Concerning Ryan Yamamoto, formerly with KOMO 4 news, now the main anchor at KPIX 5/SF: There is a rumor that Yamamoto will be demoted. Apparently, the powers that be at KPIX, have seen the light, according to Lieberman. Ryan Yamamoto is not a strong presence as a news anchor. He might do well with short feature stories, like covering the opening of a skateboard park. Then again, his energy level may not be up to it.
I agree with Lieberman on his assessment of Anne Makovec, another from KPIX, who we now see as the anchor of KSTW’s Seattle Now News. Makovec is a stiff.
I want to say that is where our similarities end. Because Rich Lieberman is just a guy who hates everybody in San Francisco radio and tv. I try to stay current with his blog, but sometimes I have to turn away, because his assessments become angry and the toxicity of his posts starts bringing gloom to the room. Our readers know that, as George W. Bush said, “I’m a loving guy” and the harshness of Lieberman’s posts is sometimes overwhelming.
Rich Lieberman lets it all hang out. He has attracted a huge following. You either love him or hate him.
There are legions of females in the SF Media who despise him, and have tried to cancel, dox, and de-monetize him. —
Twenty-nine female journalists from around the San Francisco Bay Area have united against a local blogger who has made comments about many of them in his posts they describe as disturbing and sexist, commenting on the “boob power” of one anchor in one story and headlining another “Boner of the Day.”
Describing himself as a feminist, Lieberman said he treats women with respect, decency and admiration and said some of his best friends are women.
SFGate.com/September 2020
These femi-n–is, uh, ladies, were somewhat successful, causing the loss of at least one advertiser. This comes with the territory. Some may think he is mysoginistic, vile, hateful. Rich Lieberman gives his honest take on the state of radio-tv media in the San Francisco area, pulling no punches, often getting personal, getting down into the mud. The more insiders willing to spill the tea with him the better. There seem to be quite a few that will rat out a co-anchor or someone in management.
Those lines are just within one of Rich Lieberman’s recent blog posts. Day in and day out, non-stop, station personnel are exposed in the caustic manner that his readers expect from him. Many disagree in comments on the pages of 415Media. There is a give and take of opinion, but 99.99% of the time, everybody sucks according to Rich Lieberman. And he stands by his opinion. He happily lays out the case as to why they suck so bad.
Rich Lieberman’s scorched-earth style is opinionated, unforgiving and relentless. 415Media is like passing a car wreck on the freeway. You don’t want to see the carnage, but just can’t turn away.
But it’s 2022. Times have changed. Hell, even Darya Folsom, has (sometimes) read the room.
I’ll regret the last sentence –you get my drift. I’m sure I’ll have ample opportunities to rip KRON.
*I remember Darya from Phoenix tv news. If she could have worn a cheerleader outfit to get more attention, she would have. A bit of an airhead, as I recall.
At QZVX.COM, we hear rumblings, unhappiness in the newsroom, lousy pay, idiot news director, brown-nosing co-worker. It’s the same in all markets. Rich Lieberman prefers to tear open the curtain, revealing more than you might expect to learn about the Bay area personalities behind the microphones, and their bosses. Check it out at 415Media. It gets ugly, wear your mask and stand back six feet.
Dick Ellingson • October 1, 2024
“Lieberman said he treats women with respect, decency and admiration and said some of his best friends are women.”
Treating women with respect, decency, admiration and friendship must be going around. Even the country’s favorite felon is on the bandwagon.
Who to believe?
(A) both
(B) either
(C) neither
Jason Remington • October 1, 2024
If you had to pick out one cringe moment of Lieberman’s interview with ex-KTVU anchor Frank Somerville yesterday (9/29/24), it might be when Lieberman stated that people thought Somerville and Haener were the Ken & Barbie of tv news and posed the question: “Did you ever have any intimate feelings about Julie Haener…” Awkward!
