The First Lady's visit to Portland will not be a pleasant memory for KOIN reporter Lynn Huston. It seems during his Thursday morning live shot he apparently made some mention, on the air, that the President's brother Jed Bush had a daughter in treatment for a drug addiction. Meanwhile at the PCPA, Jeff Gianola was patiently waiting (at 6am) for the First Lady and his one on one interview. Well apparently the White House was none to happy with Huston's reporting, (even though the addiction story was accurate just not necessarily relevant) and informed the station management that the interview was canceled. Gianola maintained his composure, but obviously angry over the Huston incident, left the venue without the interview. KATU ended up with the exclusive First Lady one on one, and Huston ended up in the ND's office. Maybe the conversation went something like this---i thought a thought that i thought i had thought but the thought that i had thought wasn't the thought that i had thought i had thought so maybe if i had thought the thought that i thought i thought i wouldn't of thought so much...(*best stupid quotes.com)
Huston we have a problem
I don't know what the alcoholism comment was relevant to, but when political progeny start writing books and conducting interviews, it's certainly fair to cover them.
How does he STILL have a job?? I suppose you could take that to mean President Bush, but I mean Lynn.
You guys are missing the point anyway...Who paid for the First Lady to come out to Portland. Did she fly commercial, or was it aboard a charter flight or ??? How much cpollution did she create to come out here? Worried about a one-on-one with the First Lady...I'm sure it would have shed a lot of new light on a critical subject of the day...blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Just another puff piece by nature.
Actually, the guys name is Lynn Huston, but "Huston, We Have A Problem" just doesn't make a good headline....does it?
That's one of the problems with TV News today...you guys can't seem to even spell things correctly anymore. If the general public can't trust you guys enough to spell a name correctly, why should we believe anything else you have to say.
I think "newsjanitor" should uphold his nickname and put this story in the trash where it belongs.
Mr. Anonymous, what a machismo you have behind your anonymity. I did correct the spelling, thanks. This blog is simply a sharing of information with people in the industry, not information for publication. Huston we have a problem is a great headline, if you know your Apollo history.
Let's revisit.
Owned by Lee - who cared about journalism.
Sold to Emmis - who cared about their stock price.
Sold to George Lilly who cared about making a windfall.
Sold to New Vision - that cares about making another windfall.
Who suffers: The embattled staffers who have had to suffer through this maelstrom of layoffs, firings, new managers, reduced benefits and changing rules.
Who suffers: The viewers who have less choice as Koin increasingly becomes marginalized in terms of resources and it's perception in the market by viewers. The ratings continue to slide; and will continue to head south.
Who suffers: Broadcast journalism in Portland - now worse off than ever.
Lynn has been a lightning rod since he hit the Koin basement. He never quite fit and if he's ousted, than so be it. But if the new ND is going to get rid of him, she should also get rid of most of the half-wits hired in the last two years from micro-markets and with little to no experience.
Koin: Once a well-respected station. Now: a joke.
There are very few positive points about KOIN 6 News or KOIN News 6 or whatever they are calling themselves these days. There are some real pros in the KOIN newsroom. Of course Mike Donahue is a total pro and a PDX legend. I worked with Tim Gordon in Spokane, he is a great reporter and anchor and a nice guy. I like Tim Joyce for weather and Ken Boddie seems solid. But the new owners of KOIN need to get rid of Gianola and Day. They stink and need to go for KOIN to have another chance in the evening.
Amen to the joke!
Boy has newsjanitor got this one wrong!
He left out a lot of information. I saw it.
His time here was a very interesting situation to watch.
Huston was pissed when he got back from the airport Thursday cause the ND and Desk sent him to the airport to cover Laura Bush's pending arrival, but he found out her plane had already landed the day before. That would tend to piss anybody off. What were they thinking? That the White House would actually tell them the truth about travel plans? Then throw the guy to the wolvesNewsjanitor conveniently leaves that out.
He wasn't the least bit apologetic about detailing the Bush family drug and alcohol issues as part of the reason for her involvement in substance abuse campaigns, stood his ground, and left. It didn't go at all as newsjanitor said.
