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Headlines - July 2, 2004
WCBS investigates rival's chopper crash
WMGT to start news dept. as new ND is named in lawsuit
Investigative reporter fined for not revealing source
Ballard bows out in Oklahoma
Governor evicts press from State House offices
News & Notes: Anchor jumps over 70 markets
WCBS investigates rival's chopper crash
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- More than six weeks after a WNBC/Ch. 4 news helicopter made its death-defying plunge out of the Brooklyn sky, some residents of the neighborhood where it crash-landed were still getting the cold shoulder from the station, competitor WCBS/Ch. 2 reported recently.
In a series of reports, Ch. 2 interviewed some of those affected by the crash, people who said they hadn't received help from either Ch. 4 or Helinet Aviation Services, which owned "Chopper 4."
No help
"To tell you the truth, not even a piece of correspondence I have not received from anybody. Not a phone call," said the landlord of the building where the out-of-control chopper came to a rest, being interviewed by Ch. 2 reporter Lou Young.
In a story first aired June 18, Young reported that he arranged a meeting between Helinet and a family from that building who had been forced to move into a homeless shelter. Also brought public was an apparent pissing match between Ch. 4 and Helinet over responsibility for cleaning up the crash, an argument that accelerated in the public eye.
Both sides told Ch. 2 they thought everything was resolved. "We were confident that the matter had been taken care of...and continue to appeal to Helinet to live up to its responsibilities," Ch. 4 spokeswoman Liz Fischer said in a statement.
"We...thought that everyone had been placed," said Steve Massey of Helinet. He told Young, though, that Ch. 4 wasn't helpful when residents affected by the crash called the station for help. For example, a displaced family that contacted Ch. 2 after seeing the story said they had earlier called Ch. 4 and gotten no response. They were the subject of a June 19 story by Reid Lamberty.
Climax
In a third story on June 20, Young reported that Ch. 4 had fired Helinet.
"Somebody's passing the buck. Somebody's not taking the responsibility for...seeing that this is being taken care of, and I think that's NBC," the landlord's wife told Ch. 2.
How it got here
The May 4 crash of "Chopper 4" led newscasts across the city. Ch. 4's helicopter, covering a shooting story that it would end up dwarfing, went down on Cortelyou Road in East Flatbush during the 6 p.m. newscast. No one was killed, and reporter Andrew Torres actually got out of the wreckage, waving for help.
Rival WABC/Ch. 7 captured the dramatic crash on tape, bringing back memories of the 1998 crash of Ch. 4's new helicopter, which Ch. 7 also recorded but occurred in the dark. After that incident, Ch. 4 had reverted to using its first chopper, the chopper that crashed last month.
In 1986, WNBC-AM traffic reporter Jane Dornacker was killed in her second chopper crash during a live traffic report.
The chopper reporter who lived through the 1998 crash, Kai Simonsen, ended up back in the air for Ch. 5, and Torres reported yesterday for Ch. 4's 5 p.m. newscast despite the report that Helinet had been fired.
The pilot in last month's crash, Russ Mowry, profiled painting motorcycles by a New Hampshire newspaper recently, says also he expects to fly again. Helinet, based in California, has helicopter contracts with a number of local stations across the country, including WNYW/Ch. 5, WPIX/Ch. 11, and KTTV in Los Angeles, which recently captured headline-grabbing video of police beating a suspect.
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WMGT to start news department as new ND is named in lawsuit
MACON, Ga. -- Small-market Macon will get a third television news operation this summer, according to WMGT/Ch. 41. The NBC affiliate has begun construction of a new newsroom and studio, and is listing jobs to start in mid-August.
It's also hired a new news director, Mark Wildman. For him, this startup is also a new start, since he still has some baggage from his last small-market Georgia newsroom, WRBL/Ch. 3 in Columbus.
Depositions began recently in a lawsuit filed by Melissa Schultz Miller, a former Ch. 3 producer who worked at the CBS affiliate during Wildman's time as news director there, local blogger Richard Burkard reported.
Miller is suing Ch. 3's owner, Media General, claiming she was discriminated against because she was pregnant. According to court papers obtained by Burkard, Miller joined the station in July 2001, and told Wildman she was pregnant in April 2002. She alleges Wildman barred her from working on camera and said she could not be promoted because she had to take maternity leave, and then after she got back demoted her from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. producer.
The thrust of the lawsuit is that Miller claims she was promised a reporter slot and was denied it because of discrimination. Then, she says she was harrassed for complaining, allegedly being told by Wildman on one occassion in August 2002 to work a Sunday night shift or be fired.
