Earlier this week an over-served Jerry Jones became the latest YouTube hero after being caught on a cell phone in a bar dissing Bill Parcels and Tim Tebow.
After the video became a viral sensation, WFAA-Ch. 8 in Dallas showed the (edited) cell phone video on their highly-rated newscasts.
And that really pissed off WFAA Sports Director Dale Hansen.
Hansen who has an ego the size of the new Cowboys Stadium -- and the ratings to back it up -- has had more than his share of run ins with Jones. Dale was part of the very popular Dallas Cowboys radio network with Brad Sham from 1985 to 1996 when he got into an on-camera argument with Barry Switzer, and Jones kicked him off the broadcasts.
But this week, Hansen went after his TV boss during his "unplugged" segment on the 10:00 o'clock newscast.
Among the priceless Hansen gems during the attack:
"Our business now too many times is a fat kid in a t-shirt in his mother's basement eating Cheetos and writing his blogs. And we make it news."
He went on to make the valid point that often broadcasters will demonstrate obvious hypocrisy by not covering the stumbling and misbehavior of their own. However his dredging up a suicide of a WFAA anchor over 20 years ago was over the top.
Hanson has been at the powerful ABC afilliate for 27 years. At first he teamed with Vern Lundquist to give WFAA a blockbuster sports anchor team, and when Vern left for the network, Dale built a reputation as an egotistic smart-alec, who cheerfully admits his failings while taking anyone and everyone on.
This shot at his own boss is a clear example of the kind of power a charismatic TV personality can wield. Hansen knows that over two decades of ratings wins allows him to get away with this attack, and he knows that in this fractured media world, the days of anyone having this kind of sway over a local-market audience are numbered.