# Everything Else > Arts & Entertainment >  News Chopper Breaking news

## SoonerQueen

Jim Gardner, the news chopper pilot for KFOR is moving on and has been hired by KWTV.Now maybe KFOR can buy a chopper and hire Mason Dunn. Just wishful hoping on my part.

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## OKCisOK4me

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW...   He's a huge reason why I watch KFOR and their weather coverage.  They better have offered him bookoos of money and I hope he included a clause in his contract that states if he doesn't feel like flying that he can't just be ousted!

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## Charlie40

where did you hear of this information

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## Thunder

Yeah.... Jim made the biggest mistake of his life to go from top-notch place to lowest slum.  Since he abandoned KFOR...who cares what happen to him. No one is gonna be feeling sorry for him when he deal with wackos at KWTV.  In other news, everyone will be embracing Mason Dunn (even tho I don't know him), he will bring KFOR higher and higher.

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## drum4no1

Actually hes leaving a slum that treats its people like crap...

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## TaoMaas

> Actually hes leaving a slum that treats its people like crap...


That's what I'm hearing, too.  Things changed at 4 when they got sold.

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## venture

We've been discussing this on the other thread: http://www.okctalk.com/showthread.ph...558#post453558

Going to see if Pete/Mmm can combine the two.

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## SoonerQueen

I posted this when I got the info, but someone else posted the same info on the other thread. Please put the two together if you can.

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## jn1780

Well, after watching today's coverage of the storm damage.  I think KFOR has unofficially disowned Jim Gardner.  They had Mark Dillard doing the voice overs. Not once did I here Jim mentioned by name. So I'm guessing he still flies the helicopter, but he himself isn't heard live on the air?

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## drum4no1

Thats correct, hes finishing out his contract. Flying but no reporting.

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## SoonerQueen

When does Jim officially go to KWTV?

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## drum4no1

His contract runs until next july

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## venture

I find it hard to believe that they will actually require him to stay there for another year.

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## OKCisOK4me

> His contract runs until next july


There's no way that they're not going to let him talk for a whole year.  That's just madness and stupidity.  I'd rather just switch over to News9 now and call that my favorite station.

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## drum4no1

That was the agreement

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## OKCisOK4me

Well, that's too bad.

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## Jim Kyle

> There's no way that they're not going to let him talk for a whole year.  That's just madness and stupidity.


Makes very good sense. In a year, his local following will have evaporated; TV viewers have notoriously short attention spans; otherwise why would re-runs within less than a year be accepted? Meanwhile, "Sky News Nine" will have become a distant memory.

My fat fingers made that chopper name come out as "Sly News None" originally. Perhaps I should have left it that way...

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## venture

Kinda funny that KWTV can't even hire a temp pilot to come in and take care of things, but I guess that is how it goes.

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## OKCisOK4me

I'll watch News 9 if they name their helicoptor Lee's RV's Eyes in the Sky News 9 News Chopper!!

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## Sammie

Really.  Love how all of you think you know how it works.  I know from the inside there is so much more to the whole story.  Just wait.

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## Thunder

This is surprising to see KFOR in a whole new light....coldhearted bunch.  Not allowing Jim to talk or anything.  But...hey...beside that, Jim don't deserve attention for such act that he did (abandoning a station..breach of contract...list goes on).

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## RadicalModerate

> Really.  Love how all of you think you know how it works.  I know from the inside there is so much more to the whole story.  Just wait.


Why did I just have a fleeting vision of the OKC City Council?

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## venture

> This is surprising to see KFOR in a whole new light....coldhearted bunch.  Not allowing Jim to talk or anything.  But...hey...beside that, Jim don't deserve attention for such act that he did (abandoning a station..breach of contract...list goes on).


He is serving out his contract, he isn't breaching anything.

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## Thunder

Well, morally breaching.  Both sides are in the wrong.  Jim could have just waited until the end of his contract...or really close to it, but it seems that Jim is trying to abandon KFOR.  He could get his wish as he can easily be released.  KFOR is in the wrong, as I said, for years they have given praises to Jim about this and that, but upon learning of Jim's departure, they shunned him.  They won't allow him to speak...facial appearance, etc.  Its so weird.