Wildman, who had been with Ch. 3 for more than two years, was fired midway through the November 2003 sweeps, a week after the lawsuit was filed. During his time at WRBL, he expanded the 5 p.m. newscast to an hour. He had previously worked at Media General's WHLT in Hattiesburg, Miss., which shut down news operations.
At Ch. 41, he will lead a news department going up against a ratings behemoth, Gannett-owned WMAZ/Ch. 13, which boasts the lion's share of local audiences. Fox affiliate WGXA/Ch. 24 has a primetime newshour.
This marks a return to local news for Morris Multimedia-owned Ch. 41, which had a newscast in the early '90s.
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WJAR investigative reporter fined for not revealing source
BOSTON, Mass. -- A federal appeals court last week upheld a ruling fining WJAR/Ch. 10 investigative reporter Jim Taricani $1,000 a day until he reveals a source. In February, a judge reportedly held him in contempt for refusing to disclose who gave him a videotape showing a Providence mayor's aide accepting cash from someone who turned out to be an undercover FBI informant.
The tape, reportedly aired in February 2001, was part of the investigation, code-named Operation Plunder Dome, that saw the aide and the mayor indicted two months later on corruption charges. Both were convicted and are in prison.
A judge appointed a special prosecutor to find out who leaked the tape, reported to be part of an August 2000 order stopping lawyers in the case from disclosing audio and video materials. After the investigator was unsuccessful in determining the source of the tape, the judge then attempted to depose Taricani, who cited journalistic privilege and would not reveal the source.
Taricani was held in contempt and the fine ordered, but he appealed the case. The appeals court stayed the ruling in March until they could hear the case, then on June 21 upheld the lower court's ruling.
It is unclear in the ruling whether the fine started June 21 or is retroactive to the earlier finding. Possibly another worry is jail time in the case due to Taricani's health condition. He had a heart transplant in 1996 and the judge originally decided against jailing Taricani, but what could happen if Taricani still doesn't reveal his source is unclear.
Ch. 10 is supporting Taricani's stance on the issue. "We maintain our position that if the courts can compel reporters to break their promise of confidentiality, many sources will withhold newsworthy information that is important to share with the public," a Ch. 10 spokeswoman Clare Eckert told the Providence Journal in a release.
Legally, a reporter's claim to journalistic privilege is on shaky grounds. A 1972 Supreme Court ruling rejected reporter's privilege in grand jury investigations and criminal trials, and the appeals judges extended the precedent to this case with a special prosecutor, the Journal's Tracy Breton reported.
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Ballard bows out of KOCO weekend anchor slot
OKLAHOMA CITY, Okla. -- A longtime Oklahoma reporter and anchor has called it quits after sixteen years at the same station. Cherokee Ballard, weekend anchor and reporter for KOCO/Ch. 5, announced last week that she would leave the ABC affiliate after Saturday's late newscast.
Ballard, whose first name highlights her Native American heritage, said during a farewell gathering that it felt like the right time to leave. "I will miss a lot of people. It was not an easy decision to make. But I just figured it was time, you know. I told myself by the time I turned 40 I'd be off weekends. Well I'm almost about to turn 41," Ballard said.
Ballard, a hometown girl, is well-known for a personal series of reports she began after being diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in 1999. She plans to work on a book about her cancer experience and continue a foray into teaching broadcast news writing at the University of Oklahoma, where she graduated, the Daily Oklahoman reported.
During her tenure at Ch. 5, where she may still contribute occassional reports, Ballard has covered the Oklahoma City bombing and the execution of Timothy McVeigh. She was also featured in a Smithsonian exhibit on the Cherokee nation.
Ch. 5, ranked third in area news ratings, has listed Ballard's position on its website.
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Maryland reporters pressed out of State House
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- It's the naturally adversarial reporter-politician relationship lightened by a peculiar proximity. One may be going to the "Press Room" and the other to an upstairs office, but being neighbors has its perks. When the 'watchdogs' are in the building, their noses for news can happen upon stories more often, they can find out more details.
But one example of a press perch inside a government building may be gone by August, after the administration of Maryland governor Robert Ehrlich announced Monday it was ordering reporters out of their State House basement offices, the Baltimore Sun reported.
The space is needed by Ehrlich's staffers for the next few years- through his re-election bid - as renovations on water pipes proceed, according to the Sun. After that, reporters will be allowed back, but only in the small newspaper "bullpen" room.
