building?

The motto of this encounter, if you ask me, is you better do what the cops say if four of them are sitting on top of you with a taser (the motto for the cops is, don't taser a guy in front of dozens of people if you already have him subdued).

UPDATE: After seeing how fast this video has spread across the news media, I have a new motto for Meyer -- don't be afraid to get tasered if it can turn you into a national media figure. Like the weirdos who dress in costume for an American Idol audition, Meyer and his antics have earned attention on all the local newscasts here, CNN, the Today show and AOL's homepage, just to name a few outlets now featuring his video. I'm now thinking University of Florida police played into his hands and Meyer is the greatest diabolical genius since Dr. Evil.

It reminds me of the androgenous, oddball Britney fan "Chris Crocker" whose rant about Britney's performance at MTV's awards on youTube got so many hits he landed on newscasts and Jimmy Kimmel Live. We're seeing a new type of celebrity emerge before our eyes -- fed by TV and blogs' hunger for compelling video footage --and the only real question left may be how far some people are willing to go in tappnig this attention.

What do you guys think? Fair protest or unruly disruptor?

Emmys Most Bizarre Moments: 2007 Edition

At least, Britney didn't show.

The results of Sunday's Emmy telecast were so bizarre, that this exclamation -- remember, Spears was offered the chance to show up and apologize for her career-killing performance at the MTV awards a week ago -- was the last refuge for us critics, tearing our hair out on deadline trying to make sense of it all.

Extras' Ricky Gervais instead of Alec Baldwin, Steve Carell or even (shudder) Tony Shalhoub? 30 Rock as best comedy instead of The Office? Sally Field as best dramatic actress instead of Kyra Sedgwick or Edie Falco? James f-ing Spader as best dramatic actor instead of the magnificent James Gandolfini?

Looks like Emmy voters were spending way too much time on the set of Showtime's ganja-focused comedy Weeds.

Making matters worse, this was probably the most entertaining Emmycast in years. Host Ryan Seacrest was smart enough to do what he does best; crack a few jokes and step aside to let more talented folks take the wheel. So Steve Carell, Lewis Black, Ellen DeGeneres, Rainn Wilson, Wayne Brady and yes, Kanye West stepped up with skits and presentations that brought more than a few laugh out loud moments.

Still, the odd moments piled up. Here's a few:

82-year-old Emmy winner Elaine Stritch getting confused while presenting an award, then confessing to the crowd "I'm not faking this -- I really don't know what the hell I'm doing."

Often-discombobulated American Idol judge Paula Abdul's clueless look when the spotlight fell on her after Seacrest suggested SHE spent too much time at the Weeds cast party.

The last line of Sally Field's acceptance speech getting totally cut from the broadcast -- the screen went to a wide shot of the the auditorium with no audio (for the record, she said ""And, let's face it, if the mothers ruled the world, there would be no g-d--- wars in the first place.") Contrary to what MoveOn.org or the Huffington Post may say tomorrow, I think the blip was all about profanity and not about the antiwar thing.

80-year-old Tony Bennett sweeping the variety, music awards, singing a duet with a very pregnant Christina Aguilera and smiling at his 47-year-old, blondiful wife. Does life just keep getting better for this guy, or what? At this point, going to heaven in the afterlife would be a step DOWN.

Katherine Heigl getting pissed that announcers mispronounced her name, then confessing while accepting her supporting actress honor that “My own mother told me I didn’t have a shot in hell of winning tonight, so I didn’t have anything prepared. But she’s a big supporter.” That tough dame image is starting to wear a bit, my dear.

Skeevy points to Seacrest, both for a joke about a blogger looking at nude pics of High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens and for cracking the first of TWO jokes about Heroes star Hayden Panettiere recently turning 18. At some point, it just looks creepy, dude.

Broken Trail star Thomas Haden Church noting he jumped out of his limousine to pee and that's why his pants don't fit. TMI, dude. And what the hell does that mean, anyway?

