Placing talent at the right place, at the right time.
Name: Julianne Pelusi
Market: N/A
Current Station: N/A
Current Title: Sports Anchor/Reporter
Preferred Title: Sports Anchor/Reporter
Experience: 10 Years
Agent Name: Steve Koles
Agent Phone: (248) 545-2222
Agency: Mort Meisner Associates
Name: Brian Ojima
Market: #66
Current Station: KITV
Current Title: Sports Anchor
Preferred Title: Sports Anchor
Experience: 20+ Years
Agent Name: Steve Koles
Agent Phone: (248) 545-2222
Agency: Mort Meisner Associates
Name: Scott Koral
Market: N/A
Current Station: N/A
Current Title: N/A
Preferred Title: Anchor/Reporter
Experience: 20 Years
Agent Name: Steve Koles
Agent Phone: (248) 545-2222
Agency: Mort Meisner Associates
Name: Sam Ali
Market: #77
Current Station: WEYI/WSMH
Current Title: Sports Director
Preferred Title: Sports Anchor/Reporter
Experience: 10 Years
Agent Name: Steve Koles
Agent Phone: (248) 545-2222
Agency: Mort Meisner Associates
Name: Ashley Howard
Market: #22
Current Station: KOIN
Current Title: Lifestyle Host/Anchor
Preferred Title: Lifestyle Host/Anchor
Experience: 5 Years
Agent Name: Steve Koles
Agent Phone: (614) 598-5007
Agency: Mort Meisner Associates
Steve Koles has joined Mort Meisner Associates as an agent. Steve has deep experience as a News Executive and News Director for more than two decades and has previously served at the CBS Affiliates in both Columbus and Rochester.
Steve will be responsible for recruiting and representing new clients to the long-time, established agency for tv and news talent.
While Mort Meisner Associates is based in suburban Detroit, Steve will be based in upstate New York and will utilize his 25 years in the news industry to assist in the growth of the agency.
Mort Meisner has decades of experience as a top news executive and decision maker at legendary stations such as ABC Owned and Operated WLS in Chicago, CBS Owned and Operated WBBM in Chicago, FOX Owned and Operated WJBK in Detroit, ABC Owned and Operated WXYZ in Detroit, and NBC affiliate KSDK in St. Louis. Mort Meisner Associates is the premier agency in the United States for tv news talent. Mort’s team has more than 30 years of experience in one of the most difficult industries and has a reputation that is second-to-none.
To learn more please visit https://www.mortmeisner.com/mort-meisner/.
One of the most interesting aspects of Mort Meisner’s new memoir Enough to Be Dangerous is looking back at how sexism and racism thrived in the news industry in the 1980s.
It’s also one of the saddest.
First, because treating women and people of color as second class citizens was acceptable behavior. This always bothered Mort and he would not tolerate it in his newsroom.
But second, the latest news of allegations of sexism and racism at CBS shows that things hadn’t changed everywhere as much as we’d hoped they had. However, the quick response to it has.
For many of us, we felt a collective weight lifted from our shoulders in the last seven days. This past week instilled new hope and put at least a little of that proverbial skip back into our steps.
And in the midst of the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements back in 2018, it looked like CBS was ready to start cleaning up its act when they invited employees to report “sexual harassment, retaliation or the unfair treatment of women.”
But looks can be deceiving.
A year earlier, Margaret Cronan had walked away from a prestigious and high-paying position she loved at a CBS station in Philadelphia because she could no longer stomach the rampant sexism and racism. Especially coming from the President Peter Dunn and a top lieutenant who went to great lengths to bully female managers and block efforts to hire and retain Black journalists.
She stepped up to the plate to offer what she’d experienced. And when others offered allegations of serious misconduct, she was relieved that they would finally be exposed.
But it took until January 24th, 2021, to see justice served.
CBS can’t be accused of being completely in the dark ages.
Sure, Charlie Rose was fired three years ago amid allegations of sexual misconduct. CBS also gave other bigwigs the boot for abusive behavior. Furthermore, they now offer programs that prominently feature Black characters and have brought Black men and women into the folds as managers, news directors, and even executives.
Yet, despite the allegations, Dunn continued to run a chain of 28 CBS-owned TV stations that employ 2,800 workers. He ran a tight ship; with final say over which local anchors and reporters appeared on CBS. And you can bet that women and people of color were the vast minority.
One station of particular interest in these allegations has been KYW in Philadelphia. The station made a major move when they brought on Ukee Washington as lead evening anchor. He’d been with KYW for over 30 years and was Black. And his expertise and professionalism are what inspired Cronan to return to TV news.
