Key Points
- Nexstar and former WOOD-TV news director Stanton Tang failed to reach a settlement in a court-ordered conference over his firing, according to court records obtained by The Desk.
- Tang alleges wrongful termination and defamation tied to a memo criticizing Pride Month coverage at the station.
- The case is unfolding as Nexstar seeks regulatory approval for its proposed $6 billion merger with TEGNA.
Nexstar Media Group and one of its former news directors did not reach a settlement during a court-mandated conference in a lawsuit concerning allegations of defamation and wrongful termination.
The news director, Stanton Tang, sued Nexstar about a year after he was fired from WOOD-TV (Channel 8, NBC) for ordering a subordinate to write and distribute a memo that was critical of the station’s coverage of Pride Month events.
The memo was widely viewed as encouraging reporters to pull back on their coverage of events, and said journalists at the station needed to be mindful that many of its viewers were politically conservative.
Newsroom employees revolted, and some began distributing copies of the memo to trade publications, including The Desk, which was the first to publish a publicly-available story on the matter.
Tang and his subordinate, assistant news director Amy Fox, were fired by Nexstar a few weeks after the memo leaked. In public statements, the broadcaster said the memo was not in line with corporate policy regarding newsroom practices.
Tang and Fox filed separate but related lawsuits, largely accusing Nexstar of the same wrongful conduct. Their lawsuits claim the memo was in line with corporate policy and that both were exercising their normal duties as newsroom managers when they wrote and distributed it to employees.
Last month, a federal judge overseeing Tang’s lawsuit ordered both sides to attend a settlement conference, a normal process that is intended to avoid a jury trial by resolving the lawsuit in an amicable way.
The conference took place on December 19, and lasted for about an hour and a half, according to court records reviewed by The Desk. It isn’t clear what was discussed or whether the conference was attended by a court reporter, but a one-page document filed with the court said the proceedings were not digitally recorded otherwise.
Both sides can continue to engage in settlement-related discussions without the participation of the court, and it is common for settlements to be negotiated between both parties in the weeks leading up to a potential jury trial. The judge overseeing Tang’s case has not scheduled a trial date in the matter.
The lawsuits filed by Tang and Fox come at a time when Nexstar is seeking regulatory approval for its proposed $6 billion merger with peer broadcaster TEGNA, which would help the company solidify its position as the largest owner of local TV stations in the country.
Under current federal rules, the proposed acquisition is prohibited because Nexstar’s reach would exceed an ownership cap enforced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The agency is currently reviewing comments on whether the ownership cap should be raised or eliminated; Nexstar and others have petitioned federal regulators to do just that over the past two years.
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