Veteran Reporter, Off TV, Looks to the Web…for Now

Jay DeDapper has spent the last 22 years as a TV reporter at two New York stations: WABC, and since 1998, WNBC. A political reporter, DeDapper’s last story aired on WNBC four days before the inauguration.

The NY Daily News’ Richard Huff caught up with DeDapper who has launched Get Real with Jay DeDapper, a blog-style news site which intends to “drill down” on stories that usually only get superficial treatment on TV.

“I’m basically trying to cut through the fog of counterclaims,” DeDapper tells Huff. “What television loves to do, and newspaper reporters do this to the some degree, is it’s difficult to drill down to the facts of claims and counterclaims.”

But this may just be a stopover to either getting back in to TV or finding something else entirely.

“I’m trying to keep busy and keep my feet in the waters and keep people who have been very supportive, viewers at Channel 4, I’m trying to give them an opportunity to still hear from me, adding, “This is not my new career.”

Join Baratunde Thurston (left), The Onion’s Director of Digital and author of How to Be Black, for an entertaining look at creative social media campaigns in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. Other speakers include Morin Oluwole (Facebook), Tim Devane (bitly), and SocialTimes' writer Devon Glenn.   Register now.