TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Channel 8's Hite To Talk On Newscast About DUI Arrest

Julie Busch/Tribune photo

Anchor Bob Hite waits outside the Orient Road Jail for a ride after being charged with DUI.

ADVERTISEMENT

By MIKE WELLS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 21, 2007

Updated: 11/21/2007 06:27 pm

Video: Bob Hite Apologizes On Air

TAMPA - One week before his retirement, longtime WFLA news anchor Bob Hite was arrested early this morning on a charge of driving under the influence.

   Bob Hite

Hite is scheduled to speak about the arrest tonight on News Channel 8's news shows at 6 and 11 p.m., said station news director Don North.

Officers stopped Hite's 2005 Toyota sedan just after 1:30 a.m. at West Cleveland Street and South Willow Avenue after seeing him weaving westbound for several blocks, according to a police report.

Hite is retiring Nov. 28 after 30 years at News Channel 8.

Police gave Hite, 60, a field sobriety test, which they say he failed. He also submitted to a breath analysis, which showed he had a blood-alcohol level of 0.127 percent, according to jail records. Florida law presumes a driver is impaired at a level of 0.08 percent or greater.

Officers also noted Hite smelled of alcohol, had bloodshot eyes and an "unsteady appearance," the report said.

News Channel 8 news director Don North said Hite left the News Center building at 200 S. Parker St. at about 12:30 or 1 a.m. after his final broadcast.

At 3:40 a.m., Hite used a telephone in the booking room to call to News Channel 8's assignment desk and spoke to anchor Bill Ratliff.

Ratliff said he didn't ask Hite where he went after leaving the station after last night's broadcast.

He was released from Orient Road Jail before 9 a.m. after posting $500 bail.

On the way out, he told a Tribune photographer how he felt.

"Just that I feel like the ultimate hypocrite," Hite said. "I'm supposed to be part of the solution not part of the problem. And last night I was part of the problem."

Ratliff said he spoke to Hite for about five minutes.

"He was very disappointed in himself, very remorseful and very embarrassed," Ratliff said. "He sounded very sober. This is not how he saw his last week at News Channel 8 going."

Hite's wife, Bonnie, is out of state, and that's why Hite called the station to seek help posting $500 bail, Ratliff said.

After his release from jail, Hite returned to the station and spoke with North about how he will report on his own arrest, North said.

"The way I feel is that people who work in a public position like this know what's going to happen," North said. "We can't report on them and not report on ourselves."

North expects that viewers will react to the revelation differently.

"Already on TBO.com, there are comments from some who feel sorry for him and some who feel differently," North said.

The gravity of the arrest can't be ignored, he said.

"There is certainly nothing good about it," North said.

Morale around the station's newsroom is likely to be low today, he said.

"Bob's a popular, interesting good guy to have around here," North said. "And people like him. I expect those who have worked here a long time with Bob will feel sorry for him and will be supportive."

Hite has worked 30 years at WFLA. The station's 6 p.m. and 11 p.m. news shows have ranked No. 1 in the market for the past 12 years, with Hite and Gayle Sierens as anchors. The two have been co-anchors since 1985.

Hite's final stint as anchor is scheduled for Nov. 28.

He has sold his Apollo Beach home and his wife, Bonnie, is already at a mountain home in Colorado where they will live.

In an earlier interview with the Tribune, Hite said he will return to the Tampa Bay area often to sail, dive and fish in the waters that drew him here in 1977.

He's not giving up journalism either, he said then. He hopes to do freelance work for WFLA and aims to devote more time to his production company, Kinship Productions.

Twenty days ago, Hite's estranged son, Tyler, 28, was arrested on a domestic battery charge and Hite walked into North's office to tell him about it.

North said Hite asked for no special favors in reporting on his son's arrest. The news director decided the station would not broadcast a story about the arrest because Tyler Hite was an adult and they had not had a relationship for several years, North said.

However, it is the station's practice to report TBO.com's top three viewer-read stories each day, and the article about Hite's son fell in that range, North said. The decision was changed and the anchor reported on his son's arrest and apologized to the audience for having to bring them such news, North said.

Hite's arrest today drew more viewers and comments to TBO.com than any other local news story, too, which is to be expected, said media ethics specialist Bob Steele, of the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg.

"Television news anchors are generally very high profile in the community," Steele said. "They are the face, voice and image of a local television station. They are there in times of crisis and celebration.

"They become in many ways more connected to the public than any other journalist in the industry," Steele said.

Television stations intensely market anchors, particularly primetime anchors like Hite, as a trustworthy brand image, he said.

"One of the reasons Bob Hite and Gayle Sierens have succeeded so well is because of the credibility factor," Steele said.

Journalists report on the issue of DUI intensely, so if a journalist violates that law, scrutiny should be expected, Steele said.

"When something happens to one of our own, we should have no fear or favor in reporting the story," Steele said.

Tribune photographer Julie Busch contributed to this report. Reporter Mike Wells can be reached at (813) 259-7839 or mwells@tampatrib.com.

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT