Monday, November 21, 2016

TELLING THE TRUTH COST A TV NEWS PERSON HER JOB

By Bob Walsh

A federal judge has just given permission for a very interesting civil suit to proceed against the Hearts Stations Inc. a broadcast TV operation.

The plaintiff is Wendy Bell, a former on-the-air news person. Ms. Bell is white. She is accused to being "racially insensitive" which I guess is a cardinal sin in Pittsburg.

On March 9 there was a shooting. Five people and a fetus were injured at a cookout in a lower income area in a suburb of Pittsburg.
On March 21 Ms. Bell had this to say in a Facebook post. "You needn't be a criminal profiler to draw a mental sketch of the killers who broke so many hearts. They are young black men, likely in their teens or in their early 20s. They have multiple siblings from multiple fathers and their mothers work multiple jobs. These boys have been in the system before. They've grown up there. They know the police. They've been arrested."

M.s Bell was sacked nine days later after WTAE determined that he comments were in violation of their journalism and ethics standards. (I guess the organization is opposed to the truth.)

Bell filed the suit in June asserting that the station violated he rights when they sacked her. IN September the Hearst people attempted to have the suit dismissed. In a ruling made this past Friday the judge said she is entitled to proceed with discovery.

Two black men, Cheron Shelton, 29, and Robert Thomas, 27, have been charged in the murders. They are facing capital murder charges. Their lawyer says they didn't do it. I have a sneaking hunch that Ms. Bell was right in all aspects of her comment.

EDITOR’S NOTE: John 8:32 “And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

In this case the truth made Wendy Bell free alright, free from her job.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The truth doesn't matter anymore. If you hurt someone's feelings or post something on social media that someone doesn't like is all that matters.