Media: Jenny Li joins the dark side
WEEK announced at last night’s 10 p.m. newscast that weekend anchor/producer Jenny Li was leaving the station to work in public relations for State Farm Insurance in Bloomington.
What’s good for Jenny — better pay and better hours, no doubt — is bed news for news consumers. I’ll miss seeing her around the press table at Peoria City Hall.
And I’ll never forget watching her and another reporter arguing over whose turn it was to interview General Parker before the start of a City Council meeting.
Billy Dennis is a former reporter and editor at small daily and weekly newspapers in Illinois and Missouri. He comments on media, news and politics. He also owns and operates 
She was lame. Sorry.
Bed news?
She is a great reporter working in a very competitive environment; State Farms’ gain, our loss.
“And I’ll never forget watching her and another reporter arguing over whose turn it was to interview General Parker before the start of a City Council meeting.”
That’s classic Jenny Li. Always thought she was better than everyone else because she worked at WEEK. I’m not kidding you..I actually heard her say one time, “We don’t need to promote our newscasts. We’re number 1 and people are gonna watch no matter what we do.” That was three weeks before billboards appeared in the Peoria area.
I agree with “Tory,” she was horrible.
For the stint of time she’s been in Peoria and all the people she’s met/covered she should have had solid investigative stories once a week on the news. She didn’t.
She sucked!
Yeah, I agree she was bad. I remember watching her anchor the weekend show, she could never get through a show without tripping over her own words a half dozen times.
Speaking of WEEK, they used to have a young female african-american reporter (who’s name escapes me right now) who was pretty good, even filled in at the anchor desk a few times I believe. Anyone have any idea what happened to her? She’s no longer on their website and I don’t remember an announcement about her leaving.
You people are haters.
If you’re thinking of Kellie Watson, she’s at WDJT in Milwaukee with former WMBD morning anchor Stepahnie Brown. Kellie is pretty good and that’s why she didn’t spend 5 year anchoring weekends and coasting by in Peoria.
Yep, that’s who I was thinking of.
She probably got ahead just because of her appearance, inappropriate dress, and shameless fawning over the people she interviewed.
/sarcasm
I remember when she was dating a buddy of mine. Seemed like a cool kid.
ahead? Ahead of what? Staying in Peoria for 6 years in this business is NOT getting ahead unless your a weekday anchor
Did it ever occur to critics that Jenny Li might has remained a weekend anchor simply beause WEEK has had a very stable anchor team during the past decade? WEEK is the highest-rated local news show. Part of it is due to an Oprah lead in. Another is the quality of the news. And because there’s not a lot of turnaround, people develop a sense a familiarity with the people on the screen and feel they are trustworthy.
And mayne, just maybe, Jenny LIKES living in Peoria and moving on would mean leaving home.
I’ve never had any problem with her reporting, and she covered city hall, so I would have noticed.
I will miss her . She did a great job , i wish her all the best
“We’re number 1 and people are gonna watch no matter what we do”
Great attitude