Journalism

One of the worst affected industries during the coronavirus outbreak has been, ironically, a profession that should have been reporting on it. The long-struggling industry faces an “extinction event” amid COVID-19, robbing large swathes of the U.S. of news coverage.

On Monday, Dawn Baker, an anchor at Gray Television’s WTOC Savannah, Ga.,  became the first volunteer to receive an injection in the first Phase 3 clinical trial of a coronavirus vaccine in the United States. She said the many lives lost and impacted by the coronavirus pandemic inspired her to volunteer.

Station groups say they will send fewer correspondents to August’s largely virtualized political conventions and centralize their reporting resources. At the same time, they see local coverage opportunities of the conventions expanding, largely down to use of the remote production technology they’ve already been mastering for months during the pandemic.

Television executives from E.W. Scripps, Tegna and the NAB will assess what progress the industry is making toward diversity and inclusion among its ranks and in front of its news cameras in an Aug. 13 TVNewsCheck Working Lunch webinar. Register here.

Sinclair Broadcast Group will not air a report prepared for Eric Bolling’s America This Week that blames Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, for creating the COVID-19 pandemic. In a tweet late Monday, Sinclair said that given the nature of Judy Mikovits’ claims to  Bolling, the segment was “not appropriate” to air, adding: “We also reiterate our appreciation for all that Dr. Fauci and his team have accomplished for the health and wellbeing of Americans and people worldwide.”

New jobs posted to TVNewsCheck’s Media Job Center include an opening for a news director in Lincoln, Neb., a market known for its parks, bike trail network and low cost of living.

TVNewsCheck will present a virtualized 10^th Annual Women in Technology Awards presentation ceremony and immediately after it, a “Predictions for 2021” panel session featuring all six honorees talking about how widespread remote production and other developments this year are likely to affect technology in 2021. Honorees are (top, l-r): SMPTE’s Barbara Lange, WarnerMedia’s Lisa Pedrogo, Perspective Media’s Janet Gardner, (bottom, l-r): Avid’s Kate Ketcham, Latakoo’s Jade Kurian and Walt Disney Co.’s Sally Hattori. To attend the event on Monday, Oct. 19, at 4 p.m. ET, please register here.

U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon issued an order last Thursday barring federal officers — for at least 14 days, to allow for further legal action — from requiring journalists and legal observers to “disperse”; from threatening or targeting them violently; or from forcing them to move to remote locations, even when officers are justified in ordering demonstrators to leave a particular area or using force.

The Hearst ABC affiliate in Savannah, Ga., promotes its assistant news director to succeed Sinan Sadar who moved into a corporate slot.

The conventional school of thought teaches that the best way to engage younger viewers is to produce short, snappy, “snackable” content, but the people at LX News must have skipped class that day. The ongoing experiment in programming for millennials and Gen Z from the NBCUniversal Owned Stations took a big leap forward last month with the launch of its first live news programs.

KUSA Denver reporter Liz Kotalik posted photos of a smashed live truck window Thursday on Twitter. The entire passenger side where the reporter normally sits was covered with shattered glass from the window. No one was hurt, as Kotalik had left her seat to get her computer.

“It’s a different world, and it will be for a little while,” Trump said, explaining his decision. “To have a big convention is not the right time,” Trump added.

A veteran of three networks, Wallace is a leader on the news side of Fox, and has the respect of the network’s executives, according to colleagues. In recent months, Wallace has occasionally been at odds with some of his Fox News colleagues.