John Kessler Causes ‘Ruckus’ in KNTV Newsroom After Announcing His New ‘Anchor’ Position

Earlier this week, former KPIX morning anchor John Kessler told Bay Area blogger Rich Lieberman that he had landed a position with KNTV. But now it looks like that deal may be in jeopardy as the NBC O&O is unhappy with how freely Kessler announced it.

“All I know is we have a deal–what the position is don’t know yet. We’re still talking,” Kessler told Lieberman, but then went on to update his LinkedIn page to list the position as “Anchor.”

Now Kessler is trying to set the record straight. On Wednesday, he posted the following message on Facebook:

I jumped the gun in announcing my going to NBC Bay Area. I was hoping you’d follow me there.. instead, I caused a real ruckus in their newsroom.

While posting on LinkedIn, I left my position as “anchor.” That, understandably, didn’t sit well with the NBC Bay Area anchors. My mistake. My apologies to them.

Noted both here and on LinkedIn, I wasn’t sure what I’d be doing.. It was a freelance position. Because of the turmoil I caused, my going to NBC Bay Area will be “reassessed” in a few weeks. I apologize to my colleagues at 11.