COMMENTARY
Pergament: Channel 7 news addresses on-air diversity with the hire of Jolly
This is what I’m thinking: • I’ve hammered Channel 7 for so long because the station hasn’t had an on-air African-American reporter since Aaron Baskerville left for a job in Chicago in 2007. The situation was even more alarming since Channel 7 was owned by Granite Broadcasting, formerly the country’s largest minority-owned station group until bankruptcy led to an ownership change.
So in fairness, I should note that the station has hired Kevin Jolly, an African-American who had been doing local hosting duties during “All Things Considered” on WBFO-AM and formerly worked in Rochester television. He replaced reporter Steve Barber, who left the station to join a financial firm.
It’s about time the station practiced some on-air diversity in the age of President Obama. Diversity is an asset in any field but especially journalism, since reporters with different backgrounds can see things differently. Just like Supreme Court nominees.
From the few reports I’ve seen, Jolly is a solid veteran reporter with a strong voice.
• Say a prayer for former Channel 7 anchors Susan Banks and Irv Weinstein. Banks is undergoing breast cancer surgery today more than seven years after her first battle with the disease. She discussed the recurrence in a Channel 7 report by Julie Fine that aired May 19.
In a telephone interview Monday, Banks said the disease was caught in its early stages, but she opted for a bilateral mastectomy because although the tumor was small and could be easily treated, it probably could come back again.
“I’m very confident in my surgeons and have an unbelievable support group,” said Banks of her family and friends. “That makes all the difference. I have a strong faith and that helps, too.”
She also wants to get the word out that mammograms aren’t totally effective in diagnosis because they missed both her cancers. “The first time I found the lump myself,” said Banks. “The second time it was picked up by a sonogram. I’m telling women to absolutely insist on getting sonograms.”
Meanwhile, the Weinstein family is mourning the loss of Irv’s 22-year-old grandson, Noah Jason Krom, who died tragically after a fall from an ocean front cliff near his apartment in Santa Barbara, Calif. He was scheduled to graduate from the University of California at Santa Barbara over the weekend. Beth Krom, Irv’s daughter and Noah’s mother, is a congressional candidate and councilwoman in Irvine, Calif. Donations to the charity of your choice in his name may be sent to Beth and her husband, Solly Krom, 7 Banyan Tree Lane, Irvine, Calif. 92612.
• It took awhile, but Channel 7 finally got in the 10 o’clock news business. Well, not exactly. But on nights like tonight when ABC is carrying the NBA Finals between the Los Angeles Lakers and the Orlando Magic, Channel 7 is taping its late-night newscast at 10:20 p. m. and running it after the games end. That can be at or past midnight. The station doesn’t reveal the newscast is recorded until the end of it.
The practice does have some potential for embarrassment if any significant news occurs at or near 11 p. m., when late newscasts normally end. You might think the station would have a contingency plan in that event.
On the first taped broadcast after Thursday’s opening game in the series, the death of former Buffalo Braves star Randy Smith wasn’t covered in the first 20 minutes (my DVR recording ended before the sports report aired and the newscast finished) even though ABC’s basketball announcing team addressed it during the earlier broadcast. If the newscast hadn’t been taped, Smith’s death might have been the lead. It certainly had more impact in Western New York than the death of actor David Carradine that night, which was in Channel 7’s news opening.
Taping the broadcast means that Channel 7’s sports team can’t cover what happened on the NBA game that precedes it, which is why anchor Shawn Stepner led Sunday night’s broadcast with a report on the Stanley Cup playoffs, which didn’t have a game that night.
If you’re wondering why Channel 7 is taping the newscast, you haven’t been paying attention. Management is trying to avoid paying overtime.
• Buffalo native Jeff Glor, the anchor of the Saturday version of the CBS News, was the reporter on an amusing cover story on the network’s “Sunday Morning” about the coffee wars brewing now that Tim Hortons is branching out from its Canadian roots to the United States beyond Western New York.
Glor also interviewed Jon Luther, the executive chairman of the board of Dunkin’ Donuts, about the battle’s impact on his Massachusetts-based company. Luther is a Kenmore East graduate, an amusing angle to the story that wasn’t mentioned.
• Melissa Wegner of Orchard Park looks at the $100,000 question on “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” at 1:30 p. m. today on WNLO-TV after using a “double dip” lifeline to correctly answer the $50,000 question Monday in the “great thinkers” category: Though widely written about by others, which of these great thinkers left no formal writings of his own? A) Plato, B) Socrates, C) Euclid, D) Aristotle. Her first guess was Aristotle, which was incorrect. Her next guess was Socrates, which was correct. But I’m sure you knew that.
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