coronavirus

President Donald Trump went off on NBC News White House correspondent Peter Alexander after he pressed him on what he would say to Americans who are frightened by the coronavirus. “What do you say to Americans that are scared?” Alexander asked. “I’d say you are a terrible reporter,” Trump responded. “I think that’s a very nasty question, and I think that’s a very bad signal that you’re putting out to the American people.” He then blasted NBC News and its parent company, Comcast, in general.

Of all the sports ESPN has shown over the years, professional wrestling matches from WWE haven’t really been on the list. That will change this weekend. For three Sundays, the Disney-owned sports-media giant will air classic WrestleMania events on its flagship cable network and stream them on its mobile app.

Rather than rescheduling NAB Show for later this year, NAB will create a new digital offering called NAB Show Express, and will enhance its NAB Show New York later this year.

Life during wartime is littered with changes. One small, yet indelible sign of the coronavirus pandemic is hitting home every day on Detroit TV screens. The local TV news anchors, usually seated within elbow-rubbing distance, have moved farther apart. It’s one of many precautionary steps being taken by the big three of Detroit broadcast news — Fox 2 Detroit (WJBK), Local 4 News (WDIV) and 7 Action News (WXYZ) — and at newsrooms across the country.

NBC News said on Friday that one of its employees, longtime audio technician Larry Edgeworth, has died after testing positive for the coronavirus. Larry Edgeworth, a sound technician for NBC News’s Rockefeller Plaza headquarters for the past 25 years, suffered from other health issues, his wife said, according to a memo sent by NBC News President Andrew Lack.

Margaret Sullivan: “We live in stupid, scary times. And nothing illustrates this more vividly than one bizarre development among many others: That a Fox News host managed to get the president of the United States to take the coronavirus seriously when legions of public health experts around the world — and in his own administration — could not.”

AT&T has decided to forgo its $4 billion accelerated share repurchase plan, citing the coronavirus pandemic as a time to “to maintain flexibility and focus on continued investment in serving our customers, taking care of our employees and enhancing our network, including nationwide 5G.”

Of all the newsroom jobs, producing newscasts would seem to be one of the toughest to do from a kitchen table, but Wednesday, for the first time, WSMV Nashville producer Jules Marcantonio did just that. “It went fine, on both ends,” Marcantonio said, “from both my perspective and the station’s.”

The coronavirus outbreak is poised to upend the way TV ad dollars are negotiated this spring, pushing deal-making to later in the year, according to multiple network and agency executives.
“This could be the catalyst for something that probably should have happened 20 years ago — move to calendar upfront,” says Peter Olsen, EVP, ad sales and content partnerships, A+E Networks. “My guess is the fall season will get delayed because they can’t produce pilots.”

NAB President Gordon Smith said broadcasters don’t want to see any retransmission consent service disruptions during the coronavirus pandemic. FCC Chairman Ajit Pai has called for a retransmission consent quiet period to avoid TV station signals going off MVPDs.

Media outlets big and small, from The New York Times to the Telegraph-Forum in Bucyrus, Ohio, are letting people read their coronavirus coverage without a subscription.

The National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences said Thursday that its 47th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards ceremony set for June in Pasadena has been canceled. “Given our concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic, we have decided that we will not be staging the 47th Annual Daytime Emmy Awards in Pasadena this coming June,” NATAS chairman Terry O’Reilly said.

The Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-profit organization that supports independent global journalism, is seeking proposals that develop innovative approaches to reporting on the novel coronavirus crisis using collaboration among journalists and newsrooms across state lines or national borders. This opportunity is open to all newsrooms and independent journalists in the United States and abroad.

University of Missouri journalism professor Damon Kiesow advises that the legions of journalists now working from the unaccustomed environs of home follow some key guidelines to maintain their productivity. He shares practical tips for saving internet bandwidth, the importance of keeping a regular schedule and blocking weekly unstructured time with colleagues to maintain cohesion.

President Donald Trump’s press briefing today had a flurry of newsworthy statements, updates and some startling moments. Days after saying that a lot of the media “actually has been really fair” in its coverage of the coronavirus crisis, on Thursday he was back to calling a number of news outlets “dishonest.”

A staff member on The Dr. Oz Show has tested positive for coronavirus, prompting the syndicated show to shut down production. New episodes will continue airing daily, and host Dr. Mehmet Oz will film remotely from his home.

The TV, streaming and digital video industry is already undergoing a seismic shift. The coronavirus outbreak stands to accelerate that shift in some respects and reshape it in others.

Cable news and reruns of procedural dramas delivered big, but sports reruns also loomed large.