Yes, You Are Watching a News Channel Use Puppets to Cover a Court Story
- Posted on January 20, 2012 at 11:13am by
Jonathon M. Seidl
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CLEVELAND (AP) — It’s courtroom drama crossed with “Sesame Street,” as a television station barred from using cameras during a high-profile corruption trial covers the highlights with a nightly puppet show. It stars a talking squirrel “reporter” who provides the play-by-play in an exaggerated, “you won’t believe this” tone.
“It’s a satirical look at the trial and, again, I think we have it appropriately placed at the end of the newscast,” WOIO news director Dan Salamone said Thursday.
He said the puppets are in addition to the station’s regular coverage of the Akron federal trial of ex-Cuyahoga County Commissioner Jimmy Dimora, the longtime Democratic power broker in Cleveland.
“It’s not intended in any way to replace any of the serious coverage of the trial,” Salamone said.
Dimora, a former county Democratic chairman in Cleveland, has pleaded not guilty to bribery and racketeering. He also faces another trial on a second indictment.
AP
With cameras barred from court, the news media has relied on artist sketches of the proceedings inside and daily video of Dimora walking into court with his wife and his defense team.
The station uses the puppets repeating testimony and performing as witnesses, reporters and jurors to detail the case, which began last week and is expected to last three months. The trial has been a daily staple of front-page coverage in The Plain Dealer newspaper and often leads TV newscasts in town.
According to Salamone, the puppets are meant to lampoon the sometimes-steamy testimony, including details of a topless hot tub excursion in Las Vegas and taped phone calls with off-color and often unprintable comments.
The station is awaiting the arrival of an updated puppet that looks like the newly clean-shaven Dimora. For now, the station has been showing the back of a puppet‘s head that doesn’t resemble Dimora, Salamone said.
And if Dimora grows his familiar salt-and-pepper beard back? “We’ve asked for some accessories in the event that he might decide to regrow his beard,” Salamone said.
The puppets perform near the end of the late newscasts on WOIO and its sister station, WUAB. The stations started using them on Tuesday.
At that point in the newscast, Salamone said, “People are accustomed to seeing a lighter story, what is often called a `kicker’ story.”
Salamone said viewers are in for another lookalike puppet debut when Dimora’s longtime friend and political ally, former Cuyahoga County Auditor Frank Russo, testifies for the prosecution. Russo has pleaded guilty to taking bribes and hopes his cooperation will trim his nearly 22-year sentence.
Karl Idsvoog, of Kent State University’s School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said Thursday that the puppet show didn’t work. “Why would anyone approve that to go on the air because it was dull and boring,” he said.
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Krutch
Posted on January 21, 2012 at 3:16pmWe see that kind of crap all the time here in Illinois. Corruption, not muppets. Then again, there are puppets all over the state. One of them is on loan to the White House at this time. A corruption puppet that is.
Report Post »RAMJR
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 11:51pmPuppets..teleprompters…same difference!
Report Post »angelcat
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 9:40pmThey are much more credible, knowledgeable, and watchable than anyone on MSNBC.
Report Post »wifezilla
Posted on January 21, 2012 at 3:05pmWhere’s the like button?!?!
Report Post »Jim Pryor
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 4:19pmIt’s about time ,INVESTGATING JOURNALISTS & MEDIA help readers & liteners ,viewers to get rid of the crooks in TEACHING,COURTS, LAWYERSL MANIPULATIVE PEOPLE, POLITICIANS,UNION FAT CATS ADVISORS,CUTODIANS AND CONSULTANTS !!! GET RID OF THE CROOKS !!!
Report Post »No ethics , integrity in ANY OF OUR LOUSEY SCHOOLS,ON ANY LEVEL !!!!
GOD3USA
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 3:44pmsome people are Puppets! the Brainwashed ones!!
Report Post »yanki161
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 3:29pmIs Jim Henson’s estate getting any royalties on this? They should.
Report Post »sta
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 1:28pmChannel 19 News is, by far the best in Cleveland. When we go home to visit family, we make a point to watch it.
Report Post »These are the same people that reported a car in a lake and when they announced that the driver was arrested, said, “Well, he must have been drunk.”
And the people who showed a man arrested for sexually abusing the kids he was babysitting, then said, “How about this slime watching your kids?” when they showed a picture of him.
They tell it like it is. They are the Glenn Beck of Cleveland!
Chris
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 8:18pmOh, please! Channel 19 is Cleveland’s amateur news station.
Report Post »I_am_a_53percenter
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 12:50pmI live in the Cleveland area. Jimmy Dimora (big time democrat and union supporter) is one of almost 20 some politicians and business people around Cleveland and Cuyahoga County to go to prison or stand trial. He is the only one so far who is pleading innocence while every one else took a plea bargain. The interesting thing is there are about 5 people in prison, who admitted guilt, who are going to testify against him.
The FBI investigated this corruption for a couple of years prior to raiding his home along with many others’ homes and businesses all on the same day at the same time. It took down the county auditor, one commissioner, school board members, city council members from several cities, several businessmen, etc.
Report Post »maccow
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 12:35pmWe can already see a bunch of Obama sock puppets on the MSM news shows. Debbie Warsherman Shultz, Chris Matthews, Joe Scarborough, just to name a few.
Report Post »Jaycen
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 12:30pmI think it’s funny. I’m so shocked someone from Kent State would be against revealing the corruption of Democratic Union supporters.
Report Post »JohnnyMidknight
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 12:01pmSee GBTV is changing the News! They are trying to create a BS of A style flair to the news now! LOL Brian Sacks should have Pumpernickel Boulevard Protest the News puppets! LMAO
Report Post »Lawrence7
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 11:50amWhy not? We have a puppet-in-chief delivering the state-of-the-union addresses. Puppets delivering the news just seems a natural extention of this phenomenon.
Report Post »mama.li
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 11:47amReminds me of Pumpernical Boulevard! Unfortunately, adults today understand this more than the understand “Real News.”
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 11:33amI wish they would replace Chrissy Matthews with a puppet… Hell he is a puppett of the DNC….
Report Post »RichNGadsden
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 12:01pmI could picture him as a rabid golden retriever. They have the same colored fur.
Report Post »Right Is Correct
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 11:27amLet’s use puppets for the political stuff. Anyone wanna guess who the sock puppet monkey would be?
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 11:36amUmm Barack Hussein Obama ?????
Report Post »MommyNeedsMoreCoffee
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 11:24amBrave programming director…I love it.
Now we need a Debbie Wasserman Schultz puppet.
Report Post »RichNGadsden
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 11:27amYou would have to get some of those Hollywood Special Effects horror monster masters to make her puppet.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 11:48am@mommy
Report Post »They already have one….. Miss Piggy !
copatriots
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 11:21amI’M STUNNED!!!! A politician on trial for bribery and racketeering. Could it really be? Say it isn’t so.
While I understand the lampoon, what a sign of the times that the best way to report on the absurdity is with puppets. The dumbing down and demoralization of America must, indeed, be complete.
Report Post »oldguy49
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 11:20ammsmbc
Report Post »randy
Posted on January 20, 2012 at 11:19amJust like the puppet show in washington
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