Politics are coming into play as well. The move by the Republican governor is being opposed by the Democratic house speaker, who says it looks bad to the public, the Sun says. Newspaper boxes were also removed from the basement recently due to security concerns, and reporters may be left scrambling for space elsewhere while settling for less access. Ehrlich's people say reporters will still have the same access.
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Charleston to Charlotte: anchor vaults over 75 markets
NEWS & NOTES
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Anchorwoman Erica Bryant Fields was reportedly set to start Monday as the new morning and noon co-anchor at WSOC/Ch. 9. She comes from the 5 p.m. slot at Charleston's WCBD/Ch. 2, where she spent nearly a decade. In an interview with Charlotte's black-oriented weekly paper, Fields said veteran anchor Monica Kaufman was her idol while growing up in Georgia. Ch. 9's anchor vacancy was created after morning anchor Kim Brattain was promoted to fill the void left by the departure of 5 p.m. anchor Suzanne Stevens. Stevens is said to have filled on the morning desk during part of the interim.
From sports to news in D.C.:
WRC/Ch. 4 sportscaster Jill Sorenson is making the move to news. Sorenson, Ch. 4's sports reporter and weekend morning sports anchor, will reportedly move to WTTG/Ch. 5 next week to serve as a general assignment reporter. The former Ivy League soccer star came to D.C. from Duluth, Minn.; her replacement comes from tiny Medford, Ore. Nicole Zaloumis will start July 19, the Washington Post reported.
An unfashionable incident:
For about a mile on a Miami-area road early June 20, the trend for former WTVJ/Ch. 6 fashion reporter Tara Gilani was not good, the Herald reported. Gilani, who was known as the "Trend Tracker," was in her car and driving erratically, crossing over white lines, police said. She was pulled over and reportedly declined a field sobriety test, sitting in jail for a few hours before posting bail. The real scare apparently came when a motorcyclist crashed into her car while it was pulled over, nearly hitting her.
Two new faces join WABC:
Charles Perez, WSVN/Ch. 7 weekend anchor and reporter, will head to New York in the same position in September. Perez, who hosted the short-lived "The Charles Perez Show," had a stint on "American Journal," and began his career as a talk show booker, will anchor WABC/Ch. 7's weekend news, replacing Tim Fleischer, according to the Daily News. No word if Fleischer, a 19-year Ch. 7 veteran described as the "definitive street reporter" in his online bio, will return to reporting five days a week. Fleischer, an on-and-off anchor for the station, was tapped to replace Bill Ritter on the weekend 6 and 11 p.m. newscasts a few years ago. Also in at Ch. 7, MSG reporter and former Philadelphia WPHL/Ch. 17 weekend sports anchor Jenna Wolfe, preceded by a bad industry rep, will reportedly do morning sports. No word on Janib Abreu, who currently has that spot.
Poking fun at TV news:
A movie that parodies local news is set to roll out July 9 in theatres. Former "Saturday Night Live" cast member Will Ferrell plays fictional 1970's anchor Ron Burgundy in "Anchorman," set in San Diego. Also starring is Christina Applegate ("Married...with Children," "Jesse"). In an interview with Jay Leno, Ferrell said he watched a lot of news when he was young, including the late great Jerry Dunphy in L.A. Ferrell's character is a ladies' man who drinks scotch at the anchor desk.
Adding newscasts:
Viewers who want to see local news will have new times to watch in Scranton, Pa., and Phoenix, Ariz. Moosic, Pa.-based WNEP/Ch. 16, which dominates news ratings in the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre market, will begin a 7 p.m. newscast to replace "Hollywood Squares" in September, the Times Leader reports. In Arizona, KPNX/Ch. 12, a top-rated station that has slipped of late, will add a third half-hour of news in the early evening. Lead anchors Kent Dana and Lin Sue Cooney will headline a 4:30 p.m. newscast while sports anchor Mark Curtis slides into news at 5 p.m. with Fay Fredericks while continuing his sports duties. The new newscast is part of a new daytime lineup that sees "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" replacing "Live with Regis and Kelly" as the early news lead-in.
ND out in Ohio amidst market flux:
A few weeks after the May ratings showed another poor faring for once-strong WEWS/Ch. 5, the station's news director has announced her resignation. Lynn Heider, with Ch. 5 for six years, tells the Cleveland Plain Dealer she resigned and would have resigned even if the station had a good ratings book, but industry gossip says she was likely forced out. Meanwhile, a new banner on rival WKYC/Ch. 3's website proclaims "Cleveland's #1 Newsteam" after the station, aided by strong counterprogramming in "Dr. Phil" at 5 p.m., won the 6 p.m. newscast in May in addition to the 11 p.m. news which it had been winning with a good NBC lead-in. Ch. 3, once #3, has taken advantage of a slipping Ch. 5, which overhauled its look this spring, and an affiliation switch which weakened now Fox-owned WJW/Ch. 8.