Cool points to a writer for Conan O'Brien who noted he prepared an acceptance speech "because Katherine Heigl's mom told me we were gonna win" and to Daily Show host Jon Stewart, who congratulated correspondent Rob Riggle for traveling to Iraq where he "found laughs in Hell."   

 

Lease to Own: Tampa's Greatest Black Owned Radio Station May Soon Be Black-Owned No Longer

As is often the case with such stories, it started with a rumor: Glenn Cherry wasn't running WTMP-1150 AM anymore.

That was a blockbuster notion, mostly because Cherry had been serving as general manager of Tampa's largest black-owned radio station since his family-owned company bought it in 1997, pressing their vision of a radio station which would serve as the voice of Tampa's black community.

Tampa's black-focused newspaper, the Florida Sentinel Bulletin, first reported on the issue. But it turns out there was more to the story; all nine of the radio stations owned by Cherry's Tama Broadcasting company have been leased to another company controlled by a white-owned investment firm in New York City. See my story in Saturday's Times here.

Cherry described the lease as a "kick the tires" arrangement allowing the leasing company to manage Tama's stations with an eye toward purchasing them. If that happens, WTMP would become the latest local station to join a chain run by an out of town corporation, and the city's biggest black-focused "heritage" or "legacy" radio station would be owned by people who are not black for perhaps the first time in its 50-plus-year history.

Ironically, the lease and possible sale was initiated by Cherry's investment partners, the Black Enterprise/Greenwich Street investment fund, a $91-million pot created in 1997 to help grow minority-owned businesses. According to Cherry, the fund -- established by the biggest black-focused economic magazine in the country, Black Enterprise -- wanted to get the $16-million or so it invested in Tama out of the company, and decided this was the best tack.

What I couldn't find out Friday and hope to resolve soon: What are the new lessor's plans for WTMP? Will the radio stations actually be sold? And why did Tama have so many problems meeting its obligations to the Black Enterprise fund?

WFTS General Manager Arrested; What Happens to Leadership at Ch. 28?

UPDATE: According to WFTS' Web site, Carey's attorney has released this statement:

""Wednesday night, William Carey, General Manager of WFTS TV in Tampa, was involved in an automobile accident during inclement weather at the construction area of Courtney Campbell Causeway and the Veterans Expressway.

"As a result of the accident, charges were filed against Mr. Carey that led to him being placed on paid leave from the television station.  Mr. Carey has turned himself into authorities and is cooperating with the investigation into the automobile accident.  We are confident that this misunderstanding will be cleared up.

"We ask that the media respect Mr. Carey and his family's privacy and allow the legal process to run its course.  Mr. Carey maintains that this unfortunate incident will be resolved once the facts are presented and the authorities conclude their investigation."

Seems Bill Carey, general manager at WFTS-Ch. 28, has turned himself in the Tampa police in connection with a hit-and-run incident on the Courtney Campbell Causeway Wednesday in which police allege Carey fled the scene after accosting the other party.

I began hearing rumors about this incident yesterday, which I passed on to our Tampa bureau -- hoping  they might be able to get more from Tampa police than I could. But police wouldn't confirm that the Carey involved in this alleged incident was the same Bill Carey who worked at WFTS until today, when we put a story on our Web site with a little more detail than what we were hearing yesterday.

According to my colleague Justin George, Carey posted $25,000 bond shortly after turning himself in today to Tampa police on charges of auto burglary and hit and run with property damage. WFTS parent company Scripps Howard says Carey is on paid leave while they investigate. WFTS reported on the arrest in their 5 p.m. newscast, saying Carey was also charged with battery.

