UPDATE 1: Contact info for KTBS: link.
KTBS
312 E. Kings Highway
Shreveport, Louisiana USA 71104Main Number 318-861-5800
Update 2 is at the end of this story and includes KTSB’s response in which they allege she made “repeated” violations of their social media policy. I also changed the title in order to reflect a story by Mediate about other racist Facebook comments to which Ms. Lee responded and to which KTSB apparently alludes in their defense of her firing.
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Read the following and tell me what you think was the real reason this African American female TV meteorologist was fired by her local television station:
Rhonda A. Lee found that truth out firsthand. Ms. Lee lost her job at KTBS-TV, an ABC affiliate in Shreveport, La. when she responded to a Facebook post criticizing her short afro. […]
Emmitt Vascocu wrote, “the black lady that does the news is a very nice lady.the only thing is she needs to wear a wig or grow some more hair. im not sure if she is a cancer patient. but still its not something myself that i think looks good on tv. what about letting someone a male have waist long hair do the news.what about that (cq).”
Lee replied the same day, “Hello Emmitt–I am the ‘black lady’ to which you are referring. I’m sorry you don’t like my ethnic hair. And no I don’t have cancer. I’m a non-smoking, 5’3, 121 lbs, 25 mile a week running, 37.5 year old woman, and I’m in perfectly healthy physical condition.
“I am very proud of my African-American ancestry which includes my hair. For your edification: traditionally our hair doesn’t grow downward. It grows upward. Many Black women use strong straightening agents in order to achieve a more European grade of hair and that is their choice. However in my case I don’t find it necessary. I’m very proud of who I am and the standard of beauty I display. Women come in all shapes, sizes, nationalities, and levels of beauty. Showing little girls that being comfortable in the skin and HAIR God gave me is my contribution to society. Little girls (and boys for that matter) need to see that what you look like isn’t a reason to not achieve their goals.
“Conforming to one standard isn’t what being American is about and I hope you can embrace that.
“Thank you for your comment and have a great weekend and thank for watching.”
Ms. Lee’s employer, KTBS-TV, has yet to provide any rule she broke in responding with such grace to what I would consider an offensive post by Mr. Vascocu. Ms. Lee did not broadcast her response over the airwaves, she merely posted a reply on FaceBook.
Lee said. “They told me the policy I violated isn’t written down, but was mentioned in a newsroom meeting about a month-and-a-half prior. A meeting I didn’t attend. So when I asked what rule did I break there isn’t anything to point to.”
You may recall a similar situation where Jennifer Livingston, a white female broadcaster responded on-air to criticism she had received about her weight. Ms. Livingston was applauded for standing up for herself, and she still has her job. I guess her employer is a little more enlightened than Ms. Lee’s employer — or something.
Ps. Ms. Livingston has Rhonda Lee’s back on this one:
In an email Tuesday, Livingston wrote, “If someone is going to post on a public site, there should be a reasonable expectation that those comments will be addressed.”
Of course, you need to do so in a respectful and thoughtful manner. I think we as journalists are still trying to pave the way with integrating social media into our daily workflow. No clear rules have been defined so every station is different.
Personally – I’d have written that person back in a heartbeat.
UPDATE 2:
Mediate is running a story that claims Ms. Lee also responded to racist comments posted to the KTSB Facebook page (regarding an annual toy giveaway known as “The Three Minute Smile”) on November 14, 2012 by a Kenny Moreland. Here is the first Moreland comment:
Not to start any trouble, because I think that the annual “Three Minute Smile” is a great function and I love to see kids so happy. Am I the only one that has noticed that this year, all the kids, lets say, are people of color? This is Channel 3, not KSLA, the “Project Pride” network, that might as well be part of the BET channel. Did KTBS slip up on a news story, and owe S’port’s criminal mayor Cedric, a favor? Seems like some racism going on to me. Just saying…..
Here is an excerpt from Ms. Lee’s response which primarily addresses Moreland’s claims:
The children are picked at random. So there goes your theory that they are selected for their color. I would like to think that it doesn’t matter who the child is. If you truly just want to see the kids happy your message had a funny way of showing it.
Happy holidays. –Met. Rhonda Lee
Mediate claims that after Ms. Lee informed them of the Moreland comments they removed her response but left the Moreland comments up on their Facebook page. For the complete Mediate story go to this link.
In addition, KTSB has now officially responded to these claims.
Here is the official KTBS response on their Facebook page to Ms. Lee’s firing:
Typically this station does not comment on personnel matters, but due to the publicity and interest about this issue, the station has included the following statement.
On November 28, 2012, KTBS dismissed two employees for repeated violation of the station’s written procedure. We can confirm that Rhonda Lee was one of the employees. Another employee was a white male reporter who was an eight year veteran of the station. The policy they violated provided a specific procedure for responding to viewer comments on the official KTBS Facebook page. Included is an email that was sent to all news department employees informing them of this procedure. This procedure is based on advice from national experts and commonly used by national broadcast and cable networks and local television stations across the country.
Unfortunately, television personalities have long been subject to harsh criticism and negative viewer comments about their appearance and performance. If harsh viewer comments are posted on the station’s official website, there is a specific procedure to follow.
Ms. Rhonda Lee was let go for repeatedly violating that procedure and after being warned multiple times of the consequences if her behavior continued. Rhonda Lee was not dismissed for her appearance or defending her appearance. She was fired for continuing to violate company procedure.
KTSB’s response also included a redacted copy of the aforementioned email, dated August 30, 2012, they claim was sent to Ms Lee which states their “official policy” regarding social media. They argue her “repeated violations” of that policy forms the sole basis for her firing. The email can be seen at the KTSB Facebook page or at this link.