And then the White House calls and says they didn't like what he said, when what he said was nothing not already said by anyone else in the media. She's talked a lot about it everywhere she goes and now they decide they don't like it. Really strange. Is the W.H. running the newsroom or something? Or maybe is the whole thing being made up as a way to screw him?
It really gets me fired up when I see people treated like this.
From what I saw, I have serious doubts he was fired. He was so disgusted he stormed off and it was obvious he wouldn't come back. I think anybody who saw ALL of what was going on would come to the same conclusion.
The reasons he didn't fit in were many. First a core of people here didn't want him to fit in, weren't about to welcome or reach out to him, and he wasn't about kiss ass to get in with them. He wasn't a local and many resented that. The guy was really different from what normally comes through this market (very east coast) and people in the newsroom resented that too. The fact he was brought in while others were getting laid off was another. Yea, he was hired by a previous news director (Jeff Allen), who hired him before in Houston, which I didn't think was as big a deal as some said it was. I just think that reason was used to cover for their resentment of the guy just being different. And let's face it, most who didn't like him felt that way before he walked in the door. I was here before he got here. I saw it. He didn't stand a chance.
He was a good anchor but that didn't matter because there were cheese heads there that thought the job should have been theirs, when they weren't as good as he was. So they put Donahue back on again, in part, just to settle all the uproar over the guy being brought in. The ratings are basically the same. It does less than 2 points, we're lucky if it gets a 1.5... The show is mostly in the basement against the competition. It does better the first hour only because there aren't as many people watching. So it beats 2 by default sometimes. It has no future and everybody here knows it.
Please! Man, the place never wants to change and that's the biggest reason why Lyn didn't fit in. He pushed for change. And that's also the biggest reason he was a lightening rod. You couldn't even defend the guy in the newsroom without feeling like somebody would take it out on you somehow. I've never seen anything like it.
And I'm sure they is somebody in the newsroom who hated him who is desparately trying to figure out who could have written this cause they thought the stamped out anybody who might speak anything favorable of him.
I'm not saying they guy never did anything wrong, but it was amazing how some people in that place can get away with the stuff they do, which was a big deal if he ever did the same thing. And it was sooooo obvious. And there were those in the newsroom who made no secret that was the case. It's like they wanted him to see that and get the message, "We don't like you!". Who wouldn't take it personally?
He wasn't into a lot of crime and senseless stuff.Although he was told to do it. And for a while he got stuck doing stupid sales department stuff which was fluff, but was a team player and did it anyway. He worked hard but he would not let anybody crap on him. They really crapped on him Thursday. And he decided he had enough. They cleaned out his desk Friday. He told somebody Thursday he didn't even want to go into the newsroom to get his stuff. Then, he was officially out of here Friday. At least they offered to send it to him. How bad is that! Sounds like he quit to me.
I don't know of anybody who has talked with him since he left. He did have a number of people here who liked him though they kept quiet about it, for obvious reasons. His wife works for a newspaper. He pretty much kept to himself when he wasn't at work, so I don't know what he's up to. But if you see this Lyn, We wish you well, you deserve better than this place.
OK, I wasn't there.
But,to me,it seems like everyone at KOIN was more worried about their own jobs than what was going on with Lynn Huston. KOINers didn't want change? That's all they've had over there for the past four years, although hardly any of it was good. I'm sure he wasn't the only one frustrated by the goings on at KOIN.
About the anchor thing. How can any objective person argue against giving Mike Donahue the slot? Frankly, he's better, and his credibility in the market is unrivaled.
It sounds like Jeff Alan did Huston a service by hiring him, and a disservice by elevating him into the morning anchor slot immediately, while Donahue sat on the sidelines. A lot of people wondered about that one. Really, having Donahue on that show is a no-brainer. The low ratings are part of KOIN's larger problems. The morning show has had issues, no matter who was at the anchor desk.
Finally, the east coast/outsider thing. I don't buy it. KOIN's newsroom has people from all over the place. Del Cid's from Chicago, Boddie's from New York, Iwanaga's from LA, Ferriera's from Texas, I think. They've all been here awhile now, but I'm sure they haven't lost their ability to relate to new people from strange lands, even as strange as New York City.
I wish the guy well.
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