Here's the text of the police report -- Carey is the suspect and Lutz resident Ok Yi is the victim:

"The victim was driving her Mercedes on Memorial Highway when her vehicle was rear ended by the suspect's 2006 Ford Explorer.  The victim followed the suspect for approximately one-mile honking her horn until the suspect pulled over.  The suspect approached the victim's car and handed her his driver's license through her car window.  The victim was holding the suspect's license and said she was going to call the police.  He became agitated, reached through the window and tried to grab the driver's license.  A struggle ensued over the license and when the suspect couldn't get his license from the victim, he grabbed her arms and tried to pull her through the window.  Because she was wearing her seatbelt, he was unable to pull her out of the car. He opened the car door, grabbed her shirt and once again attempted to pull her out of the car.  She unbuckled the seatbelt, exited the car and started running down Memorial Highway.  The suspect was chasing after her.  After a short distance, the suspect returned the victim's car, rummaging through her vehicle.  The victim's husband arrived on scene and the suspect fled in his vehicle."

Eric's Emmy Picks: Dreaming Up a Better Emmycast

As promised, I'm ready to ante up with my own picks for Sunday's Emmy contest.

It's a given that Sunday's results won't be nearly as hip, comprehensive or far-reaching as us small screen fans might want. Still, there's hope: I've seen more new faces and standout efforts nominated this year than in the last two or three combined.

So let's look over the biggest categories and dream a little. Who knows? The Emmy academy might surprise us this year and play along.

Outstanding Drama Series -- Nominees: Boston Legal (ABC), Grey’s Anatomy (ABC), Heroes (NBC), House (Fox), The Sopranos (HBO).
My fantasy: Either The Wire’s ambitious take on inner city kids losing hope or Rescue Me’s acerbic look at a disintegrating NYC firefighter should be winning this award. But since they didn't even get nominated, it’s tough to imagine The Sopranos getting snubbed in its final season.

Outstanding Comedy Series -- Nominees: Entourage (HBO), The Office (NBC), 30 Rock (NBC), Two and a Half Men (CBS) Ugly Betty (ABC).
My fantasy: For half its run last season, 30 Rock was among the best comedies on TV. Unfortunately, the other half of the time it was impenetrably quirky. I’m expecting Betty to take this one again, and deservedly so.

Outstanding Actor in a Comedy -- Nominees: Alec Baldwin, 30 Rock; Steve Carell, The Office; Ricky Gervais, Extras (HBO); Tony Shaloub, Monk (USA); Charlie Sheen, Two and a Half Men.
My fantasy: If Shaloub wins a fourth Emmy, Baldwin should just storm onstage and take it from him. In my dreams, Shaloub gives it up on his own.

Outstanding Actress in a Comedy -- Nominees: Felicity Huffman, Desperate Housewives (ABC); Julia Louis-Dreyfus, The New Adventures of Old Christine (CBS); America Ferrera, Ugly Betty; Tina Fey, 30 Rock; Mary Louise-Parker, Weeds (Showtime).
My fantasy: I'm with Tom O'Neil on this one -- Ferrera is the shoo-in, with Fey as the dark horse on the hipster vote. Best of all, this is the strongest collection of female comedy nominees from different shows in a while.

Outstanding Actor in a Drama -- Nominees: James Spader, Boston Legal; Keifer Sutherland, 24 (Fox); James Gandolfini, The Sopranos; Hugh Laurie, House; Denis Leary, Rescue Me (FX).My fantasy: First, that Spader get a sudden pang of good sense and refuse to accept any more nominations for that twisted, tired mess he stars in. Second, that Gandolfini show gratitude for his inevitable, career-capping win by explaining what the hell that ending was really all about. No explainee, no trophy.

Outstanding Actress in a Drama -- Nominees: Patricia Arquette, Medium (NBC); Minnie Driver, The Riches, (FX); Edie Falco, The Sopranos; Sally Field, Brothers and Sisters, (ABC); Mariska Hargitay, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit (NBC); Kyra Sedgwick, The Closer (TNT).
My fantasy: Much as I love me some Edie Falco, Driver and Sedgwick should share this award in 2007. It’s a tough call: Driver was a Brit playing a Southern, lifelong con artist recovering from a heroin addiction. Sedgwick was a driven, menopausal commitment-phobe squiggling to keep her work and home families together. Sometimes, you can’t help wishing they could give two of these things.   