Jason Remington • September 13, 2023
We sometimes bang these stories out, in order to be 1st. But, someone needs to remind Rich Lieberman to pay close attention to spelling and grammar. 415 Media is a tough read for those reasons.
Ming Sze • September 30, 2023
He cannot he only has a high school education and sells used fords in alameda CA.
Jason Remington • June 5, 2023
Right. He doesn’t incur hosting fees, domain fees, costs for themes/apps, subscriptions to newspaper archives for info, web/logo design or SEO.
Nick Faitos • June 5, 2023
I came late to this discussion, and was it a kick to read.
I have been reading RIch’s blog for a long time. For all the scurrilous items and fabrications and vitriol, it is, I have to admit, fun to read. Though not so much lately, for his dim view of things in Bay Area media seem to have gotten even dimmer. I have followed him on Twitter and Facebook. I occasionally have left comments on the blog; there aren’t many forums for local-television-news followers and local-radio listeners like me to opine. I’m one of the few who uses his actual name, for I don’t insult people (or Rich or other commenters) and, not being in the media business, I neither have an axe to grind or anything or anybody to promote.
I think he sees himself as a kind of “man about town” persona and almost a Herb Caen-like observer of media, dressed well and fedora-ed, someone who has seen it all with a big roster of contacts. I’m guessing that is a stretch. I mean, a real stretch. He has a few ongoing “themes.” First, the “corporate suits” from FOX, Viacom, DIsney, Audacy, et al are making weekly visits to the affiliates, making their audits, and they are stunned by how bad things are. “You mean THESE are your anchors?” etc. Heads will roll, people will be thrown out. It never happens.
Every television newsroom is in chaos with feuding, backbiting and backstabbing and people KTVU in particular is a toxic place. At every station every anchor wants another anchor’s job. Most male anchors are sleeping on the sly with female co-anchors or have “been spotted” for intimate dinners and cocktails. The female anchors are all trying to destroy one another.
If you are female and a news director, you are the wicked witch of the west, or from any direction. Tracy Watkowski, Amber Eikel, Jennifer Seelig. In fact, when writing about women in general, there’s an almost incel-like resentment alternating with fascination That might be a little harsh, but consider that letter, co-written by many women of eminence in the Bay Area media. I wonder what Raj Mathai, Julie Haener, Larry Beil, and poor Eric Thomas think about the blog. If they read it.
He was first with Frank Somerville’s story, but boy did he quickly go from being his defender to a detractor. He makes some good arguments that earlier decades offered a higher-quality product, but if this were 1963 he’d probably be writing that John Weston and Wanda Ramey were “spotted” nuzzling in a back booth at Grison’s between KPIX newscasts. Someone once said on the TVNewsTalk.net forum that “Rich is always begging us for money and donations. I told him look, you use Blogger, which is free. You own a television, a radio, and a computer. Your phone or Internet bill isn’t a penny higher because you do this. How is it you’re going out of business if we don’t help you out?”
KGO staffer • July 27, 2022
I work for KGO radio and I can tell you that everyone knows who Rich’s source is in the building, because that person mentions his blog every other day. That source only feeds Rich information in the hopes that he will write flattering pieces. When that person is not in the loop, nothing leaks.
Other staffers don’t talk to Rich because his stories are either completely fabricated or centered around that one person who used to “donate” money to him. Surprise plot twist, Rich ended up turning on that person and now constantly rails on him.
Rich has acknowledged that he doesn’t have access to the paid ratings data, but then he uses public 6+ Nielsen numbers (which would include weekend infomercials), and pretends like it gives him insight into how the weekday shows are doing. He says that certain successful shows don’t have good ratings, because most people can’t fact check it.
He won’t post any comments that contain corrections, because he wants to paint a narrative that puts hosts in a bad light. One of those hosts signed the sexism letter, one stopped giving him money, and a third doesn’t do the traditional newstalk he likes. Ironically, that last host has the highest ratings.
So yeah, some of his stories at other stations are true, but he uses that as cover for the yellow “journalism” that is peppered throughout the blog.