A story Milwaukee NBC affiliate WTMJ promoted for sweeps as “an explosive I-Team investigation months in the making” about a Milwaukee police officer taking money from a man at an ATM has landed the station in hot water with the Milwaukee police chief.

“People deserve to know the truth,” said Milwaukee Police Chief Ed Flynn in a press conference the morning before the story aired. “And I have no confidence that that truth will be known watching this TV story’s coverage of its own sweeps story.”

The promo (above) shows surveillance video of a Milwaukee police officer at an ATM with a man in February.  The promo copy says, “It’s the video that has everyone talking. A Milwaukee police officer taking a man’s cash out of an ATM. Then walking off with that cash in hand. What’s really going on? The Milwaukee police department has some explaining to do.” Read more

Shannon Sims is joining Milwaukee NBC affiliate WTMJ as a weekend anchor.

Sims comes from Cincinnati, where she has been freelancing as a morning reporter and fill-in anchor at WXIX. She was released from her contract at WKEF-WRGT in Dayton after a year as the station’s main anchor in January.

Sims told TVSpy she is looking forward to working with the “winning team” of journalists, photographers and producers at WTMJ.

“At this point of my career moving to Milwaukee and working at TMJ4 to hone my skills as a reporter and command anchor seems like the perfect move,” Sims wrote in an email.

Milwaukee NBC affiliate WTMJ is standing by a decision to have its news anchors promote a station contest featuring a regular advertiser.

In an ad for “Win Groceries 4 a Year!,” WTMJ anchors Mike Jacobs and Carole Meekins appear in the checkout area of a Sendik’s Food Market. Sendik’s regularly runs ads on WTMJ.

The Milwaukee Business Journal asked Steve Wexler if he thought having his news staff indirectly endorsing an advertiser was crossing the line. Wexler is the executive vice president of Journal Broadcast Group and vice president and general manager of WTMJ. Read more

WTMJ reporter and weekend anchor Shelley Walcott has announced she will be leaving the Milwaukee NBC affiliate for WMUR in New Hampshire.

Walcott announced the move to the Manchester ABC affiliate on her twitter page saying, “Hi all: Wanted to announce I am leaving TMJ4 at the end of next week. Have accepted a main anchor job in New Hampshire. Bittersweet day!”

Steve Wexler, executive vice president of the Journal Broadcast Group told the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, “Shelley is a very talented anchor and reporter, we’re going to miss her, but we are also very excited for her. She’ll be the main anchor on her new station and closer to her family.” Read more

During its noon news, Milwaukee NBC affiliate WTMJ aired an unfortunate misspelling while promoting its 3 p.m. “Sound Off!” segment.

The focus of Monday’s segment was NBC broadcaster Bob Costas‘ editorial turn during halftime of the previous night’s airing of “Sunday Night Football.”  WTMJ wanted to hear from viewers whether they thought the nation needed more “gun” control.  Instead, the graphic asked if we needed more “fun” control.

[Jim Romenesko]

President Barack Obama will close out his campaign with one last round of local interviews Tuesday, sitting down with 10 stations in battleground states.

The interviews will take place via satellite from Obama’s campaign headquarters in Chicago. In order of interview, he will talk with WHO in Des Moines, KWWL in Cedar Rapids, WTMJ in Milwaukee, WKYC in Cleveland, WKRC in Cincinnati, WFOR in Miami, WTVT in Tampa, WJLA in Washington, KMGH in Denver and KVVU in Las Vegas.

Governor Mitt Romney is spending the day appealing to voters in Cleveland and Pittsburgh. [h/t Politico]

In the aftermath of the spa shooting in Wisconsin on Sunday, WTMJ anchor Susan Kim reported on her personal connection to one of the victims: Kim was a client of Zina Haughton, a stylist at the spa who was the estranged wife of the alleged shooter. Seven people were shot before the gunman killed himself.

Kim first revealed the news from the scene around 2:30 p.m., saying, “My stylist may be related to … the alleged gunman. She’s a really wonderful person.” Haughton was one of the three fatalities in the shooting.

Kim remained on the scene throughout WTMJ’s continuing coverage, offering detailed accounts of the spa and Haughton:

I did know the gunman’s wife. She was my stylist. She was just a dear, darling woman. She’s in her early 40s, and she talked about her two girls. She was a very proud mother, very happy, an excellent stylist, really took her job seriously. You could tell that she was very well-liked within the spa.

Kim went on to say that she had talked to the woman’s other clients, who reported that she was “frustrated and tired about her marriage and that she was finally going to do it, to file for divorce.”

In a blog post on the WTMJ website, anchor Shelly Wolcott wrote about Kim’s personal connection to the story: Read more

The latest presidential debate proved more popular with viewers in Milwaukee than the first as 43,000 more households tuned in to watch Barack Obama and Mitt Romney square off a second time, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

NBC affiliate WTMJ averaged an 11.3 during the debate, ABC affiliate WISN pulled in a 10.3, FOX affiliate WITI saw a 6.9 and CBS affiliate WDJT drew a 3.7.  A rating point in Milwaukee is equal to 9,100 households.

• Related, TVNewser: Debate Ratings: Most Channels Up From Round One, Fox News Poised to Tie Record Palin-Biden ’08 Debate

While the numbers may sound high, The Journal Sentinel offered a sobering comparison, while 293,000 Milwaukee households tuned in to Tuesday night’s debate, 473,000 watched the Green Bay Packers beat the Houston Texans on Sunday night.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has posted an interesting review of the local station’s news sets.  The article focuses on NBC affiliate WTMJ’s new set (pictured right) and the various reactions it evoked from those on both sides of the screen.

“It’s like being on a spaceship,” said WTMJ-TV anchor-reporter Courtny Gerrish.

“Punch it, Chewie,” added meteorologist Brian Gotter, making a “Star Wars” joke.

The futuristic-looking set so offended one caller that he left a message on my voice mail: “It’s a screaming disaster. It’s as ugly as any modern designer or architect could create.”

Read more

Duane Dudek of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel speaks with Rob Koebel, who recently resigned from WTMJ after a disorderly conduct arrest:

“My actions should be held to a higher standard,” the former WTMJ-TV (Channel 4) reporter said.

“I’m asking for the trust of the viewers” and, as a steward of the public trust, “I was a poor steward that night.”

Koebel said his “three-day drinking binge leading up to the arrest” was sparked by two interviews his former wife, HLN anchor Christi Paul, did about her recently-published book, Love Doesn’t Have to Hurt. The book is her account of what she says was an emotionally abusive marriage to Koebel. Read more