Betsy Lambert, the controversial, viral-video-producing news director for KIEM “News Channel 3,” has been shown the door. From her Facebook page:
To all my loyal viewers and supporters. I no longer work for KIEM. My contract ran out and the general manager decided to not renew. I want to thank all of you for your support and love. My husband and I have fallen in love with the North Coast and we plan on staying. We will continue to stay involved with baseball, community events and fundraisers. Again, we cant thank you all enough from the bottom of our hearts for making us feel so welcome here. -Betsy
Previous News Channel 3 bits:
How I was banned from the KIEM News Channel 3 Facebook page
“Who Pooped And Peed On the Bank (Ode to Betsy Lambert)”
Gawker: Reporter’s Quest to Find Out ‘Who Pooped on the Bank?’ Ends on Awkward Note
This article appears in Gasoline Kings.
Oh poop.
And pee. On the bank.
Bye,bye,bye, bye-bye.
I’m sure that some local business or non-profit organization needs someone who is not burdened by ethics to help them experience the kind of success that Betsy has had on the north coast. From her destruction of evidence and fact on the channel 3 facebook page, her inability to deal fairly with criticism and of course, her involvement in the story so much that she became the story. Yes Betsy, you really shone in this one.
aw man, and after the JUST bought a house on national television…
@Rob….not just loCo, but all of YouTube as well. That whole bit dragging her cameraman like an unwilling puppy on a leash was priceless. The comments on it are spectacular.
Does this mean she can file for unemployment?
Letter of Reference
Betsy’s demonstrated ability to gain national attention for her investigative reporting will serve her well as she proceeds along the great digestive tract of life.
Flushed with her success at NewsChannel 3, I’m sure her career’s movements will be ever more irresistable, ever harder to ignore. Her focus on the wastes our economy produces is badly needed in telejournalism. Life is more than big hair and a pretty face, as Betsy has so ably proven; for every big haired bimbo in television news, we in Humboldt will now never forget there is big waste as well.
Too many journalists would be content to allow the desecration of bank ATMs, our society’s most sacred sites. Lambert took her stand — some outrages must simply not be tolerated! As every good journalist tries to do, she crystallized the vital issue confronting our society in a bumper sticker phrase and laid it at our doorstep — this is a rare talent indeed.
Was it you? Was it YOU? No, it was Betsy!
That’s all from here. Back to you in the studio.
Does this mean we get to comment on the Facebook page again, or no?
All you people are monsters. She has the face of an Angel!
It’s a stretch to call her controversial. The one alleged controversy was comical, not upsetting… which is why people made light of it. The other shocking outrage involved a NCJ’er being banned from a Facebook page (gee, that never happens on Facebook!), so it’s a bit self-serving to play it up as if people cared.
How many people even watch TV news anymore? Besides seniors, I mean.
I don’t doubt that she has the face of an angel, in a trunk in her closet along with the faces of many of her other enemies.
I’ll miss her mispronunciation of “Loletta.”
omg, some of the comments are hilarious!!! Anonymous, me too. Loletta. Geez, even Evan knows how to pronounce it and he’s only been here a couple months! Umm, I watch the news every stinking day. And I’m hardly a “senior.” Mitch, AWESOME letter of reference! Well, gosh, who ever will replace her? Especially since, as someone else said, she just bought a house on national tv!! (and I’ve never looked at pbjs again the same way after that little episode).
As someone who has worked in Media on the NC for over a decade including as a reporter and as a GM of a news oriented station I am glad to see she is leaving and still wonder why it took as long as it did. Nothing monstrous about pointing out her lack of professionalism and weakness as a journalist merely an observation and one someone in the news industry should be able to hear and learn from frankly. NO I don’t work with the NCJ and YES I was also banned from the KIEM facebook and reported for criticizing her reporting. It is fairly common.
Imagine, if you will, a small market TV station owned by a person on the other side of the country. Imagine that station in the middle of a cow field, housed in a metal shed. Now imagine the 20-year old equipment, the ancient remote van rattling by with the rust showing on the back. Imagine what kind of operating budget a station like that might have. Imagine salaries that would only attract entry-level talent, fresh out of college who want to get their foot in the door, get a little real experience.
How did you do at your first professional job? Did you make mistakes? Did you have an over-infalted sense of your own importance? Were you convinced you were going to change the world?
I’m not sure what people are expecting to get here in market One Hundred Ninety Whatever. Because this looks about right to me. I think if we’re going to say nasty thing, we might want to re-evaluate which entity we should be saying nasty things about.
Thats what you get when you treat all your coworkers like children!!
