The NBC-owned television station in Los Angeles on Tuesday announced The Departure of its "vice president, content" and simultaneously admitted that it had not lived up to "journalistic standards" when it aired a faked report about new credit card rules in February. In today's (Wednesday) Los Angeles Times , media columnist James Rainey said that Tuesday's announcements by KNBC-TV represented the culmination of a "psychodrama" at the station that "has pitted traditional television journalists .. against a nouveau crowd of content creators who prefer their sizzle served up hot, preferably without much steak." In the faked report, Rainey said, the station hired reality show producer Vicki Gunvalson, who interviewed friends about the new credit card rules, then passed the friends off as ordinary "men in the street." The interviews, Rainey indicated, were conducted at an Orange County boutique, owned by another friend of Gunvalson. A spokesman for the station told Rainey that it is "taking steps to prevent this from happening again."

19/05/2010