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One of the more amusing moments of the local television season came Friday when Channel 4 reporter Rich Newberg was interviewed by Channel 4 reporter Luke Moretti.
You don’t see something like that happen too often.
The subject was Newberg’s testimony that day in the City Grill murder trial of Riccardo M. McCray about the defendant’s surrender at Channel 4 11 days after the shooting.
According to reports, defense lawyer Joseph Terranova asked Newberg whether he was exploiting or taking advantage of McCray in the interview in which the defendant denied being the shooter. Newberg conceded he thought he had a good story but that was pretty much it.
“No, I don’t think we took advantage of Mr. McCray,” Newberg testified. “I was acting in my role as a reporter, asking questions.”
“I had a duty to ask if he was the shooter,” Newberg also testified.
I don’t know what McCray’s lawyer was trying to achieve in his line of questioning with Newberg, the station’s senior correspondent.
Maybe it was to put TV news on trial or make Newberg feel uncomfortable about his role.
You may recall that I wrote this back in September: “Newberg was shown shaking McCray’s hand before asking him a series of questions that were so soft that one former member of the media said he thought that the veteran reporter did everything but kiss the accused mass murderer on the lips.”
Though Newberg embarrassingly just lobbed softballs at McCray, that isn’t to say he didn’t exploit him.
After all, Newberg became a big part of the story. And Channel 4 continued to exploit this big get by having a colleague interview Newberg Friday.
It was as likely to happen as a McCray televised confession, but I wish Newberg had answered Terranova’s question by openly admitting what TV news is practically all about.
I wish the senior correspondent had just said: “Of course, I exploited him. That’s what we do in the news business. My station still is exploiting that interview at every chance it can get. But McCray also benefitted by using the forum to deny he did it without any law enforcement official asking tough follow-up questions. In TV news, we call that a win-win.”
“By the way, tune in tonight to see me interviewed by Luke Moretti, who will be as ‘tough’ on me as I was on McCray.”
Of course, we’ll never hear any testimony like that from someone in TV news unless David E. Kelley (see above with wife Michelle Pfeiffer) writes a fictional scene for one of his legal shows.
* I was driving for 10 hours over the weekend, which enabled me to hear the radio play-by-play of NCAA men’s basketball tournament games. Cheers to Kevin Harlan, who made VCU’s upset of Kansas Sunday so exciting that I practically felt like I had seen it. He also had a great line at the finish, saying the last team to make the tournament field (VCU) eliminated the last No.1 seed (Kansas).
The radio team didn’t note that the VCU win assured a so-called mid-major team will be playing for the national championship a week from tonight because VCU is facing Butler in the semifinals on Saturday. That matchup just about assures that there will be another debate over whether the Final Four teams should be reseeded after they qualify. The other semifinal between Kentucky and UConn will be widely – and unfairly — seen as the real national title game because whoever wins will probably be the favorite in the title game.
VCU’s march to the Final Four also could increase the debate over whether the tournament field should be expanded to 96 since arguably the No. 68 team this year is one game away from the title game.
There probably also will be a debate over what the Butler-VCU matchup will do to CBS’ ratings Saturday. One Cinderella team is good for ratings but two Cinderellas from small markets playing each other could be a problem.
pergament@msn.com
Alan Pergament was the television critic for The Buffalo News for 28 years. He currently is an adjunct professor at Buffalo State College and Medaille College, teaching courses in communications. He also writes a monthly column on the media for Buffalo Spree magazine.
Remember,no one investigates like Ch. 4 and our correspondant Luke Moretti. You heard it here, First!
I was hoping you would write about the McCray trial, Alan. First, an amplification on what you wrote. I believe Newberg was a prosecution witness. McCray’s attorney questioned Newberg on cross-examination. But it wasn’t Terranova who brought Newberg to the stand. He won’t get his chance to call witnesses until the prosecution rests.
I was interested in hearing how the two other local stations handled this aspect of the McCray trial. Would either station give any mention to a competitor that is so closely involved in a story? This is what I saw. Channel 2 at 6pm described testimony about a local TV news video. But it made no mention of WIVB or of Rich Newberg. I found it somewhat disconcerting that Channel 2 would not mention Newberg’s name. He was the primary witness on Friday, and I would argue the station was shortchanging its audience by not giving more of a true picture of what happened in court that day.
Channel 7did not mention WIVB either. But it did identify Rich Newberg at 11pm as being on the stand that day. So, kudos to them for that.
The Buffalo News and radio stations WBEN and WBFO mentioned both WIVB and Newberg by name in their coverage. I just think all reputable news organizations need to put competition concerns aside when covering a news stories that involves another station. Maybe I’ll concede you can get away with identifying the competition as a “Buffalo TV station.” But I don’t see how a station can get away with not even mentioning the name of the major witness appearing on the stand and justify it.
Good points Mark. I changed one line after reading your first point. Thanks.
Seeing the other stations (well, Channel 2) handle the Newberg situation also caught my attention. It had me thinking of the tree falling in the forest riddle. Only it went, if a TV news reporter makes headlines, is it news on the competing stations?