Yet in a 2016 meeting, when Dunn asked about Washington’s transition to lead anchor, he said, “He’s not doing that ‘jive talking’ anymore? Sometimes, he’s just not speaking my language.”
Cronan was shocked.
As they set out to retool their morning lineup, Cronan remembers Dunn asking of a potential host if he was “too gay for Philadelphia.”
How could this possibly be happening in 2016? Why were these two men permitted to keep their job?
Finally, after a revealing article from the Los Angeles Times exposed both Dunn and senior vice president David Friend and the long line of allegations against them, they were required to take administrative leave.
It was much too long a time coming though.
During her time as news director, Cronan witnessed racism and experience verbal assaults – even being called a fucking idiot.
Cronan finally left her job as news director at KYW in 2017. “I no longer could tolerate a culture in which I was expected to defend corporate decisions that I found offensive,” Cronan told The Times.
And she wasn’t the only one.
Unfortunately for them, KYW has lost several prominent Black journalists. In 2015, Steve Patterson hit the bricks and headed over to the more receptive NBC News. In 2016, the stations’ only Black male reporter Justin Finch, also left to head over to NBC.
And Rahel Solomon is now at CNBC after leaving as KYW’s morning co-anchor. Dunn wouldn’t extend her contract. During a two-hour-plus phone call to discuss the matter, one of the objections he raised was that, “I hate her face.”
It’s vile, disgusting, appalling, and so incredibly shameful that this was allowed to happen for as long as it did. And despite the fact that these two key figures were finally relieved of their duties, Mort Meisner was heartbroken by it all.
Still, he can’t help but to feel that his continued fight against sexism and racism is making a difference. So he’ll continue to fight the good fight into 2021… and beyond.
That these allegations of sexism and racism at these specific stations is definitely disappointing. But we HAVE made progress since Mort’s days in the 1980s newsrooms.
To get a glimpse the ways Mort fought sexism and racism and refused to accept them as “business as usual,” grab a copy of Enough to Be Dangerous.
It’s an inspirational read during a time when things are finally looking up.
When Mort Meisner set out to write his memoir, Enough to Be Dangerous, he had no idea he’d gain a friend along the path.
Mort had some reservations about the first writer he commissioned to help him with the project. When the writer decided to depart to a foreign country with no explanation, those reservations were confirmed.
Feeling slighted, and justifiably so, he wasn’t in any rush to find someone new.
And as is so often the case, he would find what he was looking for when he wasn’t actually searching.
One morning, Mort went to his usual café to grab a coffee before work. A small group of friends was sitting on the patio; a group he nodded to and smiled at every morning. Being the quintessential “people person” that Mort is, he finally introduced himself.
They were warm and receptive and welcomed him to join them.
Among them was a former drug counselor, a musician, and… a writer. He felt he’d stumbled upon something really good. And he had. Not only would he cull some amazing bonds and friendships within the group, but he’d unwittingly stumbled upon the writer who would help him pen his memoir.
Mort was quick to form a connection with the writer, Stephanie Ruopp. He needed someone to write posts for both his agent business and cannabis marketing business blogs. She was happy to oblige.
Meanwhile, he joined the group each morning before work for coffee. And as his professional relationship and personal friendship with Steph continued to grow, it dawned on him that she could be the one to help him with his story.
He asked if that would be something of interest and she was open to the opportunity. They decided upon a trial run to see if they “clicked” well during the writing process.
They did.
Steph soon discovered that Mort had a wealth of amazing stories about his life in the news industry and as a rock and roll promoter. They were stories that would wow people at parties. And they would certainly be a great part of the book.
But there had to be more than just those.
Steph noticed that Mort also talked frequently about the “funny” things his father said to him as a child about being lazy or generally worthless. Except they weren’t funny at all. They were cruel.
From the memoir:
My dad was clearly depressed. I see it now. But as a child and teenager, he just seemed crazy and out of control. Even in later years after we left Detroit to live in the suburbs, he sometimes got very dark and headed to the attic. First he pulled down the creaky stairs, then he began to heft his heavy body up them.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I’m going up to the attic to hang myself,” he responded. “Do you want to come?”
I always laughed. But it wasn’t funny.
There was also physical abuse. And though the relationship with his mother was marginally better, there was verbal abuse on her part as well. All of this, while growing up in poor Detroit neighborhoods in the racially tense 1960s.
These were the stories that also needed to be in the book. But it was tough.
