When you watch TV news, you normally know what you’re going
to get.
If you’re a fan of CNN, MSNBC or any of the Big 3 networks,
you probably lean to the Left.
If you’re a fan of Fox News Channel, you probably lean to
the Right.
However, when you watch Local TV News, you don’t expect to
get someone’s agenda jammed down your throat. If you’re like me, you want FACTS
and, if opinions are involved, you want to hear both sides.
Not so with WVUE Fox 8 News.
It’s become apparent to me over the past several years, and
particularly the past several months, that Fox 8 gives preferential news
coverage to JP’s Minister of Propaganda Greg Buisson, and his clients like JP’s
Sexual Predator-in-Chief Mike Yenni and Lyin’ Ben Zahn.
To prove my point, let me cite several examples.
A few months back, Fox 8 heavily promoted a Lee Zurik
exclusive interview with Mike Yenni.
The “interview” was a snore fest staged by Buisson.
Zurik repeatedly threw Yenni softball questions about Yenni’s
sexting escapade with a 17-year-old boy. Yenni dodged, deflected, and basically
didn’t answer even Zurik’s soft questions and Zurik let Yenni off the hook.
Zurik even allowed part of the interview to include Yenni’s
wife and almost gleefully noted that she was standing by her man (It does beg the
question, unfortunately not asked by Zurik, how many men and underage boys have
called Yenni “Their Man”?).
The “interview” was a complete waste of time that had no
real news value other than a Public Relations vehicle for Buisson’s client.
Tuesday, there were two pieces of interesting Jefferson
Parish News: a letter from JP Council President Chris Roberts discussing some
of Yenni’s explicit sexts and the disclosure that Roberts had been dropped from
a lawsuit that Buisson filed against Roberts and Jefferson Parish over an
ordinance banning political consultants like Buisson from receiving Parish
contracts.
Fox 8 covered neither instead offering up a piece describing
a series of texts last week between Roberts and Council member Jennifer Van
Vrancken where Roberts asked the Councilwoman if she was ok with the Parish
President suggesting explicit sex acts with a teenage boy.
In the letter from Roberts to his fellow councilmembers,
which Fox 8 did not report on, Roberts also paraphrased Yenni’s text to the
17-year-old in graphic detail.
In the Fox 8 piece, Van Vrancken acted mortified that
Roberts would send her such a graphic text. Unfortunately, she was not just as
mortified that Yenni would send such a text to a teenage boy.
Kind of a double standard, don’t you think?
And, once again, Fox 8 buries a story that could paint Yenni
in a bad light and focuses on casting a political critic of Yenni (and a vocal
critic of Buisson), in a negative light.
For the record, WWL-TV and WDSU-TV both reported on the
Roberts letter and neither covered the sham Van Vrancken story.
To be fair, I didn’t watch WGNO’s “News With A Twist”
because, in my opinion, it’s neither news or an interesting show (although I’ve
always like Susan Roesgen and I firmly believe that she deserves much better).
Wednesday night, Fox 8 had a piece about the dustup at the
JP Council meeting between Roberts and Yenni.
Fine. WWL and WDSU covered it as well.
However, Fox 8 took the additional step of adding comments
from former JP Councilman and current Kenner Mayor Lyin’ Ben Zahn (also a
Buisson client) that were extremely critical of Roberts.
At a press conference to announce that Lyin’ Ben was
endorsing Larry Katz for the interim Council seat that Zahn vacated when he
became Mayor, Lyin’ Ben said, "I would be remiss, though, if I
did not question Chris Roberts motive for today's actions."
At the Council meeting, when the Council was discussing and
voting on the interim seat, Roberts noted that he met with his nominee, Jack
Rizzuto, at the urging of Zahn.
Three council members (Van Vrancken, Spears and Johnston)
voted FOR Katz, while the remaining three (Roberts, Lee-Sheng and Templet),
voted AGAINST Katz.
The opposite 3-3 vote occurred for Rizzuto.
Was the personal shot questioning Roberts’ integrity by Lyin’
Ben necessary?
And, really, how can Lyin’ Ben question anyone’s integrity
with a straight face?
Why wasn’t Lyin’ Ben critical of the other council members
that voted Against Katz?
But, the point of all of this is, Lyin’ Ben’s comments are
irrelevant. His opinion of Chris Roberts and his endorsement of an interim
councilmember mean nothing. In fact, the Council should completely disregard
Lyin’ Ben’s thoughts on the matter and choose the candidate that will best
represent the interests of the District 4, not the one that Lyin’ Ben wants in
office.
And Lyin’ Ben’s opinions should not be part of a Fox 8 news
story.
But, of course, since Lyin’ Ben is a client of Greg Buisson
and Buisson has a vendetta against Roberts (and some say that Roberts has a
vendetta against Buisson), Lyin’ Ben’s comments criticizing Roberts were
included.
Again, completely irrelevant to the story and another
example of Fox 8’s Pro-Buisson stance.
I know many of the folks at Fox 8. I’ve appeared on air
there and in news stories (probably won’t again after they read this but, oh
well). I like Fox 8 and I appreciate the amount of local news they air, as I
appreciate WWL and WDSU and, yes, even WGNO (when they’re not running “News
With a Twist”).
But, when the opinions of some override the coverage of “news”,
we all lose.
No offense Fox 8, but I don’t want Greg Buisson’s or Lyin’
Ben’s opinion on anything.
Just give me the facts. I have my own opinions and can make
up my own mind.
I think I deserve at least that from you.