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## drum4no1

Its not weird, just how the business works..

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## Jim Kyle

Some 55 years ago, I was a "stringer" for channel 4. In those days it was still WKY-TV and was owned by OPubCo. Each and every one of its on-air news people had to use a fake name, one that the station owned, so that any on-air reputation they managed to achieve could not be taken anywhere else! For instance, Jim Terrell was known to the audience as "Grant Foster" while Ross Cummings was known as "Reed Connelley." And then there was Ed Foster/Frank McGee. On the few occasions that I went on the air "live" from a remote location (actually faked from a news truck in the fleet garage), I was "Doug Knight." The practice of "shunning" the talent to prevent them from taking any reputation to another station is definitely nothing new, nor is it confined to the current management...

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## OKCisOK4me

> Its not weird, just how the business works..


So tell me why I saw a commercial during the 10 o'clock news last night with Jim Gardner saying, "Come out and see me and the Bob Moore Chopper at blah, blah, blah, blah, blah on this date".  We're gonna let the kids shake our pilots hand and get an autograph from him but not let them hear him talk when he's up in the air and flying??  That's like being a starter and getting the back of the bench over by the towel boy.  That's not business.

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## drum4no1

Thats more of A Bob Moore event rather a station event.  Bob Moore equals big $$$ so they will make them happy.

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## TaoMaas

> Well, morally breaching.  Both sides are in the wrong.  Jim could have just waited until the end of his contract...or really close to it, but it seems that Jim is trying to abandon KFOR.  He could get his wish as he can easily be released.  KFOR is in the wrong, as I said, for years they have given praises to Jim about this and that, but upon learning of Jim's departure, they shunned him.  They won't allow him to speak...facial appearance, etc.  Its so weird.


Yeah...I'll agree that it's weird, Thunder.  But drum4no1 is right...it's just how the business works.  When an on-air personality informs their current employer that they're making a change, the current employer pulls that personality off the air.  The thinking is to try and blunt the popularity of that personality before they go to a competing station.  It's also part of the business that stations will pretend like news talent never existed once they leave the station.  I've always thought that was extremely weird.  The news stations feel like the public has a right to know about things that affect their community...except for what happens to their broadcasters. lol

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## TaoMaas

> Thats more of A Bob Moore event rather a station event.  Bob Moore equals big $$$ so they will make them happy.


Exactly right!  Ch. 4 is more afraid of shunning Bob Moore than they are of shunning Jim Gardner.  Jim will be gone in a month or so, but Ch. 4 will still need Bob Moore.

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## oneforone

I always thought we had good news agencies in this state until I started working for my current employer. Every news station in this state spins the story in one direction or another. They don't care who they tarnish or who they destroy as long as they get their story. Journalist are worse then used car salesman in my book. News is not news anymore. From the national and cable networks to the local outlets it is nothing more then stories designed to entertain people so they can sell advertising. 

I have pretty much stopped watching local news in this city. I used to be able to stomach News9. Just recently they started dumbing down their news coverage and then came Stan Miller.  For years, News9 was the ambient noise I listened to while getting ready for work. Stan Miller and news geared towards people who chase parked cars was the last straw. I turned off my television and turned on the IPOD. A little music and little comedy from my favorite comedians.

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## yukong

As a criminal trial lawyer who has tried close to a hundred criminal jury trials, many of which were murders or other high publicity cases, I can tell you that print media is just as bad if not worse.  And I'm not just talking about the Oklahoman.  I have tried cases all over the state, and I have yet tried a case where the media got their stories right.  There have been times where I would watch the news, or read the paper the next day and the story would be so wrong, you would think the reporter was watching a totally different trial.  I cannot for the life of me understand how a trained journalist can watch a day of a trial, make notes throughout the whole day, then go back to their office and write a story that is so factually incorrect.  But it happens every day of every trial I have ever done.  Even to the point that they cannot get the attorneys names right.  It's pathetic.