Two anchors heading for retirement:
Two popular midwestern anchormen are leaving their posts, but under different circumstances.
Walter Jacobson, 9 p.m. anchorman for Chicago-based WFLD/Ch. 32, is being replaced following a recent controversial drunk driving incident. The 66-year-old stumbled during a field sobriety test near his home but formal charges were later dropped though Jacobson paid a negligent driving fine. Jacobson, best known as one-half of the leading anchor team with Bill Kurtis at WBBM/Ch. 2 in the 1970's, will continue his commentaries and host a Sunday morning program. He is replaced by Mark Suppelsa, noon anchor recently imported from NBC's WMAQ/Ch. 5. Meanwhile up in Milwaukee, WISN/Ch. 12 has announced anchor Jerry Taff's pending retirement. Taff, a 25-year station veteran, will leave the 10 p.m. anchor chair at the ABC affiliate after Friday's newscast, to be replaced by a two-woman anchor team. Tammy Elliott, returning from maternity leave, will now anchor both the 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts with Kathy Mykelby. Morning anchor Toya Washington, who has been filling in, gets the permanent promotion to 6 p.m., where Taff will continue until next May.
Contemplating a move:
A Connecticut station currently located in a downtown area is shopping for a new home. WFSB/Ch. 3, located in Hartford's Constitution Plaza, is planning to either renovate its existing facilities or just move out altogether, according to the Hartford Business Journal. One possible site wooing Meredith-owned Ch. 3 is suburban Rocky Hill, south of the capital city, but Hartford officials have also been begging the station to stay, the Journal reported. The station says the facilities inside its 1950's-era Hartford complex won't provide for future growth.
Two cities get new stations:
Some new TV news operations are preparing to go on the air.
Gray Television, which owns ABC affiliate WHSV/Ch. 3 in Harrisonburg, Va., is launching two new stations in neighboring Charlottesville. WCAV/Ch. 19, a CBS affiliate, has named local native Ric Barrick, late of Salisbury's WMDT, as news director and is hiring for an October news debut after the station goes on in August, VARTV.com reported. WVAW-LP, which Gray has applied to move from Ch. 64 to Ch. 16, will be an ABC affiliate in the Charlotesville area, headed by current Ch. 3 lead anchor Tara Brown. The two stations will be under the same general manager though they will reportedly have separate news divisions. They go up against strong NBC affiliate WVIR/Ch. 29.
And a note from Tyler, Tex., where a new CBS affiliate has signed on. KLSB/Ch. 19 was a sister station in the Lufkin-Nacogdoches area of the market for KETK/Ch. 56, the NBC station in Tyler-Longview. Now, sold to Max Media, this frequency brings a local CBS affiliate to the area, with new call letters KYTX. News operations are set to begin in September. The former KLSB service is now on low-powered Ch. 53 in Lufkin.
Last words:
Meredith Vieira has been criticized by some journalists after she returned to TV on ABC's talker "The View," then ended up as host of the syndicated "Who Wants to Be A Millionaire?" strip. Now the former CBS "60 Minutes" cast member is appearing on Bayer aspirin commercials. ...WTTG/Ch. 5 was set to move its morning newscast back a half-hour, to 5 a.m., on Monday, bringing its start time in line with DC's Big 3 affiliate stations. ...Former WWOR/Ch. 9 investigative reporter Polly Kreisman, who more recently worked for WPIX/Ch. 11 and freelanced for WNBC/Ch. 4, has resurfaced at a fourth New York station. She was seen reporting on WNYW/Ch. 5 recently. Kreisman won an Emmy for "Eat, Drink, and Be Wary," a Ch. 9 forerunner to WCBS/Ch. 2's now-popular "Eat at Your Own Risk " series, and made news at Ch. 11 after investigating the possible sale of dog meat in part of New York's Korean community. ...And in Connecticut, another familiar face is back. Carolee Salerno, former Hartford WTIC/Ch. 61 weekend anchor, has returned to television at WTNH/Ch. 8, where she recently filled in on the weekend news. She left Ch. 61 to have her first child.