Good… may now we can get back to having professional people anchor the news.. less badly pronounced city names and less touchy feely of everyone who shows up to tell their story… maybe Manny will feel a little less embarrassed as well… To bad we lost other good people at KIEM for what I feel Besty was behind…
I didnt know so many got kicked off the Facebook.I thought I was special and witty
Sorry to see her lose her job.
nice group of people here cheering on someones loss of job……. my bartender in mexico laughed when he saw how I spelt loleta……..ha he said that is lolet(t)a……
If asking people about pooping and peeing on the bank is bad, how does the Journal’s calendar editor keep his job? I’ve seen some very back-handed compliments over the years in how events are described, across multiple editors. Sometimes I get the impression the calendar editors harbor deep-seeded resentment at having their brilliant minds wasted writing calendar entries.
If it gives us hope that the news might once again be delivered in a professional manner, I don’t see how it’s inappropriate to cheer the loss of someone’s job who wasn’t able to meet that standard.
Other than the mispronounciations (sp?) I always thought that Betsy did a decent job reading the teleprompter. I’ve just heard that she’s impossible to work with because she thinks her poop and pee doesn’t you know what. Why don’t they just hire Dave Silverbrand. He’s really nice and gets a long with people and the community trusts him.
“Sometimes I get the impression the calendar editors harbor deep-seeded resentment at having their brilliant minds wasted writing calendar entries.”
OMG THAT IS EXACTLY IT IT’S LIKE YOU MUST WORK THEIR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Another Anon, if she’s a reporter, she shouldn’t need telepropmpters if she wrote the stories herself. Anyway, she’s gone, more Kelly please!
Hmm101, what’s “deep-seeded”? Is that when you plant your seeds extra, extra deep just to weed out the weak ones?
OH HAPPY DAY!!! PRAISE BE! The face of an angel? Ha! Perhaps the angel of death! I’m so happy, I’m throwing a party. She’s a two faced, lying, drama queen that only takes interest in stories that might further her career. Thank GOD it’s over! She got her 30 minutes of fame picking out her perfect little house on national television so that was good enough for her. Hope it doesn’t go into foreclosure, because she burned her bridges with the Occupy movement from the beginning. GOOD RIDDANCE! It was high time to take the trash out. HOORAY! HIP HIP HOORAY! I just might watch the 5o’clock news now. WOO HOO! Too bad she’s staying here. I wish she would leave the area for good.
Betsy Lambert is a HORRIBLE person all around, just pure evil. I’ve actually met her in person and she puts up a front on the news. She’s unprofessional, manipulative and full of herself. I feel sorry for her future co-workers and employer.
Sounds like Betsy is still pointing fingers at everyone that is not her. She needs to grow up. Realize that she comes with high negatives into any job she is lucky enough to get. She is not the shiny, fresh cheerleader she presents herself as. She has to treat her coworkers with respect. She is not the good Christian she tells everyone she is. She needs to stop trying to DESTROY her now former employer. She needs to stop being lazy. She needs to apologize for the people shes effected by her meanspirited facebook posts. Only then can she get through this but I don’t have alot of hope.
Betsy’s contract also was not renewed a few years back at KBAK in Bakersfield. The problem then, like now, was someone else. Although she was actually good at her job there … check out her youtube demo reel. Kinda hot too.
I liked Betsy though. She wasn’t as bad as Leslie Buchanan, as plain as Leslie Lollich, or as … as ….. We need Jane Rogers.
[As referenced below, this comment needed to be moderated.]
I think the giant ass just posted as Noname
Umm…excuse me, Mr. Burns? You wrote “Betsy Lambert, the controversial, viral-video-producing news director for KIEM “News Channel 3, has been shown the door.” “Shown the door” ? You may want to confirm this with the company, but word is that she had a year left on her contract. I heard that she chose to leave…and in a huff, once finding out her contract was not going to be renewed…a year from now. I think that might be pertinent information. But again, that’s just something I heard.
Thank God! Betsy was a psycho with a bad attitude. What the hell was Ch 3 thinking when they hired her?
Personally, I thought Betsey was a charming breath of fresh air on KIEM, and I know I’m not alone in feeling that way. I will miss her!
Betsy stated that she moved to this area to make a difference. Well she seems to have done a good job at that. Continually publicly, via social media and other mediums to tell all that would listen that her employers were the worst, her community not as good as other places she has lived and worked, and the people here horrible and nasty. She walked out of her job weeks before her contract ended, leaving the work load to others. Since her leaving she has rallied the community to boycott her previous employer. Why would you do this to a company that employs a lot of good people, and does a lot of good in the community via sponsorships, training of interns, being a good long term employer in the community and more. Betsy is not the “Spirit of the North Coast” News Channel 3 is, and has been long before she arrived. She is the opposite, trying to divide a community, because why? She could not do her job! Shame on you Betsy! It appears very obvious to me why your contract was not renewed, you just are not professional! It is a shame that all the naive face book fans did not get behind the good people from St Josephs hospital that lost there jobs! And many other good people in this community that have had the same misfortune. Not an ego maniac that is only seeking fame.