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## Okiezmom

_"the story would be so wrong, you would think the reporter was watching a totally different trial."_

The sad thing is that the general public doesn't realize this.  They watch the news each night and believe what they see. People are convicted in the court of public opinion (and by juries who say they don't watch the news but really do) because of the inept reporting.

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## ljbab728

> When an on-air personality informs their current employer that they're making a change, the current employer pulls that personality off the air.  The thinking is to try and blunt the popularity of that personality before they go to a competing station.  It's also part of the business that stations will pretend like news talent never existed once they leave the station.  I've always thought that was extremely weird.  The news stations feel like the public has a right to know about things that affect their community...except for what happens to their broadcasters. lol


That may be true of local stations but not necessarily with the national networks.  A good case in point in Katie Couric.  And it was not unusual to see her on NBC on the Tonight Show while she was working for CBS.  She was on the Today show in April promoting a book while she was still working for CBS.

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## TaoMaas

> That may be true of local stations but not necessarily with the national networks.  A good case in point in Katie Couric.  And it was not unusual to see her on NBC on the Tonight Show while she was working for CBS.  She was on the Today show in April promoting a book while she was still working for CBS.


How many times have you seen CBS mention her since she left?

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## ljbab728

> How many times have you seen CBS mention her since she left?


None, because I don't watch CBS.  Even if they don't, it doesn't change my statement.

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## earlywinegareth

> I always thought we had good news agencies in this state until I started working for my current employer. Every news station in this state spins the story in one direction or another. They don't care who they tarnish or who they destroy as long as they get their story. Journalist are worse then used car salesman in my book. News is not news anymore. From the national and cable networks to the local outlets it is nothing more then stories designed to entertain people so they can sell advertising. 
> 
> I have pretty much stopped watching local news in this city. I used to be able to stomach News9. Just recently they started dumbing down their news coverage and then came Stan Miller.  For years, News9 was the ambient noise I listened to while getting ready for work. Stan Miller and news geared towards people who chase parked cars was the last straw. I turned off my television and turned on the IPOD. A little music and little comedy from my favorite comedians.


I'm with you 100%...I started tuning out several years ago when it became clear all they are doing is pandering to the lowest common denominator and putting the least effort possible into the "stories".  90% of what they report is stuff off the police scanner.  They don't do real reporting anymore.  Now I skim the local headlines, check out the national weather service site, then skim national headlines on wall street journal and washington post.  That's all I need.

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## earlywinegareth

> As a criminal trial lawyer who has tried close to a hundred criminal jury trials, many of which were murders or other high publicity cases, I can tell you that print media is just as bad if not worse.  And I'm not just talking about the Oklahoman.  I have tried cases all over the state, and I have yet tried a case where the media got their stories right.  There have been times where I would watch the news, or read the paper the next day and the story would be so wrong, you would think the reporter was watching a totally different trial.  I cannot for the life of me understand how a trained journalist can watch a day of a trial, make notes throughout the whole day, then go back to their office and write a story that is so factually incorrect.  But it happens every day of every trial I have ever done.  Even to the point that they cannot get the attorneys names right.  It's pathetic.


When I was at OU in the early '80s I was acquainted with a few journalism majors.  To be honest, they weren't very astute and certainly couldn't cut it doing anything requiring high level analytical ability.  They were great friends and fun to be around.  But I always thought it strange that these people would graduate and get jobs explaining the world around them when they had never done anything in that world and had no real world experience.  I only listen to people who have been there/done that.

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## Jim Kyle

> When I was at OU in the early '80s I was acquainted with a few journalism majors.  To be honest, they weren't very astute and certainly couldn't cut it doing anything requiring high level analytical ability.  They were great friends and fun to be around.  But I always thought it strange that these people would graduate and get jobs explaining the world around them when they had never done anything in that world and had no real world experience.


Back in the 50s, it didn't quite work that way. A new grad fresh out of J-school would spend a year or two on a small-town paper, where seasoned veterans would train them in what reporters really were supposed to do. After a few years in the minor leagues, some of us made it to the bigger cities. By that time, we knew that we were in the business of manufacturing tomorrow's garbage wrappers, but we also knew (at least most of us did) how to get to the meat of a story, and to present it fairly clearly -- if the editorial policy allowed us to!

