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March 31, 2024 9:06 pm  #1


Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

The conversation about John Ghomeshi, prompted some thinking about another broadcaster who was let go for "inappropriate behaviour" and that was former baseball and Sportsnet analyst, Gregg Zaun. He has had attempts to get back into baseball and has also dabbled in medical sales, in the States.

He is now admittedly unemployed and has his sites set on managing in the big leagues. 

He seems to have continued to strive forward, but it seems like he had to park it for a bit after his being let go from his TV gig here in Canada.


Who else has "flamed out" from being on top of their games in media only to have been uncovered for illegal or irresponsible behaviour.

Here is an interview with Zaun, late last fall.

He still has his well developed ego.





 

Last edited by Muffaraw Joe (March 31, 2024 9:07 pm)


The world would be so good if it weren't for some people...
 

March 31, 2024 9:52 pm  #2


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

Always liked Zaun...knowledgeable, tell it like it is guy...Blue Jays pre/post/between inning telecasts have been a milquetoast, borefest since he left...but...you can't get right fricken hammered and then hit on the Sportsnet female talent...not very good for job security or longevity...the dude has been blacklisted...and if the rumors are true, rightly so.

 

March 31, 2024 9:55 pm  #3


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

Global News's anchor Leslie Roberts comes to mind immediately. After that huge scandal that saw him leave, he did eventually return to anchor CTV from what I recall.

 

April 1, 2024 11:41 am  #4


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

Evan Solomon was fired by the CBC for his artistic side hustle, but it didn't seem to hurt his career, ending up for several years on CFRB and doing Question Period on CTV. He's now a publisher living and working in New York City and I'm guessing his "art" is still in it. 

Evan Solomon fired from CBC after allegations he used his position to sell art

 

April 1, 2024 12:19 pm  #5


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

Like a bad Mexican dinner, Michael Coren keeps coming back to CFRB. See? Anyone can be forgiven.

 

April 1, 2024 2:28 pm  #6


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

Coren, now an ordained Anglican minister, has a smug column in the Toronto Star today about Easter.
Remember he started out in the media as a far right wing Christian evangelical, (homophobic, misogynistic), who then became a right-wing Catholic, then began leaning to the centre, then the left, then railing against evangelicals and Catholics and preaching tolerance for HOMMA sek-syoo-als as he calls them, and LGBTQ people.
To paraphrase Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, "anywhere the winds blows, doesn't really matter... to him."

 

April 1, 2024 4:18 pm  #7


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

Prior to the cancellation of W5, Avery Haines qualifies for this thread. Avery's gaffe was entirely not her fault; the error was given a chance to happen by Avery going so far off script as to render the take unusable. The real error was the operator grabbing and airing the wrong take...but Avery sure took the majority of the lumps.

I know we all like to keep (and some of us may still possess) outtakes for laughs (Casey Kasem dog request anyone?) but that stuff needs to be quickly and properly deleted and/or moved out of general access by other staffers.

 

April 1, 2024 4:25 pm  #8


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

Binson Echorec wrote:

...Avery's gaffe was entirely not her fault...

The mic is always hot, but yes, those 'inside joke' takes should be kept far away from 'production' media pools.
 

 

April 1, 2024 6:56 pm  #9


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

TomTV wrote:

Global News's anchor Leslie Roberts comes to mind immediately. After that huge scandal that saw him leave, he did eventually return to anchor CTV from what I recall.

I also believe he had a good run doing the morning show on the Montreal sister station to CFRB (and one of the radio station's I grew up listening to) CJAD, this is going back a while ago, Leslie and John Moore used to do on-air segments together.

Wonder if Mike Stafford could ever return to radio.

It's not like there's a huge pool of on-air talent out there... well, that the people who helm the broadcast corporations seem to be able to find and develop.