Faking Florida: Which TV Show Does the Worst in Reproducing the Sunshine State?

For me, it's the clothes.

Watching CSI: Miami's Horatio Cane chase down a bad guy in a dark blue suit and black shirt, his flawless hair fluttering in a cool breeze, I laugh -- well aware as a Florida resident that, if they were actually filming that show in Miami, Cane would be reduced to a puddle of sweat and polyester in minutes.

Still, because the costs of location shooting remain a challenge -- and some stars and producers prefer to work close to showbusiness' company town, Los Angeles -- TV shows are faking Florida more often.

The latest to try it is CBS' Cane, an epic drama about a wealthy Cuban-American family set in a town which looks suspiciously like West Palm Beach. I admit being impressed when I walked through the cavernous soundstages housing meticulous recreations of Palm Beach-area mansions; from the detailed tile work to the ornate balcony railings, vibrantly colored walls and high-ceilinged rooms, they nailed the look of the Spanish-style mansions which dot that side of the state.

In my story today on Cane, I focused more on Smits, an earnest guy who I first met two years ago when I profiled him for Hispanic magazine. Interviews for stories like that are always long and feel a little like psychoanalysis, so he remembered the encounter when I saw him in Los Angeles in July, making sure I was comfortable and had everything I needed to get a close look at his ambitious project.

So the question remains: Who does -- or has done in the past -- the worst job mimicking Florida on the small screen?

Here's my look at the shows aping Florida right onw:

CSI: Miami

Excuse for filming in California: cost savings.

Does it work? CBS does a decent job making Pasadena and Long Beach pass for Miami. But cool as redhead David Caruso looks in his blue suits, any real-life Horatio Caine would sweat half his weight off dressing like that in Magic City.

Burn Notice

Reason for filming in Florida: Just look at it.

Does it work? Cane director Sandy Bookstaver also films this show, with lingering shots of beachfront hotels and picturesque marinas. Even the daylight looks hotter in this series, which turns Miami into a cast regular with spectacular results.

Dexter

Excuse for filming in California: cost of insurance during hurricane season.

Does it work? Sticking to lower-class locales - cheap apartment complexes, police department offices and such - producers mimic Miami well. But the show's pilot, shot entirely in Miami with deep blue skies and signature neighborhoods, reveals what Showtime's serial killer drama is missing.

Cane

Excuse for filming in California: cost.

Does it work? Set designers do their homework: Palm Beach film commission staffers still buzz about CBS's visit to their version of Rodeo Drive, Worth Avenue. And the characters walk around in T-shirts and guayaberas, as if it were, you know, hot outside.

Emmy Expert Tom O'Neil Lays It Down

When I sat down to write my Emmy preview this year, I made phone calls to two people:

Kathy Griffin and Tom O'Neil.

Tom is the guy who sits down with the tapes actors actually submit to the Emmy academy, to see who picked quality showcase performances and who sold themselves short. He got Sarah Jessica Parker to change a submission in a year when she wound up nominated and watched helplessly as Roseanne star John Goodman kept submitting tapes which looked like he picked them off a shelf randomly an hour before the submission deadline.

Of course, Miss D-List was too busy basking in the aftermath of her Jesus diss to call back (I believe the term "suck it" was involved). But I did hear from Tom, they guy who has literally written the book on the Emmys and many other glad-handing showbiz awards contests (he also writes a column for the L.A. Times' Web site on showbiz awards, The Envelope.)

"He had better performances in the tapes submitted by Roseanne," said Tom when I called him in Los Angeles. "Then (Goodman) got totally upset and just stopped submitting tapes altogether."

Yeah, it's a little geeky, but Tom has a few observations about this year's Emmy race, which I thought were interesting.

Much as the world expects a Sopranos sweep, it may not happen - especially in Best Drama category

The Emmy broadcast Sunday comes just weeks after HBO's critically acclaimed mob drama finished its final season, leading wags like me to assume it will clean up this year. But Tom pointed out that no regular TV series has won the Best Drama award after its left the air, and Sopranos has lost the Best Drama award many more times than it won, even when it was a current series. His theory: fellow actors and writers vote for the acting and producing awards, so popular people who do singular work are rewarded. But Best Drama votes come from the entire academy, and the general public was much more ambivalent about the series' quality this year.

