Philly TV Critic Creates Outrage With Response to Murder Story (Update)

Jonathan Storm gets impatient with a murder victim's story.

Philly TV critic Jonathan Storm apparently alienated a few people on the Television Critics Association tour this week,  with his questioning of Tamron Hall, an NBC correspondent who is also investigating and reporting for Investigate Discovery’s show, “Deadline: Crime with Tamron Hall”

The Wrap reports:

Philadelphia TV critic Jonathan Storm asked Hall how she split her time between her full duties for NBC News — which include anchoring “NewsNation” daily on MSNBC — and investigating and reporting for “Deadline: Crime with Tamron Hall” on ID.

The host responded with an intimate story to illustrate why she finds it so important to dedicate time to the Investigation Discovery show, even with the demands of her day job.

Viewers of “Deadline: Crime,” which starts its second season this spring, are familiar with the story — Hall described the horrible day when she got the call that her sister had been found face down in her pool.

Initially called an accident, a detective told Hall that that was not so. Hall’s sister had bruising all over her body, hair ripped from her scalp, and most of her fingernails were gone.

The TCA audience was visibly moved, but Storm responded, “That’s all very nice, but can you answer my question?”

Before carrying on with her story, Hall responded to Storm’s comment, saying, “It’s not ‘nice,’” and asking him how he would feel if he got a call telling him his sister had been beaten and murdered.

Lots of people angry about this. To be fair: Hall didn’t answer the question Storm asked. Journalists can get impatient with that kind of thing. Still, the time to show impatience is not when somebody has told you about their dead sister. You’ll never win that scenario.

UPDATE: We said Storm was with the Inquirer; he hasn’t been with the paper for a couple of years. See his comments below.