KSLA Airs Bogus Story About Storm Victims; Scammers Arrested
A Louisiana couple claiming to have lost everything in Hurricane Isaac used Channel 12/KSLA to lure donations. According to KSLA, it all started when they got an email from a citizen telling them about Maston and Amanda Humphries who supposedly lost everything in the recent storm. Well, it was all a scam. BUT it took the airing of the story for the truth to come out. The couple were arrested Friday night in the KSLA Lobby. Read the complete story HERE.
posted by ATN @ 8:06 PM
52 comments
52 Comments:
Store? It would be one thing if you spelled it that way once, but twice is crazy. The word is storY. Sheesh.
You should have seen the co-anchors and reporters faces during the 6 when they were talking about this. They were clearly pissed and couldn't say how they actually felt.
Now that's funny! I can't believe KSLA set them up then had them busted in the stations lobby. Maybe all stations should start doing that.
Life at hard labor at Angola.
Let that be a lesson to all tv stations. Don't just blindly accept whatever is told to you. Be it from a viewer to a PR spokesperson or a police department public information officer. They all have agendas and it is your responsibility to sort through the bullshit. But nice recovery KSLA.
ditto 9:37am: Seems the news dept. didn't check the facts before airing the story. That's Journalism 101, but I guess todays TV-J's take that as an elective but don't miss the classes in make-up, hairspray and stand-ups.
K: Keeps
S: Soft on
L: Local
A: Authorities
That's why tv stations shouldn't be in the business of raising money for individuals. Where do you draw the line anyway? There are lots of fires, floods, tornadoes and hurricanes. Stick with the Red Cross or another respected organization.
Back in the day, when adults were running local tv news departments, no solicitation for donations was allowed until checked for legitimacy. It was required that all donations go through a third party, unrelated to the solicitation, such as established charitable organizations, churches or banks. This was standard and you could be fired if you did not adhere to the station's requirements. At the very least, the station should be liable for any unreturned losses suffered by donors, Depending on the size of the donation, a lawyer might be necessary
Isn't this an ongoing case that is still being investigated? Is this the same scam they were running in Longview before they started the scam in Shreveport. Both of them need to be in jail and CPS needs to take custody of their kid.
I agree with several of these comments. The Red Cross, Salvation Army, Providence House, The Food Bank of Northwest Louisiana, St. Jude's, ect... are all legitimate charitable organizations that all the stations have been working with for decades. Mr. and Mrs. Griffter are not, and KSLA has lost their credibility over this. Even Ed Bradley would not have allowed this to happen. If KSLA were run like it was when I worked there, several people would be without jobs today. KSLA and Raycom need to implement some strict guidelines as a result of this fiasco.
9:37 AM and 10:45 AM have it right.
Sounds like it. They need to be spayed and neutered.
Come on. It's ksla. They are probably just kids running that place.
Kids are running the place hence the problems.
Well if you pay people a kid's salary expect kid problems
Regardless of what you are paid, you should always do your job and be professional. Broadcasting has always had low pay. This is nothing new.
Hum, sounds like KSLA has no standards and stopped verifying. Maybe this incident will change that.
Attention ba san. Who cares? This is a blog not a place to sell your wares.
maybe you all should take a step back and spend a day in their shoes. No money was raised toward them in any of this as far as when the news aired the story. they accepted money one time for gas and it was used for that purpose. but oh no this world is full of perfect people. there is no one perfect person. pass judgement as you will and run your mouth. in the end things will be settled in the courts they haven't been convicted, so they are innocent until proven guilty. but you all are trying to be judge, jury, and executioner! grow up and realize not everyones life is perfect and yes people will sometimes go to the extreme to get help when they can't find any other way!
KSLA has gotten really bad about running and gunning stories without proper verification. In the race to be first, they got some pie in their faces this time.
11:17 This couple does NOT want help. They are con artists, scam artists, grifters, what ever you want to call them. Neither one of them is disabled and have no reason not to seek work, or to seek assistance from a legitimate charitable organization. If this couple were legitimate they could have help from Providence House today.
Hadn't had this much noise about KSLA since their "Ace Reporter - David Begnaud" did bogus Live-phone call ins from the station sales office while pretending to be "Live/On-Location" at the Tyler, TX Courthouse. KSLA has really, really fallen back with their journalistic integrity and ethical practices. Are they really that clueless in management or do they simply not care?
Actually broadcast pay has gotten considerably lower and has not kept up with the cost of living changes. Sure it was never great, but it is worse than it was 15 years ago. Adults cannot live on it.
