 |
 |
The wheels are falling off of Oklahoma City’s once-proud television news organization, KFOR.
Problems began after The New York Times Company sold KFOR in 2007 to Local TV LLC, a limited liability company owned by Oak Hill Capitol which was formed to buy the nine television stations owned by the Times.
Industry observers say that morale at the station is at an all-time low, and that the management put into place by Local TV LLC is a disaster. “Watch for the exodus of talent from KFOR in the very near future,” one local television expert tells OKPNS. He goes on to say that even long-time KFOR news folks are nervous due to Local TV LLC’s poor news acumen and miserly business practices. “I doubt long-time viewers will recognize anybody at KFOR by the end of the year if something isn’t done right away,” he says.
The station is being beaten in some key demographic categories it used to own, and Chopper4 has been all but grounded due to budget concerns. Further, their once proud political talk show Flashpoint has lost its mojo: News9’s Your Vote Counts is creating the buzz in political circles these days. The loss of Burns Hargis, bad programming decisions and revelations of co-host Mike Turpen’s blatant ethical lapses have all but sunk the formerly respectable political talk show.
Developing…..
OKPNS has been aware for some time now that anti-Randy Terrill forces were peddling some negative spin regarding a personal bankruptcy filing in 2005. The story broke on a Democrat bulletin board, and that was good enough for drive-by bloggers and print reporters to immediately began the super-heated pursuit.
As any regular reader of this blog knows, we are often critical of the Oklahoma press, specifically the capitol press, for their zealous prosecution of a case when the targets are conservatives, and their indolent and lazy attitude toward stories when it appears the offending parties are “progressives.” Ed Kelley probably didn’t sleep last night, quivering with excitement about those anti-Terrill editorials he gets to write. We’re thinking that this story may trump that sensational follow-up story about Dirty Harry Coates insinuating a phony computer hack job to cover-up his losing those documents last session, but we digress.
Rep. Terrill has cultivated many enemies in his HB 1804 effort. The drive-by Oklahoma City media, the same bunch that has looked past worst transgressions by the likes of Mike Turpen and Coates, is reporting the bankruptcy story with manifest glee. The Associated Press is jacked up enough to actually file two stories. Major television stations are reading the AP wire copy, but Terrill quotes are few and far between.
Here’s what we know thus far: the bumbling anti-1804 cartel that Terrill thwarted this past legislative session is NOT responsible for this last-minute bankruptcy ‘revelation.’ Multiple sources tell OKPNS that a group of immigration lawyers have been hustling the information like cheap porn in a plain brown wrapper, complete with ’spin’ regarding some so-called ‘irregularities’ in the filing. Terrill has denied any wrongdoing, but reports are the trustee in the bankruptcy case felt pressure, and now he’s logging more press time than Brent Rinehart.
Bankruptcy filings are not hard to discover, but the capitol press corps and the anti-1804 cartel headed by the incompetent Coates couldn’t and didn’t do it. The Terrill story has been prepared by a group of immigration lawyers, hell bent on overturning the law. They believe a last minute smear of Terrill will further that goal, and they’ve done the dirty work for the press and even prepared for them a story line, all without going on the record, and with incredibly suspicious timing. You know, just like they teach you in journalism school!
The bankruptcy is a legitimate item for public discussion, but the timing and the pre-fabricated story line smells like a last-minute campaign hatchet job. That hasn’t stopped the Oklahoma City press from swallowing the stink bait hook, line and sinker. We readily agree that the story about a high-profile public official deserves to be heard, but the hustlers of this information purposefully waited until the last minute to bring this to the attention of the public in a manner befitting an old Soviet Union spy, but the Oklahoma City press was ready to buy anything that harms Terrill. Caution, be damned!
Because of the suspicious-to-all-but-the-press timing, some restraint and care should have been exercised, but that wouldn’t fit into the press agenda, now would it? Somewhere Edward R. Murrow is rolling over in his grave!
We’ll be watching for the next set of stories the immigration lawyers, er, rather the press writes in the next few days.
DEVELOPING……
Has Democrat hack Mike Turpen turned the Flashpoint program into a joke?
Oklahoma’s most unethical pundit, Mike Turpen, did what he does best again Sunday.
The Flashpoint regular hosted Corporation Commissioner Jeff Cloud, and once again Turpen did not reveal his financial conflicts and connections to a guest. Turpen represents both Chesapeake Energy and AT&T, both of whom are regulated in some aspects by the corporation commission. Cloud, who is running for another term on the commission, is Chairman of the panel.
