David Zurawik

WJZ anchorwoman Mary Bubala, who came under fire Thursday for a question she asked about the race, gender and leadership of Baltimore’s past three mayors, is no longer with the station, according to an email sent to The Baltimore Sun on Monday night by general manager Audra Swain.

“Mary Bubala is no longer a WJZ-TV employee. The station apologizes to its viewers for her remarks,” the statement said.

WJZ-TV lost almost half of its 5 p.m. news audience in a key demographic during the May sweeps in the wake of a controversial question by anchorwoman Mary Bubala and her subsequent firing, according to figures confirmed by the Nielsen Co. and WJZ.

This week’s twin Democratic debates provide the media’s first big test of the 2020 campaign. It’s not just about how they’ll manage this unwieldy field or how much control NBC, Telemundo and MSNBC agreed to cede to the Democratic National Committee over who gets to be on the stage.

The Baltimore-based Sinclair Broadcast Group has been in the news the last two weeks for the controversial firing of a meteorologist at one of its stations who called out the company on-air over what he characterized as the hyped use of “code red” weather warnings.

Sunday, Brian Stelter, host of CNN’s “Reliable Sources,” and I discussed the firing and the larger issue of sensationalizing local news.

If “Roll Red Roll,” the film that launches a new season of the PBS documentary series POV on Monday, only chronicled the facts of the case of a 16-year-old girl who was raped by members of a high school football team in Ohio, I would still be urging everyone to go out of their way to see it.

A reboot of “The Boondocks” is in the works with creator and University of Maryland graduate Aaron McGruder on board, according to reports out of the 2019 Annecy International Animated Film Festival.

Sony made the announcement today, calling the production scheduled for 2020 a “complete re-imaging” of the series for “the modern era.” The news was first reported by Variety.