Sorry, all the wishy washy feelings and facebook sympathy pages won’t bring her back.
Personally I think she’s a nice woman. and there are a lot of niche cable networks she’d probably excel at, but I don’t think she’s emotionally up to the task of doing nightly news. She’s not aggressive or hardened enough to handle her critics, particularly if she makes claims that “you internet people are a bunch of meanies!”. She’s going to have to grow thicker skin.
I thought I would sit down and watch the news at 5 today to see the changes. Wow. Well done Evan and the news team. Great content. Covering the biggest news in the country today well, then State news that affects our local parks, good coverage on a local organizations gallery opening, sharing a local interest/ workshop then a story on what we are all waiting on , the Olympics. Cameron kept us up to date with the Crabs, and you guessed it, the weather is not that good for the next few days.
I do miss Betsy rolling around on the floor speaking in baby talk to the doggies, but I suppose you can not have everything. Maybe Evan or Kelly will learn those floor rolling, and baby talk techniques, and then we will have it all! But with out the emotional outburst by Betsy on the News 3 facebook page.
We will have to put up with a good local news coverage, when no other stations have stayed in that market.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt9o5oqGFFw
Karma always comes back….I WORKED with this BI**** and she ended up getting me fired, or at least I’m sure she had a hand in it. I’m SOOOOOO Glad that Channel 3 FINALLY sees the true BETSY & “Showed her the door”. I would have looovvveeed to see it!
Betsy, why don’t you share with everyone how you slept with your boss at your previous station? The MARRIED boss, while you were dating your husband.
Maybe that is why there is some very peculiar behavior by Kyle Avelar on facebook. He seems to taken it VERY personally that Betsy’s contract was not renewed. He seems also very keen to have her reinstated at News Channel 3. He maybe is hoping for a shot at her too?
Kyle she was employed as a News director, she could not do her job professionally, her contract was not renewed. Of course some people are going to miss seeing her, and some people are not. If you wish to see more of her, then maybe you should arrange a job for her with YOU!
Let’s hire Ann Curry!
She was not professional, bottom line. I imagine she thought she was just being cute but I found it cringe-worthy and was embarrassed for her every time I watched, so I stopped watching.
Of course some will miss her folksy jolksy Kindergarten teacher personality, but I won’t. Glad to be able to watch the news again.
Jim Bernard gave a great insight into what it must have been like to work and deal with the Off air News Director Betsy Lambert/Totten, commenting on the NCJ artical on Manny Machado’s appointment as the new News Director. Some people may have liked her personality on the air, but that was just a small portion of her job. Wish you well Jim, and hope that you can beat the illness you have.
Betsy’s behavior didn’t bother me that much. Not until I saw her sing the star spangled banner at a 2011 Crabs game. Never have I seen the embodyment of someone so full of themselves. Everybody cringed. Didn’t anyone warn her? Couldn’t somebody say, “Betsy, never sing at a Crabs game again.” Well she repeated the disaster again this year. For her it was 2 strikes and you out. Don’t get me wrong. At Crabs games you can respectfully heckle the opposing team, as long as you don’t cuss. But Betsy might as well of used all of our names in vain. At the end of each line she stretched the final word out well past any tolerable limit. It stills echos in my mind. Betsy wanted to be in the lime light. Didn’t she realize there’s a lot of brass in the stands? How well you sing the national anthum says so much about your personality. I was shocked. Still like her in a weird way though. Wish her the best!
What is the freaky relationship between Kyle Avelar ( who set up the Save Betsy FB page ) This guy lives in San Jose, what does he know about what sort of job she did at KIEM? Did he work with her? Does he see the 5pm News in San Jose? Does he know how many local businesses, residents and charities that complained about her? Very peculiar indeed Betsy Lambert and Kyle Avelar!
Has anyone heard how Betsy is getting on at KissFM/ mad river radio? Is she still as crazy as she was before KIEM 3 correctly did not renew her contract? Nobody seems to be saying anything positive about her, only commenting on how unprofessional she is talking about her previous employer, bad mouthing the colleagues she used to work with, and behaving strangely and unsportsmanlike at sports venues. I do know that it is nice to be able to have updates that are professional and unemotional both on the news at 5, 6 and 11, and on their facebook page. Good move News Channel 3. Keep training new people, promoting from within your ranks locally, and let us share in their growth, and let those that think they are better because the worked in a “bigger and better market audience” like Betsy go back from whence she came!