I'm back

It's amazing what happens when you're away. WNEP's new owners take out the big red pen and start crossing out names and jobs on Montage Mountain and at other former NYT stations. Nexstar Broadcasting fans the flames of scuttlebutt that it will sell its TV stations, including WBRE and WYOU. And former WYOU reporter Gabrielle Prutisto gets a settlement that's worth more than all of my belongings combined. And people tell me you can't make money in television news!

I never thought I would just walk away from this blog, but I did, and I think all of you deserve to know why: I had to. I won't go into specifics here, but let's just say that a breakdown of sorts nearly happened, which sucked away at my love for my line of work. It became difficult for me to walk into the newsroom, and tell myself that something positive would result, because the end result was the same stuff I've criticized: lame stories, horrible writing, idiotic management, etc.

And despite my best efforts to push my work, and the work of others, towards the well-written, insightful work that television news should produce, it was the same old thing. And when I would go home and update this blog, it was the same old thing. "WNEP can't write its way out of a paper bag!" "WBRE wouldn't know a good story if it smacked it in the face!" "WYOU...well, WYOU!"

Perhaps I'm just stubborn, but I'd like to remain in television news. For better or worse, it's what I do. I even turned down a PR job with the state, just so I could stay in my line of work. Dedication or stupidity? I'll leave it up to you. Regardless, I realized that I couldn't be a journalist and be Howard Beale all at the same time. I needed to get away. With that, I walked away, and never said a word.

That was a big mistake.

Even though this blog attracted the mudslingers and trolls that made my job as Howard Beale hard, it also attracted real insight, from the people who bring you the news, to the people who watch the news, and everything in between. It was refreshing for me to hear people point out what was right, and what was wrong, about television news in the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton market. I'd rarely hear that in the newsroom, as either people were too scared to go against the grain, or their noses were up someone's you-know-what to even care.

Beale's Bites serves a bigger purpose than as a medium for me to rant and rave about my job. It gives people a forum to say what they couldn't otherwise say about the news in this market. Few stations or newspapers want to give people an open forum to call them out on bad decisions or other goofs. That's where this blog came in. And even if the tip box goes dry, which it sometimes does, I think Beale's Bites is just too important to sit around and collect dust.

I'm still mad as hell. I'm still not going to take it anymore. But now, I'm sorry as hell for leaving.