WEWS, the Cleveland ABC affiliate that first interviewed Charles Ramsey, the neighbor who helped rescue the kidnapped Cleveland women, is apologizing to viewers for reporting on Ramsey’s criminal past.

TO OUR READERS & FOLLOWERS: We heard you. Wednesday night, we made a poor judgment call in posting a story about Charles Ramsey’s criminal record and how he’s since reformed. While the story was factually sound, the timing of it and publication of such information was not in good taste, and we regret it. Your comments prompted us to quickly remove the story from our website and Facebook page, but we know we can’t erase what we’ve already done. Ramsey is a hero for his actions, and we recognize that. Thank you so much for your feedback.

The station posted the apology on its Facebook page. As of this writing, 54,278 1,866 people had liked the post. But one commenter replied,

You realize that by posting this you’re basically telling all of Facebook that Charles Ramsey has a criminal background – Again.

[Broadcasting & Cable]

We reported yesterday about Charles Ramsey‘s interview with Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS.

That interview with the man who helped free the first Cleveland kidnap victim has been making the social media rounds and has already been autotuned a few times. So it was only a matter of time until Taiwanese animation house Next Media Animation gave it their own special treatment. Watch and learn.

There are a lot of unanswered questions in the case of three missing women who were rescued Monday in Cleveland, but we know at least one thing about the alleged kidnapper: he is a fan of WKYC weekend anchor Lynna Lai.

Lai, who joined WKYC from rival WOIO last year, discovered yesterday that she is one of just 55 friends the suspect, Ariel Castro, has on Facebook.

“Crazy — I’m FB friends with suspect Ariel Castro. Who knew???” Lai wrote on her personal Facebook page. “Just so you know – I accept friend requests from all viewers, so I don’t actually know him. What a surreal day!”

America, meet Charles Ramsey.

Ramsey was interviewed live at around 7:20 p.m. by John Kosich, a reporter for the Cleveland ABC affiliate WEWS, after he and another man freed Amanda Berry. Berry went missing ten years ago and her discovery turned up two more missing women — Michelle Knight and Gina DeJesus — along with a small child. While Ramsey is being hailed as a hero for his actions, it’s his use of words that’s gaining an equal amount of attention.

Kosich told TVspy, “My main concern is he had just dropped a s*^t bomb on me during the taped part so I was admittedly ready to quickly pull the mic when we were live.” Kosich added, “I’ve learned over the years when you find someone like [him] just let them go and try to stay out of the way.” You can read the transcript of the interview posted on the WEWS site after the jump. Read more

Three Ohio women who went missing between 2000 and 2004 were found at a house in Cleveland Monday evening, prompting local stations to devote primetime programming to the breaking news.

WOIO‘s Ed Gallek was the first to report the news during the 6 p.m. newscast, at 6:23 p.m. Ramona Robinson and Denise Dufala anchored coverage for the CBS affiliate, which partially preempted “Evening News with Scott Pelley” for local coverage. Tiffany Tucker reported from the scene for WOIO.

NBC affiliate WKYC and Fox affiliate WJW both reported the news during their respective 7 p.m. newscasts. Robin Swoboda and Jim Donovan anchored on WKYC, which was first at 7 p.m. sharp, and Bill Martin anchored for WJW, which was next at 7:07 p.m.

• Related, TVNewser: ‘The Race Is On’ to Book Rescued Cleveland Women

ABC affiliate WEWS broke into “Let’s Ask America” with the news at 7:18 p.m. Chris Flanagan anchored, with Stephanie Ramirez and John Kosich, who nabbed one of the notable interviews of the night, reporting from the scene.

Arbitron has settled its lawsuit with Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC.

The radio ratings service sued WKYC in January for using Arbitron data in an ad campaign with the internet music service Pandora without authorization. The suit was for copyright infringement, trademark infringement and false designation of origin under the Lanham Act.

According to Arbitron, WKYC agreed to settle for an undisclosed sum. The Gannett NBC affiliate also agreed,

“not to engage in any activities that would infringe Arbitron’s intellectual property rights in its data, information, and audience estimates. Arbitron agreed not to pursue legal action against WKYC-TV as long as it complies with the terms of the settlement agreement.”

Dustin Wadsworth is joining Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC as assistant news director, according to the station’s Director’s Cut blog.

Wadsworth comes to Cleveland from WMAR, the ABC affiliate in Baltimore. Wadsworth has worked at WMAR for 12 years in a variety of roles, including executive news producer and most recently director of new media.

“We were determined to find a leader in digital news, someone who can help guide our overall editorial direction while making our social media, mobile and online channels top priorities, ” news director Brennan Donnellan said in a statement.

As our sister site TVNewser has been reporting, there has been a media pile-on about the future of NBC’s “Today” — and specifically co-host Matt Lauer — this week. On Tuesday, an executive producer at Cleveland Fox affiliate WJW asked weekend anchor Mark Zinni, who interned at “Today” in 1997, for his take on the situation.

Zinni responded that Lauer was “not so nice” to him while he was there. The producer, Darren Sweeney, tweeted the quote, using Lauer’s twitter handle. And that’s where the snowball effect began. On Wednesday, Lauer responded:

@markzinni huh? Always tried to be nice Mark. Sorry you didn’tthink so. Hope you’re doing well.Matt

— Matt Lauer (@MLauer) March 27, 2013

Thursday, Zinni appeared on WJW to address the situation (video here). Zinni also set the record straight on WJW’s website, saying he’s not disgruntled:

If you know me, you probably know that I don’t take myself too seriously. So, my answer was more of a joke about being young and naive during my time at Today, but I added that he wasn’t nice to me.

I didn’t slam the guy, I just made an honest comment.

[...] Bottom line, I was shocked Matt Lauer even bothered with me and, really, he remembers me? I’m flattered.

I’m not disgruntled (thanks, BuzzFeed!) but I am someone who’s happy to be working at the best station in my hometown with wonderful people. By the way, Katie [Couric] and Ann [Curry] were great, but now I start my day with FOX 8 News in the Morning.

Melissa Mack, who signed off from WBZ in Boston last week, is joining WJW in Cleveland, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reports.

Mack will be the meteorologist for WJW’s 4 p.m. newscast, which will debut on the Fox affiliate this fall. It is a return to the station for Mack, who worked at WJW from 2006-09 before joining WBZ.

Mack has also worked at WYTV in Youngstown, Ohio and WTAP in Parkersburg, W.V.

A.J. Ross is joining Cleveland NBC affiliate WKYC on April 15, according to the station’s Director’s Cut blog.

Ross will be a multimedia journalist at WKYC. She comes from Pittsburgh, where she was most recently a freelance reporter for ABC affiliate WTAE and the New Pittsburgh Courier.

Ross has also worked at WSYX in Columbus as a reporter for the evening newscasts and at WMBF in Myrtle Beach, S.C. as a reporter and anchor.