The Spectacle Blog
According to the Washington Post Doug McKelway, a reporter for the city’s ABC affiliate WJLA, has been fired after he was suspended last month over a confrontation with his boss. The conflict arose because of a McKelway report about a demonstration by environmental groups, who protested during the BP/Gulf disaster over oil industry campaign contributions to members of Congress. Here is the report he delivered on July 20 from Capitol Hill:
As you see, McKelway was tasked with reporting on a miniscule protest. If it had been pro-life activists or some other conservative cause, he would have been given another assignment. So he made it newsworthy by introducing relevant information such as:
- How few demonstrators there were, which in order to be worth reporting, would require the speculation he delivered about “where the movement is headed right now”
- Identifying the protestors as representatives of “far left” environmental groups such as Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth, which they are. Apparently it is only proper to identify ideology when the groups are “right-wing” or on the “far right”
- President Obama’s $77,051 in campaign contributions from BP, leading McKelway to raise the possibility that the environoiacs’ are engaging in a “risky strategy” by accusing Congress members of taking “dirty oil money”
- That (publicly) unpopular climate/energy legislation passed by the House faced such a tough road in the Senate that Majority Leader Harry Reid refused to even use the term “cap-and-trade”
- That Democrats, as reflected by polls everywhere, face huge losses in Congress in November, which would seem to pertain to whether or not the Senate takes up a vote on cap-and-trade
- That the last thing Dems, faced with dim electoral prospects, want to do is pass legislation that “imposes huge escalations in your electricity bill,” which would seem to fit a presidential candidate’s assertion not too long ago that cap-and-trade would make electricity rates “necessarily skyrocket”
WJLA news director Bill Lord cited “insubordination” and “misconduct” in McKelway’s firing. Maybe that was the case, if McKelway’s response crossed the line, but the fact is he was called into the boss’s office for the type of reporting the formerly mainstream media does all the time.
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Booger| 9.17.10 @ 1:38PM
But where's the tolerance? Where's the 1st amendment? Where's Independent Journalism and its Integrity?
Marty W.| 9.17.10 @ 5:39PM
I second the call of Eric Cartman. As I was watching the video, I kept waiting for him to say something or do something that would get him in trouble. After it was over, I had to read the story to find out what the "beef" was about. Management at this TV company is astonishingly partisan. This man seems like a good reporter that deserves better.
Eric Cartman| 9.17.10 @ 1:49PM
So what brave news organization is going to hire this guy? C'mon, step up, Conservatives. Fire Rivera, Fox. Sounds like a competent reporter to me is going to waste.
Humphry Dumfries| 9.17.10 @ 1:50PM
The guy's a good reporter. All that this will do is land him a better spot somewhere else. If not on that national scene, then with another local station, but either way at bigger $$.
Dixie Pixie| 9.17.10 @ 1:51PM
Let me get this straight, in at least one “News Room” accurate reporting is now considered misconduct. Also, dinging Obama with the truth is now called insubordination.
Is there anything in this report that does not prove the MSM is a classic state controlled media.
Mike Campbell| 9.17.10 @ 2:52PM
Hey Fox News! Another reporter you can snatch up! Pretty soon Fox will have any and every competent reporter. The lamestream media will loose even more viewers and become even more irrelevent. LMAO!
Les| 9.17.10 @ 11:02PM
Perhaps he asked for this assignment by misrepresenting the significance of the protest so he could slide in all these editorial comments. Nice touch where he spends the last part touting BP's effots. Did they sponsor his report?
Frederick Michael| 9.17.10 @ 11:48PM
Loved the report and think he should have been promoted -- not fired. However, the story feels incomplete. No one explains what the insubordination was. Surely WJLA is willing to give some details here.
major| 9.18.10 @ 1:45AM
This man needs too be hired immediately because he is an honest reporter and we need to preserve those for the future.
Actually the reporter should be helped to the station for discrimination as he was doing his job properly
Ian Walsh| 9.18.10 @ 6:58AM
Good man...He told only the truth !
Ian Walsh
(England)