I was personally spurred to type this because I firmly disagree with my long-time friend Richard Lieberman picking on my other long-time friend Vern Glenn. The Oakland Blogger’s take wasn’t explained, but it was in the space where he was blogging about now-suspended Frank Somerville. Let me say that Vern Glenn is a top-knock-person who’s a San Francisco Bay Area broadcasting legend, right up there with Somerville and WSB Channel 2’s Jovita Moore.
I mention Moore because as I write this, I am in suburban Atlanta, Georgia keeping my Mom company – I still have my place in Oakland. The entire region is shaken by the sudden death of the popular Jovita Moore from incurable brain cancer at the young age of 53. The outpouring of grief on a mass-scale says a lot about the power of media and the positive results of having good people as the face of a news channel. It is not an understatement to say that Jovita Moore was loved here and will always be.
I think about Jovita Moore and how loved she and the other broadcasters are here, versus the San Francisco Bay Area, and I have to blame the station managers for all of the “Ks” as I call them: KPIX, KGO, and KRON. My take is not intended to be hostile specially since I was at the KPIX party thanks to Vern, and was treated like royalty, much to my surprise, given how bloggers have been disregarded by the mainstream media, today. But I have to say that the station managers don’t do a good job of making their personalities true public figures, attending fund-raiser and taking up causes. In that view, KTVU Station Manager Amber Eikel made a major mistake in suspending Frank Somerville. It is like she’s saying that Frank is not more important than the station, when in point of fact, he is.
So, rather than get KTVU’s Frank Somerville the help he needs, the Oakland-based station doubled-down on the negative vibe plaguing him by temporarily releasing him. One issue the SF Bay Area needs to work on is the annoying tendency to try and diminish anyone who’s a public figure. It’s like there’s a set of people who’s ego gets hurt because someone else gets more attention. News flash, folks: the nature of the media business is about attention, because without it, the media business fails.
In that vein, Amber Eikel, who I have not yet met, seems to be determined to show Frank who’s boss, rather than being a partner with him. In doing so, The KTVU Station Manager missed a golden moment to show KTVU at its best by joining Frank in taking up media arms against the kind of racism that gives too much focus on anyone just because they’re white – especially when they’re missing. She seemed to make the statement that she agrees with that dynamic by not giving her most popular face a platform to sound a call for a better news industry.
Amber Eikel’s tone-deaf behavior in the matter of Frank Somerville would most certainly have gotten her canned in Atlanta. This region, as much as Georgia gets a bad rap for racism, does provide a good home for African Americans – mainly because blacks have fought to make it so. As my college friend Keith Johnson once observed, he was comforted by seeing “us” in so many positions of importance around town in Atlanta. To have a white, popular, news anchor with an African American daughter take a public stand against racism is beyond much needed today. I am sure Ms Eikel had her reasons and may be a fine person, but she made a huge error with Frank and the Gabby Petito Case, and racism.
That’s why I kept publicly blasting my other long-time friend Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf: she seemed and seems bent on showing a City of Oakland economic development effort totally devoid of black people, especially in the case of Howard Terminal. Libby’s tried to pick certain types of people for economic development without stopping to ask if they were really the best qualified to do the job. In Atlanta, the people who do the jobs are the best qualified and happen to be black. But, I digress. It’s in the Atlanta space that all people, white, black, Asian, Latino, and others, are crying over the loss of Jovita Moore.
Frank Somerville For Mayor Of Oakland – But If Not, Come To Atlanta
I still say Frank Somerville would make an excellent Mayor of Oakland, but if he’s decided not to move in to the political arena, then he should come to Atlanta.
I don’t know if Frank has ever considered giving Atlanta a try, but I am 100 percent sure he would love it down here, and his daughter and he would be warmly embraced, and quickly. I have not left Oakland, but I have to remark my City is a giant mess and its elected officials are more into personal advancement than civic improvement. How else to explain why three of the eight elected officials are planning to run for Mayor, and two of them basically just got there, and one of them doesn’t even know where City Hall’s secret passages are?
Frank Somerville deserves a better place and KTVU should hire Vern Glenn to be the new face. Vern would right the ship of public opinion toward Oakland’s K just by being there. Plus, Vern is a truly nice person who has many of the same qualities that made Jovita Moore so popular here. Vern Glenn at KTVU would make Amber Eikel look like a genius.
In closing, Jovita Moore, Rest In Love.
Stay tuned.