Pay varies market to market. If you want more money then move over here to Dallas, or to another Top 10 market. Broadcasting and all other businesses and industry pay much more here in the Metroplex then they do there in Shreveport.
Back to this scam couple. This whole situation would not have happened if the standards were still in place we had when I was at KSLA.
This proves KSLA doesn't have standards any more.
I can tell you this much: I worked at KSLA many, many years ago and this type of story would have had Owen and Staggs peeling paint off the walls with their voices!! Somebody would've been sent packing!! Seriously though, back then this story would've never made it to air because there was a different vibe in the newsroom that kept reporters & producers on their toes regarding standards and practices. And yes the pay at KSLA pretty much sucked back then but many of us who worked there did so because of the job and not so much for the pay. I cringe when I see so much junk air on my former station. I know the times & tastes change but accuracy and good judgement are never out of style in the news business. Embarrassing!
You are absolutely right. There should be some people fired over this. The sad thing is, the way the stations is now, even if they did fire people, it really wouldn't have any effect. These reporters, producers, ect... cycle through the station every two or three years. Three or four years from now most of these people will be gone and no one will remember this.
You pay people like children, expect children mistakes. It's that simple.
@ 10:08
Welcome....And thanks for running your mouth....
While firing people over this poor lapse of judgement may not affect them in the long run, it would sure send a message to the current staff.
I had this type of thing happen at a station I worked at in another market. The reporter and assignments editor got canned and not too much longer after that the News Director left for another job. Word was that he was given a way out to save face but that his lack of oversight created the atmosphere for this type of thing to happen. I can tell you there were some people who wound up leaving when the new guy came in and things got better as far as lazy reporting went. But it seems that KSLA has gotten more about hiring diversity than it has about journalism. It is all about packaging and promotion instead about good product. But then again, we're talking Raycom corporate mentality and it's pretty much like that across their properties.
They have tried to hide their tracks but taking most of these pages down. But if you know how to navigate around you can still get to some of the donation pages and the twitter pages. They never accept that they are to blame for the problems in their lives and always blame others.
Are these people Travelers? This sounds just like a Travelers scam. There are three groups of Travelers based out of White Settlement Texas, Chicago, and North Carolina.
So what. You and all of your relatives should be guests of the state.
Go back to Missouri and take this crap with you.
KSLA provides Coverage you can ...er...well not really "Count On";
that is...unless you count on it to be thrown together without much thought for considering, fact-checking, corroboration with evidence and spell-checking even. But hey, don't their news graphics & set look flashy!?
Thanks for the editing Blogman.
Has KSLA implemented any changes do to this incident?
What about this couple? Are they still here or have they moved on?
You got that right 12:17 PM.
Sasha hasn't been there 90 days so she could be let go for this.
Well whoever the assignment editor / ass't news director or producer was on this watch should get reprimanded at the very least. Somebody in the news-chain should've had the brains to say: "Hey do we REALLY KNOW these PEOPLE and does their STORY REALLY CHECK OUT?" Plus don't they review stories before they stack 'em anymore? Amateurs! Oh...wait, there's clouds forming over East Texas....RUN FOR YOUR LIVES !! :O
Oh no, KSLA stopped that years ago. As a result you have situations like this.
Are the other Raycom stations as lax as KSLA, or is this just an isolated policy for this one station?
Not real sure but Raycom is known industry-wide as being very much a tightwad management style with very little oversight regarding local station operations. This is what I learned from a colleague who worked for Raycom at different properties, he was in management and has since gone on to better things.
That explains a lot.
Yes it does. They don't check out stories before they run with them. They also don't care how bad their lives look. The live shot at the top of the 12:00 was not white balanced and looked terrible.
Ha! I wonder if the preview monitors are even adjusted in the control room so they could tell the difference.
Has anyone done any follow up on this story? Are these people still here or have they moved on to the next town?
I doubt KSLA will do any more follow ups on this story. They probable want to put as much distance between them and this story as possible.
Out-of-Sight, Out-of-mind... someone should do a "see-no-evil, speak-no-evil, hear-no-evil" photoshop of the KSLA staff. Given the news management history of that place, it's all about promotability above all else. Remember the Barack Shapiro / Stormin' Steve weather-hysteria a few years back during an LSU football game? They just don't seem to think things through carefully enough. There will be something else come up, it's in the KSLA management DNA. Just watch.
Evidently there is nothing news worthy going on locally or regionally today. The News at Noon just spent the first five minutes of the newscast on the presidential debate tonight.
FYI Maston Humphries is still in jail.
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