When news broke last week that David Petraeus was resigning his post as CIA director after having an affair, at least one newsroom staffer in Tampa had an inkling the market could become a focal point in the scandal.

“When the Petraeus resignation story broke nationally last Friday, a senior reporter in the newsroom remarked it’s just a matter of time before this becomes a Tampa story,” WTSP news director Peter Roghaar told TVSpy. “He was spot on.”

Sure enough, over the weekend, Tampa socialite Jill Kelley emerged as a central figure in the scandal, which continues to unfold even six days later. For WTSP, that means taking a two-pronged approach to local and national coverage.

“We have seven reporters actively reporting on-air, plus several more reporters and producers working off-air making calls, gathering documents and checking with sources,” Roghaar said. Read more

WTLV sports director Dan Hicken, who has been covering sports for the Jacksonville NBC-affiliate since the 80s, delivered an angry on-air rant against Bob Costas and NBC during a recent newscast after the network’s Olympic coverage ran long and bumped the start of East Coast affiliates’ late newscasts well past midnight (video above).

“Bob, when it’s 12 o’clock, you say Goodnight,” Hicken yelled at the beginning of his sports update, which began at 12:31 a.m.  “You don’t care because you’re sleeping right now.”

Tampa’s WTSP is partnering up with PolitiFact to produce fact-checking segments during the 2012 election, the station announced today.

“The content from the PolitiFact team fuels Tampa Bay voters with important information to make voting decisions,” WTSP president and general manager Ken Tonning said in a statement. “PolitiFact is sometimes entertaining, and always informative.”

PolitiFact, which is operated by the Tampa Bay Times, will partner with WTSP to “scour  hours of 2012 campaign speeches and TV ads for statements to check.” In addition to focusing on the Presidential campaign, the teams will also fact-check Florida governor Rick Scott and Tampa mayor Bob Buckhorn. Read more

Like so many of your fellow local newsers, if you love the cult classic “Anchorman,” then you may want to head to Jacksonville, Florida this weekend.

In the spirit of the film, numerous Jax TV,  print, and radio newsrooms–including folks from WJXT, WTEV-WAWS, and First Coast News–are fielding teams to face off in tomorrow’s News Room Street Fight.  Journos will participate in a charity dodge ball tournament to benefit the Jacksonville Police Athletic League, with special appearances by Jacksonville Jaguars players Eben Britton and Rashad Jennings , and Ron Burgundy himself (sorry, no Will Ferrell – it’ll be a local actor dressed up).

Street Fight co-organizer Melissa Ross, a WJCT-FM anchor and former WOFL anchor, says that “since no one can forget the trident in the ‘Anchorman’ fight scene, an authentic golden trident trophy will be awarded to the winning news team!” Read more

Katherine Green, a local news veteran who served as news director of WTTG in Washington, DC and WBAL in Baltimore before joining CNN, has been named senior vice president at HLN.

Since 2008, Green has been based in Atlanta as the senior vice president of programming for CNN International.

She started her television career as a reporter at WTLV in Jacksonville and later moved behind the camera to producing. She’s been an EP at WFLA (NBC) in Tampa and news director at WBAL (NBC) in Baltimore. In 1998, Green made the jump to Fox owned-and-operated WTTG, where she served as news director for 10 years before joining CNN.

Read more at TVNewser

Anchors Donna Deegan and Shannon Ogden took time out of a recent WTLV newscast to criticize the negative reaction some in the Jacksonville community have had to the city’s NFL team being sold to a Pakistani man.

Earlier this week, news broke that Shahid Khan, an American businessman born in Pakistan, had agreed to buy the Jacksonville Jaguars.  Following the news, people took to social media–including First Coast News’ Facebook page–and linked Khan to terrorism based on his heritage.

“As I’ve watch some of those comments come in,” Deegan, a Jacksonville native, said, “I could feel my whole chest just getting tight.” Video inside… Read more

In a move that had been anticipated for weeks but is no less debilitating, the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office removed police scanners from local newsrooms last week.

In announcing their decision to remove the scanners back in July, the police department cited their own budgetary considerations.  But many feel that it was done in an effort to limit the media’s access to police communications.

For the past several years, Jacksonville media outlets have rented scanners from the police department.  According to The Florida Times-Union, local news agencies would rent the $4,600 Motorola radios, with special encrypted frequencies, for about $70 each per month. Read more

Anchor-reporter Jessica Clark has returned to WTLV-WJXX, Gannett’s Jacksonville duopoly.

Clark first joined WTLV-WJXX (“First Coast News”) in 2005 but left last year to work for a local web startup–a job that allowed her to spend more time with her family. Clark’s return comes on the heels of longtime anchor Deanna Fene‘s departure from WTLV-WJXX’s weekend newscasts last month.

Clark is now anchoring First Coast News’ weekend evening newscasts as well as reporting from the stations’ “souther bureau.”

A graduate of the University of Florida, Clark worked in Columbus, GA and Fort Myers before joining WTLV-WJXX in 2005. [Via Florida News Center]