{"id":4911,"date":"2014-09-13T06:00:12","date_gmt":"2014-09-13T11:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.robertfeder.com\/?p=4911"},"modified":"2014-09-13T06:03:36","modified_gmt":"2014-09-13T11:03:36","slug":"fox-32-bails-out-on-anchor-adrift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/2014\/09\/13\/fox-32-bails-out-on-anchor-adrift\/","title":{"rendered":"Fox 32 bails out on anchor adrift"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Alexa<\/a>

<\/a> Alexa Helms<\/p><\/div>\n

Even by the minimal standards for news anchors these days at\u00a0WFLD-Channel 32,<\/a>\u00a0poor Alexa Helms just couldn\u2019t cut it.<\/p>\n

Three months after she was plucked from the Fox affiliate in Miami and hired <\/a>as a weekend and fill-in anchor at the Fox-owned station here, Helms has been taken off the anchor desk and moved to full-time reporting duties, according to station insiders.<\/p>\n

Until a permanent replacement is named, Lisa Chavarria, Melody Mendez and Tisha Lewis will rotate filling in on Fox 32\u2019s Saturday and Sunday newscasts alongside Larry Yellen.<\/p>\n

It would be unconscionably cruel to recount the multitude of mistakes Helms made during her brief tenure as anchor. She clearly lacked the performance skills, journalistic experience or knowledge of current events to handle the job when Fox 32 news director Tom Doerr brought on the Dallas native and 2009 graduate of the University of Oklahoma.<\/p>\n

\"Larry<\/a>

Larry Yellen and Lisa Chavarria<\/p><\/div>\n

Staffers were mystified as to why Doerr hired Helms after just two years as a general assignment reporter at WSVN-TV in Miami. Before that she\u2019d worked for a couple of stations in El Paso, Texas. Perhaps it was the three months she\u2019d spent as a news intern for Fox 32 in 2008 that made her return to the station such a compelling story.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m thrilled to officially announce my new position as weekend anchor at WFLD Fox 32 Chicago,\u201d Helms posted on Instagram<\/a> June 12 \u2014 more than two weeks after I first reported <\/a>her hiring. \u201cAfter interning at this very station in college it feels great to be back in the #WindyCity! Thank you to everyone who has congratulated me. Restaurant recommendations and winter tips are welcome!\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not clear how long Helms will stay on since even her work as a reporter requires constant writing assistance, insiders said. (OK, I\u2019ll admit I did enjoy her piece the other night on how to escape<\/a> if you\u2019re locked inside the trunk of a car. Great visuals!)<\/p>\n

Helms\u2019 Los Angeles-based agent, Ken Lindner, did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Even by the minimal standards for news anchors these days at\u00a0WFLD-Channel 32,\u00a0poor Alexa Helms just couldn\u2019t cut it. Three months after she was plucked from the Fox affiliate in Miami and hired as a weekend and fill-in anchor at the Fox-owned station here, Helms has been taken off the anchor desk and moved to full-time... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4911"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4921,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4911\/revisions\/4921"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4911"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4911"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4911"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}