As Mort began to convey more of these stories to Steph, those old feelings from childhood crept back in and surfaced. It was as if he were experiencing the trauma all over again. And to some extent, he was.
Obviously, Mort found it difficult to share the stories about his parents and the abuse he suffered during childhood. Yet Steph kept gently encouraging him to explore those stories and include them in the memoir. After all, they were an inherent part of Mort’s life story and pivotal in making him the person he became.
He had to agree.
There was another aspect of his life he wasn’t sure he was ready to share, however. In fact, he didn’t know that he ever wanted to share it. And that was his cocaine use.
It was something he hadn’t yet disclosed to his adult children.
Meanwhile, as the months wore on, Steph and Mort continued to grow their friendship – meeting with the group every morning for coffee. He continued to support her and connect her with others who needed her writing services, and she, in turn, used her training as a life coach and yoga instructor to offer ways for Mort to cope with his dark past so they could keep forging ahead.
They trusted each other implicitly. And this made their collaboration all the easier.
Eventually, Mort told his children about his cocaine use and included it in the book. It was agonizing at times and he struggled with the usual feelings of shame and regret. But as is often the case with such admissions, it was also incredibly liberating.
Mort and Steph had no idea what to expect as they embarked on the journey to write Mort’s memoir nearly two years ago. And there have certainly been plenty of other valuable players along the way that were essential in making the book a reality.
But at the end of the day, working together to tell Mort’s story enabled them to forge a solid and enduring friendship. Even now, in the freezing cold of winter in the middle of this pandemic, it’s not unusual to find that same small group, bundled up, seated six feet apart, and drinking coffee in a tent.
And central among them are Mort and Steph – forever grateful for their bond that can never be broken.
If you’re interested in reading the fruits of Mort’s and Steph’s labor of love, pick up a copy of Enough to Be Dangerous today.
You can purchase it from independent sellers such as Paper Trail Books in Royal Oak or Book Beat in Oak Park. You can also purchase it on Amazon.
It’s the perfect read for over the holidays!
When Mort Meisner set out to write his memoir, Enough to Be Dangerous, he never dreamed he’d one day be interviewed on television’s Extra about it.
It makes sense though.
His memoir tackles the timely issues of racism and sexism that thrived for the decades he worked in the news industry. In his interview, Mort discusses how disgusted he was by these and what he did to change antiquated policies and ways of thinking.
But this is just part of what he highlights in his new memoir.
It was Mort’s memoir, Enough to Be Dangerous, that caught the attention of producers in Hollywood at Extra. They were impressed by the depth of his life and its many facets.
For example, the second chapter is entitled “Plenty of Crazy to Go Around.” And it sets the stage for the harsh childhood Mort would face:
Although white residents would say that Detroit experienced its glory days during the 1950s and early 1960s, the neighborhoods where I grew up were far from glorious. Even though they were predominantly white, they were not reaping the rewards of post-war prosperity.
And it was becoming ever more clear that racial intolerance bred by ignorance in these neighborhoods lent itself seamlessly to religious intolerances as well. Hatred toward Black people was incomprehensible to me; they’d done nothing wrong to me or my family. Instead, I began to see the enemy as white “greasers,” like the four teenagers who attacked my mother.
Sadly, the dangerous neighborhood had nothing on what I’d come to call the House of Horrors – our home, the place where a child should feel safe.
It’s hard to reconcile that the confident and successful man that is Mort Meisner today could have come from such a dismal background. It was one that would drive him to drug use later in his life.
Yet in some ways, the insecurity, abuse, and unpredictability he experienced as a child would also help prepare him for the often ruthless and unforgiving news industry.
And one that was more than peppered with racism and sexism.
Over the course of the two years Mort spent working on his memoir, the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements picked up tremendous speed.
So it seemed all too appropriate that he highlight what he did to battle racism and sexism in the book. Chapter 10 is entitled, “A Racist Label: The Garbage Men,” and it goes into detail the practice of rooting out Black men in TV news and giving them only the bottom-of-the-barrel stories.
While the sexism was usually a bit more covert than that, it was alive and well in many aspects of the industry as well. Throughout the memoir, Mort recalls all of these situations with disgust and a drive to enact change.
Upon reading his stories, you’ll see that in many cases, he was tremendously successful.
The exciting thing about Mort’s appearance on Extra – besides having the opportunity to share his amazing story with a wider audience – is that he’s not a celebrity, per se.
While he was well known in the world of news broadcasting, his story basically profiles how a “regular” guy can experience the same ups and downs as a celebrity.