Turpen has habitually advanced his clients’ agendas on the formerly credible show without informing viewers of his numerous conflicts of interest, a journalistic standard matched only by the Jerry Springer Show. While he wasn’t surreptitiously and deceitfully procuring for clients, as is his standard procedure, he was sucking up to a regulator his clients pay him to suck up to, and not declaring his arrangement as is customary. Note the place in the first segment where Turpen advances Chesapeake’s natural gas agenda without qualification. Turpen is paid to do advance Chesapeake’s agenda, and he doesn’t tell his audience: that’s more infomercial than information.
The segment was clearly aimed at raising Cloud’s name identification, and having the AT&T/Chesapeake lobbyist procure air time for a client is a grand way to curry favor. Cloud may not face stiff opposition this fall, but he IS an announced candidate. Viewers expect fairness and full disclosure. This has absolutely nothing to do with attorney/client privilege: it is common knowledge among the political class that Turpen represents these companies. Shame on KFOR for not insisting that the viewers have as much insight into cozy little political deals as the rest of the politicos.
Further, this KFOR disease is spreading: even co-host Kirk Humphreys deserves a hiss for failing to inform viewers he is one of the Chairmen of Cloud’s re-election campaign. It’s the type of “wink-wink” omission that riled voters into sending the former Oklahoma City Mayor packing in the 2004 Republican Primary for U.S. Senate.
Flashpoint used to be ‘must see TV’ for political junkies, but it has become a joke: we’re told a couple weeks ago the show featured a sweaty Turpen doing exercises and advancing health issues. Good grief! It’s News9’s “Your Vote Counts” that generates the buzz these days, and Kevin Ogle and the KFOR management share some of the blame for the show turning into the political equivalent of one of those colon-cleansing infomercials.
It’s one thing to become boring and irrelevant, but it ’s quite another to continually treat your viewers as fools. By any standard, to sacrifice KFOR’s reputation in order to enhance Turpen’s clients’ profits or gain an advantage is pure journalistic prostitution. KFOR is letting Turpen make them a laughingstock, and management is to blame for letting this travesty continue unabated. The question is: when are they going to stop him?
Hearing that Edmondson and Turpen were again using a once-respected public affairs show to dissemble on the Oklahoma public reminds us of the fat (no pun intended) payout Turpen received as the result of his alliance with the attorney general.
Oklahoma will eventually receive $2.6 billion dollars in the national tobacco settlement. Edmondson appointed several law firms to walk off with the lottery earnings while the firms pretended to litigate on behalf of the citizens of the state. The hard working lawyers, who according to most reports spent no time in the courtroom, got $268 million in fees for their “strategic contribution.”
Six national law firms, including movie-lawyer-turned-criminal defendant Richard Scruggs, shared the winnings with among others, Riggs Abney of Tulsa. The law firms attempted to charge the taxpayers a rate of $6000 per hour, but gave the citizens a break since they are such good guys.
Scruggs has been busy these days, but Edmondson was able to bring Scruggs’ buddy Ron Motley into the poultry suit, which we’re sure he’s doing for the children and not in hopes of another obscene profit safari.
Related:
FreePaulJacob.com: Edmondson helps block term limits on himself
Former Exxon Mobil CEO Lee Raymond & Mike Turpen separated at birth?
In a stunning revelation, Turpen noted that he had recently visited the web site of former Louisiana State Representative and Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, David Duke. Turpen went on to say that Duke had endorsed Terrill for governor. Republican Kirk Humphries absent-mindedly countered that the endorsement probably was something he (Terrill) didn’t want, further cementing the lie as truth.
As of Noon, the weekend segment still was not posted on the KFOR website. Clearly the station needs to explain why the Turpen is allowed to pimp clients and friends without declaring the conflicts that OKPNS routinely discovers. In late 2006 he attempted to censor a report by reporter Ali Meyer that was highly critical of Turpen pal Drew Edmondson, ironically Flashpoint’s guest on Sunday. As would be expected, Turpen’s press hypocrisy has never come under scrutiny by the capitol press corps.
To add to the irony, the show recently hosted Terrill, a regular on rival News9’s Your Vote Counts, which has much more viewers, in an effort to boost Flashpoint’s sagging ratings.
So why was Turpen visiting a white supremacist web site? Turpen’s pals Bill and Hillary Clinton have employed race-baiting throughout the presidential campaign and Turpen, a chief fund raiser for Sen. Clinton, appears to be utilizing the same sick and disgusting tactics.
Meanwhile, Turpen revealed his admiration for another clown, Sen. Dirty Harry Coates, but spared viewers other stomach-turning details such as a list of the other types of web-sites fat, sweaty trial lawyers like to surf late at night.