Michael Scott vamoosh

Here's a link to my story in today's metro section about the sudden departure of Michael Scott, co-anchor on what was, until recently, Kansas City's highest rated newscast.

We don't normally address rumors in the print edition, which is a good thing, but since we're just one click away from salacious rumors regarding Scott's departure — and since I think we can all agree that someone who tapes a show for airing on Sunday expects to still be employed there as of the show's broadcast — I will add a couple of items here.

Let me reprint this entry from Scott's blog that I found on the KCTV5 web site Friday, because by the time you read this, it will be gone:

Michael Supports NEWHOUSE

Dec 8, 2005 04:21 PM Dec 8, 2005 04:21 PM

Why would "I" get involved with a domestic violence shelter? In the last 15 years, that's a question I get asked a lot. When I was single my friends would tease me that it was just another way for me to meet women, but trust me it's a lot more than that.

In fact the answer is real simple. I now have a wife, a mother, two sisters, female friends, female co-workers, and not one of them deserves to live in fear of a beating.

 

No one - man or   woman - should be a victim of domestic violence, and that's why I work with NEWHOUSE, "a new beginning for abused women." This past November, my co-anchor Karen Fuller and I co-hosted NEWHOUSE's fund-raising auction. According to the folks in charge, it was a great success.

 

That night, we all heard some frightening and touching stories from women, many with children, who had to escape from nightmarish relationships and now struggling with NEWHOUSE's help to get their lives back together.

 

The stories are numerous. On my own visits to the shelter, one woman told me about how her husband had her on the kitchen floor and stomped her in the face with steel-toe work shoes. I commented that he treated her like a dog. She said, "I wish." She went on to tell me that she was "jealous" of how well her husband treated their dog.

 

Here's some disturbing info from the NEWHOUSE Web site:

 

*   "Nearly 1/3 of American women report being physically abused by a husband or   boyfriend in the past year" 

* "More than three women are murdered by their husbands or boyfriends in this country every day"

* "324,000 pregnant women a year experience intimate partner violence"

* "One in five female high school students reports being physically and/or sexually abused by a dating partner"

 

If those numbers don't shake you up, then you've got no soul. For you others out there, domestic violence has got to stop, and you can help. Confront a woman if you think she's being abused. Get her the number for a shelter or crisis hotline. Find the shelters in your community. Donate your time and/or your money. Remember that, in many cases, "children" are witnessing these acts of violence and in some instances can also be victims of physical abuse.

 

We are supposedly a civilized society, its time we start acting like one.

                               

I find this an interesting document for two reasons. First, it presents an image of Scott as concerned about women's welfare, one that would seem to contradict the image his enemies were presenting on other websites on Friday as news of his firing spread. And yet, second, one can't overlook Scott's opening remark about his own motives ... a remark we can all agree is, at best, ill-considered.

With that in mind, I pass along this email I got this morning from a female reader:

"Michael Scott lasted a lot longer than he should have. His on-air remarks to Katie and Karen were terrible. And I seriously doubt that he was the reason more people watched kctv5 news.  I watch tv5 more because I like the other reporters.  Him being there was the price I had to pay in order to see the other folks. 

"Had he been a white man making those remarks to two black women it would have made news around the world and he probably would have been fired at the end of the broadcast. So whatever the reason is for him being gone, it did not come too soon."

Finally, Mrs. TV Barn reminded me of something from my appearance on the KSMO public affairs show a while back. I was brought on to talk about the arrival of Katie Couric at CBS.  I thought Scott, my interviewer, ended the segment well, quoting a Tim Goodman column about the state of TV news -- in fact, the quote stuck with me and I wound up using it in a later piece.  But earlier in the segment, Scott made a comment about Couric not wearing dresses anymore and the fact that men were going to miss that ... which I had no rejoinder to on the air and which outraged my wife when she heard it.

None of this corroborates what has only been rumored. But if this is what viewers see on the air, the best you can hope for Scott's sake is that he was better behaved off the air.