From his wild music days and struggle with a cocaine addiction, to raising a family at home while raising hell at work, his is a story that entertains the entire way through.
And it was all of these factors that landed him on Extra.
As of now, Mort is scheduled to appear on Extra on December 10th, 12th, and 13th. This could change, however, if something happens in the celebrity world and his interview gets bumped.
So be sure to check with their website to get the full details on times, dates, and which affiliate stations in your area will be broadcasting it.
If you want to grab a copy of the book before the interview, you can do so by clicking here.
And to keep up to date on all of the events surrounding Enough to Be Dangerous, be sure to subscribe to our blog.
Last week on 60 Minutes, former President Barack Obama spoke with wisdom and insight so many of us have come to miss.
He spoke of the disturbing fact that 71 million people voted for a man with whom he feels he has absolutely nothing in common. But he made an important point:
“The voters are divided. It has now become a contest where issues, facts, policies per se don’t matter as much as identity and wanting to beat the other guy. You know, that’s taken priority. I do think the current media environment adds to that greatly. This democracy doesn’t work if we don’t have an informed citizenry.”
In his new memoir, Enough to Be Dangerous, Mort Meisner talks extensively about the responsibility media has in educating the public – at both the national and local level.
And doing so with FACTS.
In Mort’s book, he recalls one of the biggest stories he would cover.
In terms of notoriety, the biggest story of my career was the Tonya Harding/Nancy Kerrigan attack. The story made international and national headlines.
It’s what came later that made this story so unbelievable, so crazy, so bizarre that Tanya Harding’s gang of cretins had actually plotted to whack Olympic figure skater Nancy Kerrigan in the knees with a baton during a competition at Detroit’s Cobo Hall in January of 1994.
At the time, Detroit Police Chief Ike McKinnon remained Mort’s source on every aspect of the story. With McKinnon’s intelligence and the mad skills of investigative reporter Scott Lewis, Mort’s CBS affiliate station in Detroit was uncovering the whole twisted plot while national and international media circles couldn’t figure out how they were getting the story before everyone else.
In fact, they were breaking news on the case before every station and network in the country. It got to the point that when the CBS network questioned the veracity of the crazy story and asked Mort for his sources, he refused.
They threatened to not broadcast the story, to which Mort simply responded, “Fine. Don’t use the story.” When CBS turned it down, Mort gave it to NBC instead. Even though they were the competition, he knew it was crucial the information got out there.
So being able to get right into the thick of it at the local level gave them a distinct advantage. And they were able to uncover the true story.
Ike McKinnon, a social warrior himself, was only one among Mort’s many connections that helped him get to the bottom of a story.
While working at ABC in Chicago, a fire started in the lavatory of an Air Canada flight that spread between the outer skin and inner panels of the plane. It was required to make an emergency landing.
From the book:
Ninety seconds after the plane landed, the doors were opened. The heat of the fire in combination with the fresh oxygen from the open exit doors created dangerous flashover conditions. The plane’s interior was immediately engulfed in flames – killing 23 passengers who had not yet been evacuated.
Mort had a source at the Federal Aviation Administration who provided him with these horrifying facts. Yet, the national newscasts were reporting there were few or no injuries.
But our local news was reporting otherwise with the data we had. In other words, we were reporting the facts and not fake news. This underscores the importance of having impeccable sources. Especially now, when a lot of bad information is getting rolled out as factual.
All of it gives one pause to wonder how much of what we’re hearing is actually true.
Mort’s objective was to always uncover the facts and present them with integrity and truth. Unfortunately, not every person in the media sees it this way.
In the hopeful words of President Obama from 60 Minutes:
“I think we’re gonna have to work with the media… to find ways to inform the public better about the issues and to– bolster the standards that ensure we can separate truth from fiction. I think that we have to work at a local level.
When you start getting to the local level, mayors– county commissioners, et cetera, they’ve actually gotta make real decisions. It’s not abstractions. It’s like, “We need to fix this road. We need to get this snow plowed. We need to make sure our kids have a safe playground to– to– to play in.”
And at that level, I don’t think people have that kind of– visceral hatred. And that’s where we have to start in terms of rebuilding the social trust we need for democracy to work.”
Mort couldn’t agree more.
Has Mort’s story piqued your interest? Then be sure to pick up a copy of his memoir. You’ll be entertained, inspired, and even a little bit aghast at times.
It’s an interesting ride, to be sure.
You can purchase the book and support a small and local establishment by clicking here. Or if you’d rather, order on Amazon.