People nominated in the same category with other castmembers have an advantage.

I always assumed that those times when multiple actresses from Desperate Housewives or Sex and the City got nominated would lessen their chances of success by splitting the vote. Not so, says Tom, noting that judges see the work of such nominees twice; in the nominee's submitted reel and their castmate's nomination reel. "Size matters baby, especially in Hollywood...the more times the judges see you, the more likely they are to vote for you," he said.

Because size matters, hourlong shows give actors a better chance of winning an award.

This one's simple: actors in an hourlong show get more scenes. So judges will see their work not only the reel the actor submits, but in the footage submitted for general awards. That may be one reason why hourlong shows which could go either way, like Ally McBeal or Ugly Betty, submit themselves for comedy awards rather than drama. Less competition.

Tom's shoe ins for Sunday night:

America Ferrera as best comedic actress

Alec Baldwin as best comedic actor.

James Gandolfini as best dramatic actor.

Who do you think is positioned best to win? I'm going to post my picks sometime tomorrow, but I'd be happy to have your thoughts. See the nominees here.

David Asman and Stuart Varney Among Five Named as News Anchors on Fox Business Channel

Now the game really begins.

There have always been two lingering questions about the new Fox Business Network cable channel (besides their plan for destroying rival CNBC): Who will their anchors be, and what's their programming going to be like? (not real logo at right)

One of those questions was answered in part today, with news that FBN was importing five anchors from the mothership Fox News Channel: David Asman; Cheryl Casone; Rebecca Gomez; Dagen McDowell, and Stuart Varney. all are expected to retain their current roles on Fox as well.

They'll join top Fox busines anchor Neil Cavuto, who is FBN's top anchor and the senior VP directing Fox business news.FBN is scheduled for an Oct. 15 launch, with questions remaining about whether they will be able to fully tap the resources of Dow Jones Inc., recently purchased by parent company News Corp. An agreement between Dow jones and CNBC may make it tough for FBN to use any branding or personnel from Dow Jones companies such as the Wall Street Journal until 2012.

So, even as conmpetitive concerns keep information about FBN's plans scarce, any little tidbit bring a little ore understanding of the game plan.

Here's the release:

"FOX Business Network (FBN) has named five anchors from the FOX News Channel (FNC) business team, announced Kevin Magee, Executive Vice President, FOX News.  They join Neil Cavuto, Senior Vice President and Managing Editor of Business News, and Alexis Glick, Director of Business News.

The anchors include: David Asman; Cheryl Casone; Rebecca Gomez; Dagen McDowell, and Stuart Varney. FBN will also draw upon FNC anchors Brenda Buttner of Bulls and Bears and Terry Keenan, business correspondent and anchor of Cashin’ In. All will retain their current roles on FNC.

David Asman is currently the host of Forbes on Fox and has been with FNC since 1997, when he joined as weekday anchor for Fox News Live.  Prior to FOX, Asman held numerous roles at The Wall Street Journal including editorial features editor.

Cheryl Casone has been a correspondent for FNC’s business unit since November 2006, providing hourly market updates for FoxNews.com and partner site Yahoo! Finance.  Before joining FNC, she was a freelance business correspondent for CNN, primarily reporting from the New York Stock Exchange.

Rebecca Gomez serves as a business correspondent for FNC with regular appearances on Your World with Neil Cavuto and the Cost of Freedom business block on Saturdays. She joined FNC when the network launched in 1996, and prior to that position she was an anchor/reporter at Lifetime Television.

Dagen McDowell has served as a business correspondent for FNC since 2003, appearing regularly on Your World with Neil Cavuto and Cashin’ In.  McDowell was previously the author of a personal finance column for TheStreet.com called “Dear Dagen.” 

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