Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Do Banished Journalists Deserve a 2nd Chance?

FORMER PHILLY BROADCASTER and convicted felon Larry Mendte is back on television, doing commentaries for Tribune TV stations. Is there anything wrong with that?

For background: Mendte is a Delaware County guy and Bonner grad. He worked at TV stations across the country and hosted Access Hollywood before returning to Philly in the 1990s.

He was fired from CBS3 in 2008 (a few weeks after he visited J1111) after it was discovered that he had hacked into his colleague's email more than 500 times, leaking info from her email to tabloid reporters. He claimed he and his colleague had something of an affair. Mendte was sentenced to probation, home confinement, community service and psychiatric evaluation.

What did you think of the video?

13 comments:

Luis Crespo said...

I don't really have much of a problem with him getting a second chance. Alycia Lane got a job as a morning anchor in Los Angeles.

But the video is terrible. If he was just giving his comments, that'd be fine. This is something else entirely -- he's walking all over the place, acting dramatically, with sound and graphic effects going on. This is the news, not The Soup or whatever.

Here's last night's piece so you can see what I'm talking about.
http://www.wpix.com/videobeta/?watchId=6a43cf8a-c604-4637-a46d-973156913818

Katherine Carpenter said...

This is not a good newscast, this skims on the facts. This guy seems hammered already, just trying to get humor out of his system and hoping to get a response. It really bothers me, it's not funny. He should be fired again.
Psychiatric evaluation again, please.

Peter Dalmasy said...

Not a compelling broadcast by any means, simply for comedic purposes. Second chances should be given to every one but this reporter obviously has less and less of a serious place in the media today (hence he has to do crap like this).

Sad but true.

Julian Galette said...

Honestly? Screw this guy.

I have no personally beef against him (even though what he did to get himself fired is pretty messed up) but if this is what he does with his second chance he didn't deserve it in the first place.

Anonymous said...

i think that a quiz on american idol contestants is a slap in the face for a student who actually keeps up on the reading...and doesn't spend his time watching american idol.

Gillian Francella said...

What is his point?
Is he saying that the Tiger Woods scandal is wrong? Or is he making fun of Tiger's wife? If he's being sarcastic he is not good at and he's a bad actor with awkward timing. I didn't know if I should keep watching the painful 2 minutes or stop and respond to my initial, "wha?" after 49 seconds.
The "what do you think of Tiger?" question is not a trick.
This guy personally rubs me the wrong way on camera, so I don't have an unbiased opinion on his second chance. Obviously my answer is NO- 500 times? at that point he could have created an affair between his email and hers- he seems creepy enough to do it.

Geo said...

Venting about the pop quiz the other day is fine, really, but this probably isn't the venue.

Drop me a line if you have complaints. I won't hold it against you. Promise (unless you're mean).

Ours is a large class, with no easy way to make it fun and relevant to everyone, I'm always looking for suggestions to make the class a better learning experience.

- George
(the teacher who has never seen American Idol)

joe boland said...

I agree with Julian, if this is what he does on his second chance there is no reason that he deserves to be where he is.

Erica Hochman said...

This guys reminded me of Charlie Sheen from the sitcom, Two and a Half Men: A charming, mildly chauvinistic jerk. Though I was not impressed by his 'performance' that was passed off to audiences as news, I can understand the appeal that others may find in him. That was not news, that was SOLELY entertainment.

Kaitlin Ziminski said...

I do not think he deserves a second chance. He is a convicted felon which would make the public not trust him as well as give a bad name to journalist who are doing thier job correctly. He should start looking for a job completely outside of the industry.

Parissa Zecher said...

Obviously he's trying to make a comeback. I don't know how sorry he is for what he did, but I really don't think he should be given a second chance. what he did was wrong, end of story. doesn't he understand he could have avoided the situation? he put his career in jeopardy, no one else helped him do it!

Berryman, A said...

I feel like this guy is trying to bring his career back by making the Tiger Woods story a comical story. To me this will improve his audience, but what doe she look like as a journalist?

Tim Keller said...

How many takes of this shot did he do? Looks like he had a few Guiness before hand.I think he should banished from Journalism altogether, maybe TMZ will give him a job.