DKPS terminates partnership with WPXI-TV over station's news report on Downtown

DK Pittsburgh Sports today terminated our eight-year partnership with WPXI-TV, and I'm sharing that here only because I'm sure our readers will ask why we aren't on 'The Final Word' or '11 On The Ice' or other shows.

Well, actually, that's not the only reason.

Some things are just more important than business. They really are. And the more time I've got on this planet, the more I value that simple concept.

Long story short ...

This report that aired Monday on WPXI's 6 p.m. news, in addition to appearing in written form on the station's website, was factually incorrect:

There was no 'shooting.' As anyone who's ever spent a split-second in journalism can attest, a 'shooting' involves someone being shot. A window was blown out, presumably by a shot, but there's no accounting of it anywhere. The Pittsburgh Police's Zone 2 -- that's Downtown -- blotter for the day was completely blank. Not even a lost puppy dog. 

Now, I'm not suggesting a blown out window's ideal. If it happened to our new shop, I'd be upset. But on a list of crime news that occurred throughout the region on the day, this probably wouldn't rank in the top gazillion or so. But this reporter proceeded to connect this window to a robbery further up Liberty Avenue a few days earlier and declare Downtown some level of war zone.

This right after we just had the Arts Festival, Jazz Festival and a huge Juneteenth parade with zero incidents of any kind.

This infuriated me, to say the least. In part because I'm born Downtown, it's been my home -- and will be soon again -- and it's now my workplace. In part because I'm aware of the significant and very real progress we're all making in the recovery from a pandemic that affected every single city in the world. And in part because, in a lifetime of journalism, I get particularly put off when I see that this same reporter last year covered a shooting in Mt. Lebanon -- three people dead, two police officers injured -- and culled a quote expressing shock that anything like that could happen in such an upstanding place.

Hm.

Anyway, as everyone here already knows, I'm not exactly timid about letting my feelings be known. And I sure wasn't going to do that in this situation. So I challenged WPXI -- publicly, vocally -- on Twitter to explain/defend their reporting. Why do it there? Because the damage of their report was already at hand. If I do it quietly, that report stands without any pushback. It just gets accepted. And people here in our neighborhood, the heartbeat of the entire region, get hurt.

Sorry, I'm not equipped with that gene.

Without getting too specific in the couple of conversations that ensued, WPXI did alter the original headline on the website to remove 'shooting.' Since, you know, there wasn't one. But that was it. I was told the reporter spoke with a grand total of TWO people for this story. That was it. No research. No officials. Couldn't even get the police to waste their time talking about it. (Really.)

When I called WPXI's general manager, Kevin Hayes, I challenged him on the veracity of the reporting. He said it was "factually accurate." When I pressed him to explain that, he replied that he didn't have to explain anything to me. I replied, in turn, that we were through.

Awesome. And I don't have to be associated with any operation that's got someone with that kind of a journalistic conscience at the very top. I do understand that TV news is a different breed from newspapers, but a false report's a false report. And when it comes within the context of a pattern of such reporting on one area of our city but not others ... yeah.

Scaremongering like this is dangerous and destructive. But inventing or exaggerating the material to fit that mold is so much worse.

I can't state enough glowing things about the many, many good people with whom we've worked in WPXI sports, from Dean Iampietro to Kellie Burkett to Jenna Harner to the one and only Alby Oxenreiter. I'll treasure the countless shows we all did and the fun we had doing them.

One last thing, in case anyone's wondering how this'll affect our business: We're currently doing more of our own multimedia than ever, and it currently accounts for nearly half of all of our revenue. It's been a blessing beyond words. While any external publicity's obviously good, to be totally honest, we're getting numbers right now on YouTube and podcasts -- especially with Daily Shot of Steelers and The Ramon Foster Show -- that are unreal. And it's exposure that goes everywhere, not just city limits.

Some things are more important. I couldn't have lived with myself if I didn't respond to this. I'm so very glad I did.

My family matters to me ...

... and my city matters to me, both of them more than anything else.

Any questions at all, I'm in comments, accountable as always.