Last edited by betaylored (April 1, 2024 7:01 pm)

 

April 1, 2024 7:26 pm  #10


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

Avery Haines made the classic mistake of joking in front of a live mic about how a black lesbian disabled woman would be a perfect CBC anchor.
Dumb remark, and she broke the cardinal rule of broadcasting -- always consider every microphone to be live.
As for Leslie Roberts, he made a brief comeback when he did a radio talk show on 1010 while also being a TV news anchor the very same evening.
That meant as a talk show host he was revealing all his personal political views while supposed to be an unbiased news anchor in the evening.
I always thought that was a bad idea.
Perhaps one of the most notorious broadcasting gaffes that deep sixed a newsman was years ago when a certain CFRB personality was fired after he commented on whether he planned to attend any of the Caribana festivities -- now the Caribbean festival.
He thought he was talking off air when he replied he would not attend Caribana because there were "too many dancing N-words" 
 

 

April 1, 2024 7:44 pm  #11


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

Dean Blundell got himself bounced from the Biz...I forget what happened, but he's not seeing a morning show  on air anytime soon.


The world would be so good if it weren't for some people...
     Thread Starter
 

April 1, 2024 8:03 pm  #12


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

newsguy1 wrote:

Perhaps one of the most notorious broadcasting gaffes that deep sixed a newsman was years ago when a certain CFRB personality was fired after he commented on whether he planned to attend any of the Caribana festivities -- now the Caribbean festival.
He thought he was talking off air when he replied he would not attend Caribana because there were "too many dancing N-words" 

I believe you're referring to CKFM's Phil MacKellar, who not only lost his job, but also his life a few months later to a heart attack. 

This article I found in the Globe and Mail is from 24 years ago, but it's a fascinating read in hindsight. It talks about the Avery Haines disaster and how she was trying to cope with it, openly wondering if she would ever get work again. Of course, we know she did, becoming anchor of the now almost defunct W5. 

But many of the others cited in the piece created controversies of their own. 

A great but also terrible little bit of Toronto radio history, that refers to Jeremy Brown, then of Classical 96.3, Brian Henderson and Dick Smyth of CHUM, WABC's Bob Grant and Michael Coren, who by sheer coincidence was on CFRB's afternoon show Monday, presenting a very different image all these years later. 

Also quoted: ex-CFTR newsman Jeff Ansell and then CFRB host Bill Carroll. 

One fascinating fact from the long ago story I didn't know - Avery Haines was actually born in New Mexico and at the time had an American passport. Proving you can still learn new things from an old newspaper column half a century later.

Is this thing on?

 

April 1, 2024 8:54 pm  #13


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

I needed to know if I was moore or leslie right, I was close, in the Lethal Weapon definition of the word, it was mid-mornings.

https://montrealgazette.com/news/local-news/leslie-roberts-to-leave-cjad

A group of experts, sociologists, psychologists etc. should make a study of why some people, for example Avery Haines, eventually recover and regain their careers and why others don't, and has social media made it almost impossible to get past a very public scandal.

Last edited by betaylored (April 1, 2024 8:55 pm)

 

April 1, 2024 9:34 pm  #14


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

Muffaraw Joe wrote:

Dean Blundell got himself bounced from the Biz...I forget what happened, but he's not seeing a morning show  on air anytime soon.

He appears to be doing a podcast on something called Crier Media. The same guy that claimed that podcasters were wannabe radio broadcasters and chomping at the bit to get on the air.



PJ


ClassicHitsOnline.com...The place where all the cool tunes hang out!
 

April 1, 2024 11:01 pm  #15


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

The excellent So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson will explain it all for you. Absolutely astonishing for the research and subjects he picked.

 

April 2, 2024 2:38 pm  #16


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

Paul Jeffries wrote:

Muffaraw Joe wrote:

Dean Blundell got himself bounced from the Biz...I forget what happened, but he's not seeing a morning show  on air anytime soon.

He appears to be doing a podcast on something called Crier Media. The same guy that claimed that podcasters were wannabe radio broadcasters and chomping at the bit to get on the air.

PJ

I think he runs that venture.

Last edited by Tomas Barlow (April 2, 2024 2:38 pm)

 

April 2, 2024 2:40 pm  #17


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

What's Charlie Rose up to these days?

 

April 2, 2024 2:50 pm  #18


Re: Media types that have fallen from grace...and are finding a way back

Or Matt Lauer?