Matt Buckler: Racial incident gets more local coverage
Aug. 18—The story of an Enfield High football player who was the target of a racial slur during a door-to-door fundraising drive continued to dominate a large portion of Wednesday's local evening newscasts.
WTIC-TV61 opened its 5 p.m. newscast with the story, WFSB-TV3 and WVIT-TV30 made it their lead story at 6 p.m. while WTNH-TV8 had an in-depth report at 11 p.m.
During the 6 p.m. news, reporter Dylan Fearon of Channel 3 and Briceyda Landaverde interviewed the player's mother, Kelly Jackson, while Channel 8 interviewed her at 11.
Landaverde, however, had more details than anyone else, including the street where the incident took place and how Enfield High made grief counselors available to the players.
At 10 p.m., Channel 61 had another distressing story from Pomperaug High in Southbury, where a "Black Lives Matter" mural was vandalized by pouring tar over it.
It was a harsh reminder that Connecticut is not immune to racial incidents.
WTNH-TV8 reporter John Pierson was at Stafford Motor Speedway Wednesday to file an inspirational feature on SK Modified driver Bryan Narducci, who has overcome cerebral palsy to drive a race car and become a winning driver.
During the past two nights, Channel 8 was at two places where other local stations seldom venture — the Greater Hartford Twilight League and Stafford Speedway. You're not going to see those localized stories on "SportsCenter."
Channel 61's sports reports focused on a four-way battle for the starting quarterback position for the UConn football team without mentioning any of the quarterback's names. It was as if Channel 61 threw an incomplete pass.
Ellen evicted
The price for HBO Max isn't decreasing, but the number of available shows certainly is. The premium streaming service announced Wednesday that it pulling out of several programs, mainly in the reality and animated areas.
One of the first shows to be dropped is "Ellen's Next Great Designer."
Ellen DeGeneres retired from her talk show this year and now she has lost a reality show.
Networks owned by Discovery Plus have been shedding their inventories since the merger between Discovery and Warner Bros.
Networks owned by Discovery have been cutting costs, and the easiest way to do that is by cutting shows.
Another show that will be yanked off the service is "The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo."
That means HBO Max has thrown out Ellen DeGeneres and the Muppets at the same time.
Sounds like HBO Max isn't as attractive as it used to be.
Cancer-free Dickie V
Dick Vitale has been the heart-and-soul of ESPN since he joined the network in 1979. His presence on the network should continue after he tweeted a message that delighted his fans. After fighting lymphoma and melanoma, Vitale told his fans that he is cancer free.
As Dickie V would say, "awesome baby, awesome."
Vitale, 83, was forced to step back from his ESPN job to undergo treatment. Vitale did not say if planned on returning to his job analyzing basketball games, but it would be difficult to keep him away from the microphone if he's healthy, has his voice, and can do the job.
While Vitale is no longer ESPN's No. 1 analyst — Jay Bilas has taken over that position — Vitale is still a major player for ESPN as the network's No. 1 cheerleader for college basketball.
When many people think of college basketball, they think of Vitale — and they can continue to do so.
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Matt Buckler is television and radio editor of the Journal Inquirer.
Follow Matt Buckler for more television, radio, and sports coverage on the JI's Twitter @journalinquirer, and see his articles on the Journal Inquirer Facebook page.