...Andrew Siff, reporter for Time Warner Cable's New York 1, moved to the big leagues last month when WNBC/Ch. 4 picked him up as a general assignment reporter. He joins former New York 1 reporters Melissa Russo, Carol Anne Riddell, and Jonathan Dienst, who came to Ch. 4 after some time at Ch. 11. ...Speaking of Dienst, he's been on a European odyssey recently. The Ch. 4 investigator went to Sweden to track former Symbol technologies chief Tomo Razmilovic, but after finding him in a seaside estate, the corporate executive on the run had no comment. "I'm sorry, but I know why you came. I feel very awkward that you came all the long way, but at this point in time...I would really appreciate it if you would respect my privacy," he said after answering the door to find Dienst. In a phone exchange broadcast in Dienst's piece that aired on Ch. 4 at 6 and 11 p.m. Tuesday, he continued, "...I tried to be as decent as possible but I have nothing to say...," before hanging up. So Dienst's piece focused on the place where he had run and why he's in trouble. Wednesday, another piece included interviews with current Symbol execs and quick exchanges with Razmilovic's Swedish neighbors in a coffee shop. ...The building home to Ch. 4 and NBC, the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, was one place where two employees of Iran's U.N. Mission were taking pictures that led to their deportation. The newscast topper Tuesday came about after the Iranians claimed they were just being tourists and hadn't snapped anything
secure but U.S. officials said they had more sophisticated camera equipment than a tourist would and were actually conducting improper surveillance. ...Across town, Andrea Stassou has been reporting for WCBS/Ch. 2. Stassou was weekend anchor for New Haven-based Ch. 8 before stints as weekend anchor at WHDH/Ch. 7 in Boston and anchor for ABC's overnight program "World News Now." ...In a Wednesday night report, covering bad driving and cell phones in New Jersey, WABC/Ch. 7 reporter Jen Maxfield describes one driver who seems to not be paying attention to the road. The proof? Instead of looking ahead, she says he's watching their camera. ...WNBC/Ch. 4 has added a headline recap at the end of its 6 p.m. newscast. Other stations have done this to give commuters just arriving home a glance at the top stories, but Ch. 4 is the first New York City station with the feature.
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Last report
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Home
NEW YORK, N.Y. -- More than six weeks after a WNBC/Ch. 4 news helicopter made its death-defying plunge out of
the Brooklyn sky, some residents of the neighborhood where it crash-landed were still getting the cold shoulder from the station, competitor WCBS/Ch. 2
reported recently.
In a third story on June 20, Young reported that Ch. 4 had fired Helinet.
MACON, Ga. -- Small-market Macon will get a third television news operation this summer, according to
WMGT/Ch. 41. The NBC affiliate has begun construction of a new newsroom and studio, and is listing jobs to start in mid-August.
BOSTON, Mass. -- A federal appeals court last week upheld a ruling fining WJAR/Ch. 10 investigative reporter
Jim Taricani $1,000 a day until he reveals a source. In February, a judge reportedly held him in contempt for refusing to disclose who gave him a
videotape showing a Providence mayor's aide accepting cash from someone who turned out to be an undercover FBI informant.
Ballard, whose first name highlights her Native American heritage, said during a farewell gathering that
it felt like the right time to leave. "I will miss a lot of people. It was not an easy decision to make. But I just figured it was time, you know.
I told myself by the time I turned 40 I'd be off weekends. Well I'm almost about to turn 41," Ballard said.
But one example of a press perch inside a government building may be gone by August, after the administration of Maryland
governor Robert Ehrlich announced Monday it was ordering reporters out of their State House basement offices, the Baltimore Sun reported.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Anchorwoman Erica Bryant Fields was reportedly set to start Monday as
the new morning and noon co-anchor at WSOC/Ch. 9. She comes from the 5 p.m. slot at Charleston's WCBD/Ch. 2, where she spent nearly a decade. In an
interview with Charlotte's black-oriented weekly paper, Fields said veteran anchor Monica Kaufman was her idol while growing up in Georgia. Ch. 9's
anchor vacancy was created after morning anchor Kim Brattain was promoted to fill the void left by the departure of 5 p.m. anchor Suzanne Stevens.
Stevens is said to have filled on the morning desk during part of the interim.
From sports to news in D.C.: WRC/Ch. 4 sportscaster Jill Sorenson is making the move to news. Sorenson, Ch. 4's sports reporter
and weekend morning sports anchor, will reportedly move to WTTG/Ch. 5 next week to serve as a general assignment reporter. The former Ivy League soccer
star came to D.C. from Duluth, Minn.; her replacement comes from tiny Medford, Ore. Nicole Zaloumis will start July 19, the Washington Post reported.