Some folks–some white folks–experience immediate discomfort whenever a person of color discusses race. If that’s the entirety of Ms. Lee’s response, it is direct without being accusatory and addresses the issue raised by the viewer.
I’m puzzled as to what her former employer expected of her instead.
If there was meeting where reporters were told not to respond to people on social media, and she did not attend, then she should have been reprimanded or suspended, at worst. Firing her for doing something she didn’t know was against policy is unfair. Obviously.
If there was meeting where reporters were told not to respond to people on social media, and she did not attend, then she should have been reprimanded or suspended, at worst.
Did you not read? The station wouldn’t even point out to what rule she broke. Which means, probably, there was no such rule. Which also means they were looking for some other reason to get rid of her and just pulled this reason out of their ass.
Wondering what assholes expect is an exercise in futility. So is watching ABC “news”.
This is why TV, and TV “news” in particular, is held in such universal contempt. It has been taken over by morons of the kind that run KTBS-TV. From the quality of Lee’s response, there should be a better job waiting her that’s worthy of her intelligence and grace. Not so much for the shitheads that employed her.
In a decent world the station and Disney would pay enough in lawsuits and penalties to put them out of business. Sure is worth a try.
I tweeted this today (@psddluva4evah) and it really chaps my hide.
I am an African American female and I wear my hair in it’s natural texture. My hair is much “bigger” than hers (think Mavis Staples back in the day, just black instead of read) I wear my hair not natural not as some sort of statement, but because my hair is healthier and I am way low maintenance so it easy to manage daily. I on occasion wear wigs or “straighten” my own hair, but normal day to day at work and at home, it’s in it’s natural state. It’s one of the reasons why I make a point of going on interviews with perspective employers, apartment managers, research fellows, etc with my hair as it is. The point is I want a future employer to see that “what they see is what they get”. I have more than enough experience in my current profession and speciality that if my apperarance is an issue for them that they would disregard my years of experience then FUDGE ‘EM. It’s their loss, not mine.
I think this situation is one in which this woman was “set-up” in a sense. They were looking for reasons to fire her. Maybe she’s a bad employee, maybe she a bad meterologist, heck maybe she can’t read the teleprompter, IDK, but there had to be more reason than this to fire the woman. If she is bad at her job, by all means fire her, but this seemed like a much better and more reasoned response than what I would have given, and I have had to give to people try to come at me sideways about my hair.
You live in the Philadelphia area, right? While I don’t watch the local “news” shows with regularity, I do know who the weatherfolk are. Except for “Hurricane” Schwartz, they’re all more sex symbol-ish talking heads. The only reason Jim Gardner is still on the air is because he’s the grandfather-ly type everyone loves, and he’s been on forever.
Naw, I live in DFW right now, but I’ll be moving back home to Louisiana next month. 8 years after Katrina I’m finally going home
As a natural-hair wearing Black woman, this story pisses me off.
After her stint as a national news anchor, Connie Chung said that 99% of the mail she got was comments on her clothes, or makeup, or hair.
(shrug) just the usual run of the mill racism, which continues to exist mostly because we white folks refuse to actually call it racism, preferring instead some combination of:
a) Any-other-hypothesis-other-than-racism MUST be true, and
b) Use cute euphemistic phrases rather than the word “racism” which white-to-white rules prohibit being used.
Same as every day in this country.
In the United States, if you don’t conform to the ideal in countless ways, you will face criticism and discrimination. This is true if you’re a middle aged white woman, the most invisible of demographic categories. It’s true if you’re a man of slight build — people will think “98 pound weakling” even though you did nothing wrong in being born this way. Hardest of all, if you’re a person of color, people will judge and be critical from the day of your birth until the day you die and beyond.
We need to move beyond the way we’ve turned everything, including each other, into commodities. We need to live with open hearts and minds.
So, she was fired for cause? Hopefully it’s verified by someone that she received that email before we all let it go. If she did get the email then it appears to be a legitimate firing.
Having been involved with a number of involuntary termination cases over the years I have to withhold judgment. In only one case where I knew the particulars did the fired employee provide a fully accurate account of what had happened. In every other case the ex-employee blurred details to his/her advantage.
That isn’t to say that I give the benefit of the doubt to the employer – I’ve also seen some incredibly ridiculous firings over the years. One place where I worked for just under a year lost or settled 5 lawsuits from fired employees during that time – this was a place with less than 200 people.
The statement from the TV station regarding the firing will, if backed up by firm evidence, stand up in court. The key assertions are: 1) written policy that was made available to all employees, 2) a policy that appears to be justified and reasonable (namely, before responding in a public forum employees must have the response reviewed) and common in the industry, 3) multiple warnings to the employee of repeated transgressions prior to the firing, and 4) the implication that the policy was enforced uniformly – implied by their statement that another employee was also fired for this reason.
On the other hand, if the statements of the employee are correct – that the policy was not written, etc – then she should easily win a wrongful termination lawsuit.
What makes this case much more sensitive was that the fired employee was responding to posts with more than a hint of racism, and her responses seemed reasonable. However, the TV station has a reasonable right to require that public responses from their public figures are reviewed beforehand and to enforce that policy uniformly and fairly. The question is whether they did so.
I can’t offer an opinion about the firing, because I don’t know all of the relevant details (the excellent updates show how just a bit of information from the other side can throw a presumption into doubt).
What I do have full information about, and a strong opinion about, is what we’ve done with the bit of information on which the post is based. For the most part, we’ve used it to jump to conclusions that coincide with our pre-existing ideas of how the world works and have put aside the healthy skepticism that should come with partial information. I.e., we’ve prejudged.