Saturday, July 22, 2006

Lerner sticks it to 19

I'm interested by this issue between Browns' owner Randy Lerner (and the Browns) and channel 19.

Quick recap: Channel 19 decided to play the 911 tapes of Randy's sister calling for help after her 6 year old daughter drowned, while all the other stations chose not to play it (or at least not play the graphic portions). So Randy has decided that he no longer needs to do business with Channel 19 and he is pulling out of the agreement to show the Brown's games on 19.

My thoughts:
  • I'm not sure that I like seeing Randy make Browns business decisions based on personal issues. This situation is understandable, but I wouldn't want to see it be a regular thing. But, as long as the Browns games do get aired on some station, I don't really care what his reasons are for his decisions.
  • Randy has to be incredibly ticked at 19. Losing a little girl like that is a tragedy that is hard enough to deal with. Having a news station hyping it to make a buck off your name and your tragedy is too much. I do respect him for standing up for his sister and his niece, and putting honor above business.
  • I always had problems with 19 Action news. I don't like the sensationalistic journalism (thanks to MoL for the tip). It always seemed like they would do whatever trashy, sleazy thing they needed to, as long as it got viewers. It gives me some satisfaction to see them paying for their sleaze.

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