George Clooney's Ex-Anchorman Dad Isn't Having It With Sinclair

[Norbert]

Veteran journalist Nick Clooney, the father of movie star George Clooney, says that Sinclair Broadcast Group’s scripted editorial stunt is “beyond the pale” and would never have happened in his day.

The right-wing media giant faced widespread criticism this week after video emerged showing a small army of local news anchors at its 170-plus TV stations nationwide reading a carbon-copy script bashing the “false news” and “fake stories” of other outlets.

Clooney was a news anchor for more than a decade in the 1970s and 1980s on Cincinnati’s Channel 12 WKRC-TV, which is now owned by Sinclair.

“I have no idea what these folks are doing for a living, but it isn’t news,” Clooney told the Cincinnati Enquirer on Monday.

Everyone knows George Clooney but Nick is a legend in our area. He spent a life time ( I'd say close to 60 years) in broadcast media as a TV news anchor, dicc jockey, talk show host, game show host commercial spokesman and even had a local dance and music TV show for a little while ala Dick Clark. He even ran for Congress as a Democrat. The Clooney name is royalty.

It indeed was Clooney's former TV station WKRC that anchors Rob Braun and Cammy Dierking read the Sinclair narrative this past week. His reaction does not surprise me in the least.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/tv/news/george-clooneys-ex-anchorman-dad-isnt-having-it-with-sinclair/ar-AAvpUdy

[snowybirdie]

1. He was so handsome!

Met him many yeas ago when he was a DJ in Lexington, Ky. He had a storefront studio. He asked this starstruck teenager what he could play for my boyfriend, newly drafted. So nice! Swoon!!!!!!

[NBachers]

4. So . . . What did you have him play?

[snowybirdie]

5. Wish I could remember

but it was 1960 and a lot of water under the damn since then. But the same guy is still my boyfriend and hubby

[kstewart33]

10. Geez Louise.

It's wonderful to see a friendship and marriage still going strong for more than 50 years. Congratulations!

[rurallib]

2. If somebody is telling you they don't lie - they are probably lying

[maddiemom]

3. American Movie Classics host, as well.

Probably what made him more nationally known.

[samnsara]

6. what the hell does 'beyond the pale' even mean?

[kag]

7. From Wiktionary:

From pale (“jurisdiction of an authority, territory under an authority's jurisdiction”), suggesting that anything outside the authority's jurisdiction was uncivilized. The phrase was in use by the mid-17th century, and may be a reference to the general sense of boundary, but is often understood to refer specifically to the English Pale in Ireland. In the nominally English territory of Ireland, only the Pale fell genuinely under the authority of English law, hence the terms within the pale and beyond the pale. The boundary of the Ashdown Forest (a royal hunting forest) was also known as the Pale, consisting of a paled fence and a ditch inside, to allow deer to jump in, but not back out.

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/beyond_the_pale

Thanks for asking. I never knew the origin of the phrase before I looked it up.

[Roy Rolling]

8. Thanks!

The definition was helpful. And having worked with the younger Clooney on a number of occasions, I can see his father's influence. George is as genuinely thoughtful about others welfare as they come. Two great guys, I didn't know about his dad.

[kag]

9. "having worked with the younger Clooney..." Cool!

One of my favorite actors. I remember seeing him on Facts of Life, and thinking he was bound for greater things.

I didn't know his father was such a celebrity, but I've seen interviews with George that impressed me with his sober intelligence. So it doesn't surprise me that his dad is also a smart cookie.