Walter Jacobson, 9 p.m. anchorman for Chicago-based WFLD/Ch. 32, is being replaced following a recent
controversial drunk driving incident. The 66-year-old stumbled during a field sobriety test near his home but formal charges were later dropped though
Jacobson paid a negligent driving fine. Jacobson, best known as one-half of the leading anchor team with Bill Kurtis at WBBM/Ch. 2 in the 1970's, will
continue his commentaries and host a Sunday morning program. He is replaced by Mark Suppelsa, noon anchor recently imported from NBC's WMAQ/Ch. 5.
Meanwhile up in Milwaukee, WISN/Ch. 12 has announced anchor Jerry Taff's pending retirement. Taff, a 25-year station veteran, will leave the 10 p.m.
anchor chair at the ABC affiliate after Friday's newscast, to be replaced by a two-woman anchor team. Tammy Elliott, returning from maternity leave,
will now anchor both the 5 and 10 p.m. newscasts with Kathy Mykelby. Morning anchor Toya Washington, who has been filling in, gets the permanent promotion
to 6 p.m., where Taff will continue until next May.
Gray Television, which owns ABC affiliate WHSV/Ch. 3 in Harrisonburg, Va., is launching two new stations in neighboring Charlottesville. WCAV/Ch. 19, a
CBS affiliate, has named local native Ric Barrick, late of Salisbury's WMDT, as news director and is hiring for an October news debut after the station
goes on in August, VARTV.com reported. WVAW-LP, which Gray has applied to move from Ch. 64 to Ch. 16, will be an ABC affiliate in the Charlotesville
area, headed by current Ch. 3 lead anchor Tara Brown. The two stations will be under the same general manager though they will reportedly have separate
news divisions. They go up against strong NBC affiliate WVIR/Ch. 29. 
And a note from Tyler, Tex., where a new CBS affiliate has signed on. KLSB/Ch. 19
was a sister station in the Lufkin-Nacogdoches area of the market for KETK/Ch. 56, the NBC station in Tyler-Longview. Now, sold to Max Media, this
frequency brings a local CBS affiliate to the area, with new call letters KYTX. News operations are set to begin in September. The former KLSB service
is now on low-powered Ch. 53 in Lufkin.
...Andrew Siff, reporter for Time Warner
Cable's New York 1, moved to the big leagues last month when WNBC/Ch. 4 picked him up as a general assignment reporter. He joins former New York 1
reporters Melissa Russo, Carol Anne Riddell, and Jonathan Dienst, who came to Ch. 4 after some time at Ch. 11. ...Speaking of Dienst, he's been on a
European odyssey recently. The Ch. 4 investigator went to Sweden to track former Symbol technologies chief Tomo Razmilovic, but after finding him in
a seaside estate, the corporate executive on the run had no comment. "I'm sorry, but I know why you came. I feel very awkward that you came all the
long way, but at this point in time...I would really appreciate it if you would respect my privacy," he said after answering the door to find Dienst.
In a phone exchange broadcast in Dienst's piece that aired on Ch. 4 at 6 and 11 p.m. Tuesday, he continued, "...I tried to be as decent as possible
but I have nothing to say...," before hanging up. So Dienst's piece focused on the place where he had run and why he's in trouble. Wednesday, another
piece included interviews with current Symbol execs and quick exchanges with Razmilovic's Swedish neighbors in a coffee shop. ...The building home
to Ch. 4 and NBC, the GE Building at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, was one place where two employees of Iran's U.N. Mission were taking pictures that led to
their deportation. The newscast topper Tuesday came about after the Iranians claimed they were just being tourists and hadn't snapped anything 
secure
but U.S. officials said they had more sophisticated camera equipment than a tourist would and were actually conducting improper surveillance. ...Across
town, Andrea Stassou has been reporting for WCBS/Ch. 2. Stassou was weekend anchor for New Haven-based Ch. 8 before stints as weekend anchor at
WHDH/Ch. 7 in Boston and anchor for ABC's overnight program "World News Now." ...In a Wednesday night report, covering bad driving and cell phones
in New Jersey, WABC/Ch. 7 reporter Jen Maxfield describes one driver who seems to not be paying attention to the road. The proof? Instead of looking
ahead, she says he's watching their camera. ...WNBC/Ch. 4 has added a headline recap at the end of its 6 p.m. newscast. Other stations have done this
to give commuters just arriving home a glance at the top stories, but Ch. 4 is the first New York City station with the feature.
