https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DX0WYp_Cqzk
Oakland News Now – KTVU Frank Somerville Suspended For Gabby Petito Social Media Debate – Answering Your Questions – video made by the YouTube channel with the logo in the video’s upper left hand corner. OaklandNewsNow.com is the original blog post for this type of video-blog content.
KTVU Frank Somerville Suspended For Gabby Petito Social Media Debate – Answering Your Questions
KTVU Frank Somerville Suspended For Gabby Petito Social Media Debate Says Blogger Richard Lieberman. Zennie Abraham answers your questions.
The news from other sources has been that KTVU Anchor Frank Sommerville was suspended solely for wanting to make social media posts about the Gabby Petite Case and racism in media. But, the person who put that out there, Oakland-based blogger Rich Lieberman, also does not buy that social media posts or the want to make them is the only reason Frank was suspended. In fact, on the same day that Rich made the news about the Sommerville suspension, my Skyline High School Class of 1980 classmate and friend wrote this before that:
Somerville had another bad night on Tuesday evening’s newscasts, and last week too–in addition to being ordered by Fox brass to stay off social media, his on-air persona was once again disjointed and unnerving. He misprounced names several times, looked awkward and uncomfortable. He was seen, once again, gripping his pen and fidgeting as if he was in some kind of distress. It was tough watching.
Somerville was OFF the air both last (Thursday) and Wednesday night. Andre Senior and Alex Savidge filled in for Frank. Fox offered no reason for Somerville’s absence but it was clear something was up. A source told me that Tuesday’s latest on-air bizarro (slightly similar to his May on-air slur and awful misadventure) was not some relapse and that “Frank is ok.” Which was then followed up with a firm un=explained defense. The source insisted Frank was fine yet couldn’t explain why he was ABSENT (again) from the news desk for two straight nights. Again, there is cause for concern. And now, people at KTVU are left having to defend and protect one of their own when there’s a lot going on and taking place.
It’s a rough time at the local Fox O and O –for the record, some people, some very BIG people, including some you watch report the news, have been told, almost THREATENED, not to talk to me or else face ultimate consequences. At the same time, the KTVU management –notably, it’s ND, Amber Eikel and GM, Mellynda Hartel have gone out of their way to read Somerville the riot act and try to ward off his various misdeeds. It’s a practice, so far, that hasn’t worked or taken shape and it’s caused much friction at KTVU with many folks who believe Somerville has been the recipient of way too many chances.
Somerville would have been away today,(Friday) anyway since his schedule is Sunday thru Thursday so perhaps, his bosses will hope that this latest bruhaha will allow him to breathe a little and have a normal return on Sunday night but that seems sort of problematic now. Nothing is official. As of Friday, Somerville is still working at KTVU but his status is ever more shaky and uncertain.
And at KTVU, where the atmosphere is filled with tension and distress; where the HR bosses and suits have taken to INTIMIDATION and THREATS to tthose that dare talk to me, the timing could’t be any worse as Somerville’s travails seem to have re-ignited.
Sunday night could be interesting.
See?
I hope that answers your questions about “What did Frank say?” Because Frank did not write anything on social media that violated a directive. As Rich reported, Frank was on thin ice already and it was very thin – and because of his on-air-performance that same week. Got it?
You don’t fire someone just for an idea of posting something on Facebook that they never posted. The body of evidence as presented by Rich does not point to that, but it does point to a strained relationship that was at the breaking point.
On The Matter Of Race And Media Racism And The Gabby Petito Coverage
On the matter of the assertion that the reason Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie have received so much media coverage just because they’re white – thus bringing the anger of victims of black and minority missing persons organizations and individuals – I agreed at first, but after considering my own history in what we used to call “New Media” and now call “Social Media” I completely disagree.
The reason is that in what Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie were doing was “life-casting” and there are not a ton of Black Americans who have taken up that practice. Some? Yes. But let’s face it, vlogging and life-casting has been a mostly whites affair ever since I went to Vloggercon San Francisco in 2006 and there were only six black folks out of 300 people, and I was one of them.
The point is, a vlogger and life-caster has a fan base built in to witness anything that may happen to them. My friend Jen Friel (who’s married now) turned me on to that fact a decade ago when we talked about it several times, and she mentioned her practice at our brief CES Las Vegas 2011 interview (we’ve had more of them since then):
The point is, a standard missing person’s case focuses on one person, and does not come with a built-in love story and mini-movies we call video-blogs. So, there’s no video trail to use or build more content off of; not true for Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie. And the story is still unfolding. In short it is a reality TV show online that writes itself.
If Gabby Petito and Brian Laundrie were black, the level of attention would be the same, today, given the life-casting / vlogging practice with the romance thrown in. Now, would that have been true 10 years ago? I would say probably not.
So, in closing, make sure to think critically about this information, rather than come to illogical conclusions. This story and Frank’s story is still unfolding.
Stay tuned.
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Note from Zennie62Media and OaklandNewsNow.com : this video-blog post demonstrates the full and live operation of the latest updated version of an experimental Zennie62Media , Inc. mobile media video-blogging system network that was launched June 2018. This is a major part of Zennie62Media , Inc.’s new and innovative approach to the production of news media. What we call “The Third Wave of Media”. The uploaded video is from a YouTube channel. When the video is “liked” by Zennie62 YouTube, then it is automatically uploaded to and formatted automatically at the Oakland News Now site and Zennie62-created and owned social media pages. The overall objective here, on top of our is smartphone-enabled, real-time, on the scene reporting of news, interviews, observations, and happenings anywhere in the World and within seconds and not hours – is the use of the existing YouTube social graph on any subject in the World. Now, news is reported with a smartphone and also by promoting current content on YouTube: no heavy and expensive cameras or even a laptop are necessary, or having a camera crew to shoot what is already on YouTube. The secondary objective is faster, and very inexpensive media content news production and distribution. We have found there is a disconnect between post length and time to product and revenue generated. With this, the problem is far less, though by no means solved. Zennie62Media is constantly working to improve the system network coding and seeks interested content and media technology partners.