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.
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The people he ridicules have long since learned to disregard anything Lieberman says.
His blog is for fans/non-fans of Bay Area TV (mostly) and radio (sparingly). Not for the folks who work within it.
I’m sure it’s difficult for the media members to read —criticism is always a hard pill to swallow. Lieberman, however harsh, seems to hit the nail on the head every time. He also seems to scoop everyone else in the business.
Maybe so, but everyone in every newsroom in the Market reads him. Trust me.
The problem with him runs way deeper. I’ll explain:
Cutting to the chase, he is a jealous and bitter man. He laments the fact that he was never successful as a media personality in the Bay Area. Sure, he dabbled in radio, appeared in a commercial, was a panelist on local TV round tables (no pun intended) and was given a platform on the, then SF Chronicle affiliated, SF Gate as one of their “City Brights,” a local blogging section. A position he was fired from because of the misuse of a 49ers media credential. A lot of the players in SF media then turned their backs on him.
Shortly thereafter, he got bitter and began to take aim at the local media via his blog. But that was disingenuous because in the meantime, he was sending emails to local media personalities and producers begging to be a part of their shows and/or letting him on-air. When that didn’t work, the toxicity really started. He would, unethically, write emails to local media personalities offering up a quid pro quo, vis a vie favorable coverage in his blog in exchange for airtime (I have seen/read these emails. They’re bad). On more than one occasion when he didn’t get what he wanted, he went scorched earth in his blog against an on-air talent and the show this person was on. Not a good look.
Rich Lieberman is a disgrace. He is a bitter, name-calling, misogynist who deserves all the backlash and professional downfalls that have come his way. I haven’t even gotten into the way he tries to throw his weight around at local eating/drinking establishments. Restaurant managers and bartenders hate him. Where he drinks locally, I think it’s because he’s cheap and loud. On multiple occasions he will post false blind items about alleged affairs or trysts between people in the same newsroom, but it’s all lies. One time he made a reference alluding to a “romantic scandal and how it happened at a local restaurant. So I asked the bartender (friend of mine) who was, or would have been working the day and time Rich wrote about it and it never happened. They were incredibly upset that he used their establishment and vowed to not serve him if he ever came in.
I don’t read him as much now, because he is just so damn negative. You can tell he’s a sad man in his posts. It feels dirty watching someone’s mental health decline right before your eyes. Furthermore, and this is his right, he deletes any critical comment about him or his content, in the comment section. Glass houses, I guess. Plus, his comment section reads like the scribbling of patients at a metal hospital. Racist, bigoted, ultra right wing whack jobs who are screaming into the void. These people make the YouTube and Yahoo! comment sections sound sane. Almost.
In closing, while people in newsrooms read him, his words carry a lot less weight than they did when he first started. I actually liked his City Brights blogs. But now, if you’re a masochist, go ahead and click on415 Media. But when you read his words, take them with a pound of salt.
Not the place to go if you want to know… what’s right/if there’s anything that’s good …about Bay Area media.