At Channel 11, It's Now Just the Facts, Only Sans the Facts. It's Emotion, People, Emotion.

Ever since we posted this item about the new vice president of news at KTVT-Channel 11 -- guy by the (fake?) name of Regent Ducas -- we've been hearing all kinds of horror stories about the goings-on at the local CBS affiliate. We're looking into them, and so's yer ever-trusty...

By Robert Wilonsky

May 17, 2007

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Ever since we posted this item about the new vice president of news at KTVT-Channel 11 -- guy by the (fake?) name of Regent Ducas -- we've been hearing all kinds of horror stories about the goings-on at the local CBS affiliate. We're looking into them, and so's yer ever-trusty Uncle Barky, who this morning posted an internal memo from Ducas sent yesterday to the news staff, in which Ducas writes this eye-popping, jaw-dropping, what-the-mother-fucking directive to his...uh...whatchacallit...reporters:

Viewers (people) remember emotion, not facts . . .
Critical facts are important, not all facts are.

I've seen a little too much 'police speak' or 'court speak.'

The suspect faces charges of blah, blah, blah...no one will remember this fact and it's not that important...

Ed also discovers, by actually watching Channel 11's nightly news (which we just can't do anymore), that during Tuesday night's 10 p.m. broadcast, KTVT "pounded out nine crime or tragedy stories before its first pause in the action." Yeah, because that's just what we need -- two Channel 5s. --Robert Wilonsky

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