The Rundown

Police in Sacramento are investigating a shooting at Tegna’s Sacramento ABC affiliate KXTV on Friday afternoon.

The shots were fired at around 1:30 p.m. from outside the building into the lobby. Nobody was hurt.

Protesters gathered outside the building on Thursday after the ABC network suspending late-night host Jimmy Kimmel over remarks about conservative activist Charlie Kirk’s assassination. ABC does not own KXTV.

“At this time, I don’t have any suspect information to release, and I don’t know the motive,” Sacramento Police Department Spokesperson Officer Anthony Gamble said. “I don’t know if this was targeted or a random act. But what I can tell is our detectives are on scene, they’re going to be conducting a follow-up.” 

“We’re going to figure out who’s responsible for this,” Gamble said.  “Fortunately, we haven’t had a lot of attacks on our media partners. We would like to keep it that way. This is unacceptable behavior. To those that may have been responsible for this, I hope you see this, we’re not going to stop looking for you.”

“We can confirm that shots were fired into our station at KXTV earlier today. While details are still limited, importantly all of our employees are safe and unharmed. We are fully cooperating with law enforcement and have taken additional measures to ensure the continued safety of our employees.”

ABC10

Andrea Albers has been named morning co-anchor on TMJ4 News Today alongside Adriana Mendez on Milwaukee, Wisconsin NBC affiliate WTMJ.

Albers joined the station in 2021 as a reporter and anchor. Most recently, she has been the morning traffic anchor and the station’s consumer reporter.

“Andrea’s deep roots in Wisconsin and her commitment to impactful storytelling truly embody TMJ4’s mission to connect with and empower the communities we serve,” said Tim Vetscher, TMJ4 news director. “We’re thrilled to have Andrea take on this new role alongside Adriana.”

“I’m truly honored to step into this role and help start the day alongside our viewers across southeast Wisconsin. Being part of TMJ4 News and sharing the stories that matter most is incredibly rewarding,” saod Albers. “I look forward to connecting with new faces each morning and continuing to serve our community with journalism that makes a difference.”

WICS in Springfield, Illinois said it hasn’t fired or suspended anyone in recent months, despite what former anchor Beni Harmony said.

Harmony caught the attention of many after she claimed she had been suspended from WICS-TV Channel 20 for airing a “non-partisan tribute to Charlie Kirk” before she resigned.

WICS news director Heather Nodine told The State Journal-Register that the station has not suspended or fired anyone in the past 90 days, though she was unable to comment on Harmony’s situation specifically.

According to the station, Harmony was a sales employee whose job was to produce and anchor Marketplace, a sales-based program that features clients who pay to have interviews on the air.

Nodine said Harmony was not employed as a journalist and never worked within the station’s news department.

Harmony aired her tribute on September 12. Nodine was unable to comment about it since Nodine does not oversee Marketplace and did not supervise Harmony.

According to her LinkedIn page, Harmony was a producer and administrator for Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point USA for seven months. 

FCC Commissioner Anna M. Gomez responded to ABC’s decision to capitulate to government pressure and openly violate the First Amendment and threaten free expression.

Her response was posted to the FCC website:

“We cannot allow an inexcusable act of political violence to be twisted into a justification for government censorship and control. First, an ABC reporter was told that his coverage amounted to hate speech and that he should be prosecuted simply for doing his job. Then, the FCC threatened to go after this same network, seizing on a late-night comedian’s inopportune joke as a pretext to punish speech it disliked. That led to a shameful show of cowardly corporate capitulation by ABC that has put the foundation of the First Amendment in danger.

“This FCC does not have the authority, the ability, or the constitutional right to police content or punish broadcasters for speech the government dislikes. If it were to take the unprecedented step of trying to revoke broadcast licenses, which are held by local stations rather than national networks, it would run headlong into the First Amendment and fail in court on both the facts and the law. But even the threat to revoke a license is no small matter. It poses an existential risk to a broadcaster, which by definition cannot exist without its license. That makes billion-dollar companies with pending business before the agency all the more vulnerable to pressure to bend to the government’s ideological demands. 

“When corporations surrender in the face of that pressure, they endanger not just themselves, but the right to free expression for everyone in this country. The duty to defend the First Amendment does not rest with government, but with all of us. Free speech is the foundation of our democracy, and we must push back against any attempt to erode it.”

After ABC and Disney agreed shelve Jimmy Kimmel after he made remarks about MAGA and the shooter of right wing lightning rod Charlie Kirk, social media erupted with posts pointing out the hypocrisy and calling for boycotts of anything having to do with the alleged defenders and destroyers of free speech.

Editorial note: I mean, wasn’t Charlie Kirk’s success all because of free speech?

Anyhoo, on X, political commentator Brian Krassenstein posted to X: “BOYCOTT ALERT! Disney/ABC just caved & pulled Jimmy Kimmel for political reasons. Nexstar — which owns The CW + 200+ local ABC, NBC, CBS & FOX stations — is part of the same machine,” he posted. “Boycott Disney. Boycott Nexstar. Boycott their advertisers. Hit them where it hurts: the $$$. RESHARE.”

CNN Senior Political Commentator and former Congressman Adam Kinzinger also said, “Would suggest we all consider this. Cancel Disney and ABC until they reverse this.”

Fred Guttenberg, father of a Parkland shooting victim, also posted on X: “The 2A killed the First Amendment. @jimmykimmel was right. If my memory is correct, these MAGAT’s ran against cancel culture. Shame on @ABCNetwork. My television will never be on ABC ever again.”

While former President Barack Obama had this to say on social media, “After years of complaining about cancel culture, the current administration has taken it to a new and dangerous level by routinely threatening regulatory action against media companies unless they muzzle or fire reporters and commentators it doesn’t like.”

WICS anchor Beni Rae Harmony has announced she’s resigned from the Rincon owned Springfield, Illinois ABC affiliate on Monday after being suspended for airing what she called a “non-partisan tribute” to her mentor, Charlie Kirk.

She’d been at the station for a year, hosting the 11:30 a.m. marketplace show.

The New York Post said that during her tribute to Kirk, she reassured viewers that it’s normal to feel sadness or be grieving over the cold-blooded killing of the Turning Point USA co-founder.

She also told viewers Kirk was her first boss and had acted as a mentor to her. Harmony worked as a producer and administrator for Turning Point USA in the Washington, DC- Baltimore area from August 2021 to February 2022.

Kirk, a conservative podcaster, was killed last Wednesday while speaking at a university in Utah during his tour with Turning Point USA.