We received an email last night from an Ogle Mole claiming that the guy pictured above, Mike Brooks, will be the new anchor for the Fox 25 News at 9.
Mike will be replacing Andrew Speno, who was unceremoniously let go a few months back for either making "inappropriate" jokes about Whitney Houston, turning the Channel 25 news room into a gossipy sewing circle, or knowing "too much" about the station's former horn dog news director. Or it could be that he wasn't married to a journalist. I have no clue.
Anyway, Mike Brooks is currently a fill-in morning anchor at Fox 4 in Ft. Meyers, Florida and has several ties to Oklahoma. From his bio at the Fox 4 website:
Thanks for taking the time to “check me out.” Hopefully, you’re interested in learning more about me and not just killing time at work! If I see you duck behind the screen from time to time, I'll know what's up.
I’m not your typical journalist. I had a couple of careers in finance and accounting before the journalism bug bit. I went back to Oklahoma State University with my B.S. and M.S. in hand, to start over and take some basic journalism classes. It’s now almost 2 decades (and 5 states) later, but here I am living in the best part of the US.
I'm not really too sure about all this. Andrew Speno was one of my favorite anchors. He had a good balance of humor and professionalism. This new guy just looks like a goofball. If you need proof, go read the first couple of lines from his bio again or check out this really weird video:
Yikes, they are replacing Speno with him? That would be like replacing Rick Mitchell with the Jeff George!
Seriously, this is just wrong. For one, Mike kind of talks like Paul Folger, which is awkward. Two, Mike obviously thinks he's a funny guy, but he's not aware that he's not funny. As someone who suffers from that same general lack of self-awareness, I'm pretty sure that means that Mike Brooks is (probably) a deranged lunatic...or really good with the ladies.
All that being said, I'll still give Mike a chance and watch the first couple of nights he anchors. If anything, it will be fun to see how he responds to Jaime Cerreta's very large, uhm, cerretas. Will he blatantly try to sneak a peek like Paul Folger did to Schambach, or will he offer to autograph them like Dean Blevins did to Amy McRee. It will be interesting to find out.
