WTAE did the right thing by firing Wendy Bell
We’ve seen, heard and read this story before. A media personality is criticized, sanctioned or even fired by their employer for inappropriate professional or personal behavior, violating corporate policy or simply speaking their mind.
The most recent example is Wendy Bell, the award-winning journalist and now former news anchor at Pittsburgh’s WTAE. Bell was fired last month after posting, deleting and apologizing for a Facebook message her employer found racially insensitive. “WTAE has ended its relationship with anchor Wendy Bell,” Hearst Television, the station’s owner, announced late last month after the news anchor became the news. “Wendy’s recent comments on a WTAE Facebook page were inconsistent with the company’s ethics and journalistic standards.”
The terse statement and Hearst’s refusal to provided additional comment and perspective is the type of cover-our-butt PR tactic for which Hearst and every other responsible news organization would be demanding more detail if issued by someone other than the media owner. But hey, Hearst and WTAE and every prominent broadcast media outlet prefers to air news, not their dirty laundry
No doubt that Bell is good at her profession. A veteran TV journalist like Bell is not awarded multiple Emmy statues for being mediocre or, worse, incompetent. Bell is so good and even more important to broadcasters – so well liked by viewers – that she likely will be on air again for another media outlet, perhaps even in Pittsburgh, depending on the language in her contract and any separation agreement with WTAE. Judging from comments posted on various media and social media sites, many people want her back on air.
Precedent exists. Brian Williams, for example, was dumped as anchor of top-ranked NBC Nightly News for exaggerating details of some of his reporting experiences, only to resurface as anchor of special events and breaking news at MSNBC, another NBC property. And Juan Williams was dismissed as an analyst at National Public Radio after expressing fears if Muslims were passengers on any commercial airline he boarded. Williams now is a frequent commentator on Fox News.
From the perspective of this former newspaper reporter and as a PR practitioner, Bell’s firing, departure, separation from WTAE, whatever terminology you choose to use, was not surprising. Hers is the predictable result of the blurring distinction in modern day media between expressing opinion and reporting fact, between news analyst and news anchor, between news personality and private person. And something else.
The clash between objectivity and opinion is not infrequent in today’s media, and when it occurs it often becomes news itself. Keith Olbermann, for example, a prominent MSNBC anchor with an obvious liberal viewpoint, was suspended in November 2012 by his employer after learning that Olbermann had made financial contributions to three Democrats in November 2010.
Journalists are personally constrained about what they do or say. Most television news organizations have rules about journalists contributing to political campaigns. The rules sometimes differ for anchors, analysts and reporters. What’s more, many news organizations even bar their financial reporters from owning stock in companies they report on, although ownership of mutual funds that include stocks of those companies is OK.
Objectivity and fair and balanced reporting, the lesson drilled into everyone who has taken a journalism class, is of utmost importance. It’s a tenet every journalist, particularly the most senior, most popular, highest paid and most decorated news staffer, is expected to follow.
WTAE is the top ranked television news outlet in the Pittsburgh market, and being number one exerts pressure on the entire staff to remain there. Community recognition and bonding are vital part of that. Much of that burden falls on the on-air talent such as Bell. Their employers not only want their on-air talent to be a part of the community but they also build advertising behind them. It’s no coincidence, for example, that a local TV station’s top news personalities emcee civic functions.
It’s also not surprising that reporters are using, even expected by their employers to use, social media as a way to connect with their communities. But social media can clash with tradition media just as objectivity and opinion clash.
Bell did not break any news writing on Facebook about the arrest of anyone connected with the mass shoot deaths of blacks at a barbeque early last month in Wilkinsburg. She instead wrote her opinion on social media, and that’s what got her into trouble. “You need not be a criminal profiler to draw a mental sketch of the killers who broke so many hearts two weeks ago Wednesday … they are young black men, likely in their teens or early 20s.
“They have multiple siblings from multiple fathers and their mothers work multiple jobs.”
Wendy, no doubt you are well liked in Pittsburgh. Perhaps that’s why the overwhelming number of people responding to a poll by this newspaper and others believe you should not have been fired. But I’m not among them.
You have every right to express your personal viewpoint on a news story. You just weren’t sagacious about when, where and how you did so.
The overwhelming public opinion that you should not have been dismissed by WTAE is not, I suspect, because supporters believe you didn’t violated any journalistic or ethical standard, as WTAE justified in your dismissal. Rather it’s because so many supporters heard and believe the not so subtle dog whistle message about race that you left them.
That’s the something else that bothers me.
Richard Ringer resides in Uniontown and is the managing director of MW Group, a “virtual” public relations agency. He can be reached at ringer.mwgroup@gmail.com.