Now many of those small-town papers have been gobbled up by chains, and I suspect their value as training sites has tended to diminish right along with their borg-ification.

For years I was proud to call myself a professional journalist. Those days have been gone for at least a couple of decades.

These days I get my world news from the BBC's web site -- including national news for the USA, which is free of the rabid spin from both sides. I get most of my local news from this site, although I do pay attention to the weather and fire coverage when it's breaking news (although I trust Venture much more than any TV channel when it comes to forecasts)...

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## SoonerDave

> I always thought we had good news agencies in this state until I started working for my current employer. Every news station in this state spins the story in one direction or another. They don't care who they tarnish or who they destroy as long as they get their story. Journalist are worse then used car salesman in my book. News is not news anymore. From the national and cable networks to the local outlets it is nothing more then stories designed to entertain people so they can sell advertising. 
> 
> I have pretty much stopped watching local news in this city. I used to be able to stomach News9. Just recently they started dumbing down their news coverage and then came Stan Miller.  For years, News9 was the ambient noise I listened to while getting ready for work. Stan Miller and news geared towards people who chase parked cars was the last straw. I turned off my television and turned on the IPOD. A little music and little comedy from my favorite comedians.


The dumbing down of news started close to thirty  years ago. I was a high school journalism student and was tasked to write a special report about the emerging superficiality of newscasts, and it was clear back then that the analysts were making inroads into newsrooms and telling producers to lighten up on content and max up on cute and talky. It's a shame, too, because there was a time in that era we had some darned good investigative reporters here in town, both in print and broadcast media. I remember when the Lloyd Rader and the DHS scandal broke, and when the Oklahoma Industries Authority promised illegal tax breaks to GM as an incentive to come to OKC. The county commissioner scandal was another huge story local media broke.

But now? Good grief, you'd be doing well these days to get a newscaster to ask a bad guy what he had for lunch. Investigative reporting? Give me a break. Never happen again.

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## Jim Kyle

> Investigative reporting? Give me a break. Never happen again.


Never say never, Dave. At least a few kids still have some idealism left. It won't come from big print media, nor from the broadcasters, but means for mass communication still exist -- and will be used.

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## TaoMaas

> Investigative reporting? Give me a break. Never happen again.


It's a money thing.  The fact is, serious investigative reporting takes time and most local news rooms can no longer afford to have reporters out of the daily mix for weeks or months at a time.  We can thank cable tv and the internet for this.

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## Tom-S

> Investigative reporting? Give me a break. Never happen again.


You mean channel 25's 'strip club pastor' investigation wasn't hard hitting enough for you guys?

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## oneforone

The only thing investigative reporters chase these days are redneck contractors and con-artists who they know cannot afford quality legal representation.

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## adaniel

So I noticed during yesterday's extensive fire coverage, Both Channel 5 and Channel 9 had aerial coverage while Channel 4's was noticeable absent. Has the ship finally sailed on Bob Moore Chopper 4? Also, if i were indeed Mr. Gardner piloting SkyNews9 was he finally released from his contract from KFOR?

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## MustangGT

Kellly sure was very careful to speak to and about Brandon, the tech in the back.  I do not recall him calling the pilot by name.  Also the cockpit cam was on Kelly as you would expect but the one pointing to the pilot has apprently been removed.

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## clz46

I looked on KFOR facebook page to see if anything was said about no  helicopter for the fire coverage. Numerous people commented on it but the only response by KFOR was that Jim Gardner was out sick yesterday.

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## oneforone

It is possible a contract pilot was flying the aircraft while they wait for Gardner to come on.

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## ljbab728

I didn't watch much of the coverage yesterday or today but KFOR certainly was having plenty of air coverage today.

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## Tydude

KOCO 5 Sky 5 is up in the air right now covering the fire stuff

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## Thunder

> KOCO 5 Sky 5 is up in the air right now covering the fire stuff


And ONLY KOCO truly cares about us all!  GO SKY5, GO!!!

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