In late October, 2008, when the MSM was completing their coronation of Barack Obama and his comedy sidekick, Joe Biden, one TV reporter in the entire country was brave enough to ask the questions America really wanted answered, and Team Obama was afraid to answer.
Barbara West of WFTV, the ABC affiliate in Orlando had a 5-minute satellite interview with Joe Biden. Rather than lob him softballs as reporters around the country were doing, she dug into the core issues of the campaign. She asked Obama’s VP candidate if he was embarrassed by ACORN’s work for the Democratic ticket in registering voters such as “Mickey Mouse;” if Obama’s comment about “spreading the wealth” was close to Marxism; and if Obama’s plans would create a socialist country like Sweden.
Rather than simply answering the questions, Biden went ballistic. He derided West for daring to ask such questions, refused to answer some and even cut WFTV off from an interview with Mrs. Biden (such a loss!)
As we all know, West’s questions were spot on. We live in a country more socialist than Sweden with government-run car companies, government-run banks, government-run Wall Street, government-run healthcare, unemployment driven through the roof by the complete failure of government economic plans, and worst of all, trillions of dollars of taxpayer money squandered on Obama’s plans, his friends and his far-far-left social engineering plans.
To give you an idea about how spot-on her questions were, can you imagine what would have happened if Biden had been honest in ANY interview about their plans to destroy America in a socialist economic quagmire, or the President’s support of a mosque on the site of our worst national terrorist tragedy?
The station’s far-left wing management had to wait almost two years to strike back, but now they have.
West has anchored the noon and 5:30 shows for almost 20 years. Hers is the number one rated show in her timeslot by a landslide. Her accomplishment include raising more 25,000 units of blood in blood drives, raising millions of dollars for local charities, being voted the best newscast in America and winning the Edward R. Morrow Award and multiple Emmys. Her 25 years of health reporting has saved many lives. She has a history of breaking important stories. As an example of her credentials, she was the ONLY Western reporter to get into the control room at Chernobyl. 10 years after the devastating nuclear accident there.
More than anything else, her dedication was shown in what she did for the families of the firefighters and police officers who died on 9-11. While some organizations raised ten or twenty thousand dollars, Barbara rallied her viewers to contribute more than two and a half million dollars for the widows and orphans. Thank about it. When some huge cities raised a few hundred thousand dollars, in Orlando, Florida, Barbara West’s viewers responded to her appeals and raised twenty times that much! That’s how important, and how respected Barbara West is in Orlando.
In a move leaked to the local newspaper Monday, station management has removed West from her 5:30 newscast with a replacement 30 years younger. Rather than West’s experience, viewers will now get a “perky” newsreader.
If you think the station shouldn’t penalize reporters who dared ask the questions you wanted answered, that no one else would ask, and America should have known the answers to BEFORE the election, then make your voice heard. The local Obamaites crowd is having fun insulting her at the Orlando Sentinel website. Make your POLITE voice heard at http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2010/08/wftv-barbara-west-coming-off-530-news.html#comments by clicking the “add a comment” section at the bottom of the article.
She was the best broadcasting community asset there ever was, amd now they want to throw her under the bus.
She was there for us. Will we be there for her?
One MSM reporter in the entire country was willing to work hard to bring the truth about Obama to the public, and now her far-left station is trying to take her voice off the air. What will you do to help?
Can you believe this crap?
We really know that freedom of the press has gone the way of the Dodo bird.
Sheesh.
Uh, huh.
This is breaking news? Won't be for long....
Under President Bush,children were starving. Now under obama the same children are obese. What a wise choice the people made when they selected the messiah!
This is what I posted in the comments section of the article:
“In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.” George Orwell
In this sense Barbara West is a ‘revolutionary’, because she dared to ask the deceitful Joe Biden to tell the “socialist” truth. Is she one of “the last honest reporters” that Orson Scott Card talks about here?:
Would the Last Honest Reporter Please Turn On the Lights? By Orson Scott Card http://www.ornery.org/essays/warwatch/2008-10-05-1.html
Reply Posted by: Matchett-pi | Tuesday, August 17, 2010 at 9:13 AM
http://blogs.orlandosentinel.com/entertainment_tv_tvblog/2010/08/wftv-barbara-west-coming-off-530-news.html/comment-page-1#comment-105098
As it turns out, WFTV is owned by Cox Broadcasting, the left-wing newspaper and media company (its founder, ‘Rat Governor James Cox of Ohio, owned the Dayton Daily News, and was the ‘Rat nominee for President in 1920 (FDR was his running mate) versus Warren Harding.
Cox is probably best known for its cable TV systems these days, but its flagship newspaper currently is the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (aka Urinal and Constipation”).
I’m guessing that an executive at Cox got a phone call from someone, possibly in the WH or in the office of FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski. Also, WFTV’s license renewal application must be filed on October 1, 2012.
What a shame. Barbara is the best!