Todd Spessard...

[ewink]

...is coming to KOKI in Tulsa to helm the... ship.

Discuss! Or don't.

[Spike]

I worked for Spessard. As news directors go, he was a good guy, definitely cared about the craft and wasn't an *******. Unfortunately he didn't have the support of his GM at the time, or else he could have made the station a whole lot more competitive.

Time can change a man, especially a manager, so my experience with him almost a decade ago might not apply now. Still, I wouldn't expect it to be a bad change for your station. Plus you have a few people at that station who have worked with him in the past, so you'll be able to find opinions right there in house. If Aaron is still there, ask him about Todd.

[The Fedora]

I worked for Spessard. As news directors go, he was a good guy, definitely cared about the craft and wasn't an *******. Unfortunately he didn't have the support of his GM at the time, or else he could have made the station a whole lot more competitive.

Time can change a man, especially a manager, so my experience with him almost a decade ago might not apply now. Still, I wouldn't expect it to be a bad change for your station. Plus you have a few people at that station who have worked with him in the past, so you'll be able to find opinions right there in house. If Aaron is still there, ask him about Todd.

Hmmmmm... Interesting. We share a former shop?

About Todd, I have never worked with him but he had worked in a former newsroom of mine. the always had good things to say about him.

[Run's House]

Good Missouri grad...and other than his testimony providing the primary motivation for a Kansas jury to issue a $1.1 million verdict against his employers...seems like good people. Is that case still on appeal?

[Spike]

Hmmmmm... Interesting. We share a former shop?


Yep.

Good Missouri grad...

I had forgotten about that. As a Missouri grad, he seemed to have a bias toward other Missouri grads and hired some that weren't very good. We had at least two in the newsroom who thought they were god's gifts to journalism because they had attended Mizzou, but were pretty much worthless. That was my first encounter with the Missouri Mafia and the problems it can cause.

I'm not aware of the lawsuit. I assume it's public record and can be discussed. What happened?

[Run's House]

The suit involved a suspect in the BTK case. It's been a while since I read up on the specifics, but the gist is that KWCH kept naming this guy as a suspect LONG after the cops said he wasn't one anymore (but I'm not 100% sure of the factual basis or all of the claims). I unsuccessfully tried to find the article that discussed Todd's testimony at-length. A quote in the article made him sound like an un-caring ambitious jerk. Here is a general post verdict story:

WICHITA -- A Sedgwick County jury on Friday ordered a Wichita television station and its news director to pay a man $1.1 million for naming him as a possible suspect in the BTK serial killings.

Roger Valadez was seeking up to $2 million from Emmis Communications, then-owner of KSNW-TV in Wichita, and news director Todd Spessard for its coverage of Valadez's arrest on minor outstanding warrants.

The jury found that KSNW and Spessard defamed Valadez and their conduct was "extreme and outrageous" when the station used his name after he was arrested Dec. 1, 2004. It awarded Valadez $800,000 for mental suffering, humiliation and shame and $300,000 for damage to his reputation. It wasn't immediately clear how the payments would be divided between the station's owner and Spessard.

Valadez was never charged in connection with the slayings, and he was cleared long before the arrest of Dennis Rader, who confessed to all 10 BTK killings.

Valadez said after the trial that he was satisfied with the verdict.

"I think the jury made the right decision. We are pleased," he said. "The jury found that it was wrong."

But Valadez also said money will never completely make up for what he went through that day.

"It is just something I will never forget -- something that will be with me the rest of my life," he said.

KSNW's defense attorney Bernard Rhodes said he would appeal the verdict, saying it was against the First Amendment and calling it the "wrong verdict based upon the wrong law."

Spessard said all media are going to have to look at the verdict and the way they do things. He insisted the station did nothing wrong in reporting the facts.

"This is the kind of ruling that can stifle the dissemination of information and limit the ability of the media to inform the public," he said.

Jury foreman Tammy Munyon said jurors were especially struck by Spessard's testimony that he didn't care about public perception and didn't take into account Valadez's feelings.

"I thought all the coverage was extreme," Munyon said. "I think by stating his name, they crossed the line."

She said jurors all agreed Valadez was a suspect in the BTK killings, but that he stopped being a suspect by early Dec. 2 and the media knew by 9 a.m. that day that he was no longer a BTK suspect.

"I don't think any of the television stations ought to be proud of what they did that day," Valadez's attorney, Craig Shultz, told jurors in closing arguments, but he noted that all of the other media reporting the case withheld Valadez's name.

"They gambled with Roger's life, and Roger is the only one who suffered," Shultz said.

In his closing arguments Friday, Rhodes pointed to evidence that showed police considered Valadez a suspect in the BTK killings. He said a person can be defamed only if what was reported is false and said the station's reporting of events were accurate.

"I am sorry Roger Valadez was a suspect, but the fact is that he was," Rhodes said.

He said KSNW was doing its job as the eyes and ears of the public.

"The man has suffered no damages. The only way he knew about this is because he saw it in his lawyer's office," Rhodes said, adding Valadez hasn't gone to a doctor, psychologist, counselor or pastor for counseling.

But Shultz urged jurors to think how they would feel if the same thing happened to them.

"When they suggest he wasn't hurt, that is absurd and they know it," Shultz said.

Valadez came to the attention of the task force investigating the BTK killings after it received a tip pointing to him as a possible suspect. Police used a battering ram to knock down the door of his home and went in with guns drawn. They took a DNA sample from his mouth, and 20 officers with the task force searched his home for evidence that might link him to the killings. Several boxes of possible evidence were removed from the house.

Rader, who called himself BTK for his preferred method to "bind, torture and kill" his victims, pleaded guilty last year to killing 10 people from 1974 to 1991. He was sentenced in August 2005 to 10 consecutive life prison terms.

[Produce man]

Am I supposed to know this person?

[Mighty Dyckerson]

Am I supposed to know this person?

If you worked in TV, you might.