Former WTVJ investigative reporter Jeff Burnside has landed a new job. He is now at Seattle’s ABC affiliate KOMO as the station’s senior investigative reporter. This is actually a homecoming for him as he is from the Seattle area and graduated from Washington State University.
SFLTV broke the story several months ago that Burnside was fired by NBC for having an edited version of the Trayvon Martin shooting 911 tape in his WTVJ reports about the case. The network decided since he was the producer of his stories he should’ve known the audio was edited. WTVJ reporter Christina Hernandez tweeted the recording came to the station edited and that tweet disappeared quickly along with her Twitter account going silent for a while.
Now, with George Zimmerman planning to sue NBC for defamation we could learn what NBC’s internal investigation found.
That’s great for him! Bigger market than Miami and he is one of the best investigative reporters int he country. KOMO is a great station. They do great stories and are kicking butt against KING, which is only watched by old people. Seattle is a great city and Jeff will do great there.
Ethics? Laws? Rules?
We don’t need them!
Stations do not care, it seems, if you’ve got a track record that’s less than legal!
This hire says so much about local television news.
You have no idea what you’re talking about. KOMO, and Seattle TV stations in general, are serious news operations in a city/area whose people are engaged with what’s going on around them, have certain expectations from their stations and there is no tolerance for bullshit.
KOMO a serious news station? Are you kidding? Kool-aid drinking sheeple like you are the reason idiots like Burnside get away with what they do…
Hmm. Someone must have gotten caught by one of Jeff’s investigative reports. Bill just slanders people hu? Jeff didn’t do anything that shouldn’t allow him to work in local news. Yes, he was arrested once for DUI. Charges were dropped. Just because NBC fired him for allegedly editing the Trayvon Martin tape doesn’t mean he actually did it. Remember, three people ate NBC for fired for the exact same thing but Ron Mott,a network NBC reporter who is black was not fired even though he was accused of making the same edit. Do you really think four people made the exact same edit The tape was edited by someone in New York. So, Bill. What did Jeff do that is illegal or unethical that should keep him out of news?
Actually he did not edit the tape. He used an edited version of the recording in his report and it seems he was fired for not knowing the recording was edited. An NBC6 reporter claimed on twitter the 911 tape came to the station already edited.
Are you really Jeff Burnside or just his #1 most annoying fan?
Yes. It will come out that NBC management edited the tape. In fact, there are reports that NBC managers, some of whom worked at WTVJ ordered the tape to be edited to go in line with the story MSNBC wanted to portray. They wanted the story to be a white man shooting a black boy for racist reasons. There is no way four NBC employee made the same edit.
With all due respect to those that are for or against the incident between George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin; Fact of the matter is, that the editing of the tape, by whoever did it, was a gross violation of the unwritten journalistic vow.
If these reporters did not actually edit the tape, they should be speaking up, even if its at risk of being sued due to some gag order or non disclosure agreement. Not only is journalism at stake here but so is there reputation.
NBC has taken the chance of hoping these reporters won’t speak up. Try going up against a major company like NBC. You will loose. NBC has lawyers that lie, bribe judges and do whatever they can to prevent the public from discovering how evil they are and how un-journalistic the company is. NBC wants what every other news company wants: profits. They will do it at any expense. The tape was edited in New York by a producer and executive producer who put the blame on a Today Show editor and producer They got fired for it and then that tape, which made its way into the hands of Jeff and several other producers and reporters, ended up on air and those reporters got fired when the publci was made aware o the edit.
There’s a good reason he was let go from WTVJ.
It will all come out with the court case. I don’t have to share those details here.
For him to be hired again is a sad commentary about local news around the country.
I just heard that Joel Connable is going to anchor there. Great for him. I have missed Joel on television. he was amazing at breaking news. He will enjoy working in a smart news market, unlike South Florida where brains are far and few between.