A former journalist with Nexstar Media Group’s television station in Grand Rapids was responsible for publicizing a controversial memo that urged reporters to pull back on their coverage of Pride Month events, a letter that led to four newsroom firings and caused a significant legal headache for the broadcaster, according to court records reviewed by The Desk.
In pre-trial briefs submitted by attorneys representing Nexstar and former WOOD-TV (Channel 8, NBC) News Director Stanton Tang, both sides say former reporter Luke Stier admitted to disclosing information about the memo written by Tang’s subordinate Amy Fox that encouraged reporters at the station to lessen their coverage of Pride Month events happening in the community.
Stier made the admission during an all-hands meeting with newsroom employees shortly after the memo was written by Fox and distributed by her and Tang, the records say. Stier and another journalist, Madeline Odle, were terminated after Nexstar executives held them responsible for leaking information about the the memo without authorization, and Fox and Tang were fired for writing and sending the memo in the first place.
Stier has not yet responded to an inquiry sent from The Desk on Monday about his alleged involvement in the leak. Earlier, a source familiar with the matter said Stier called a colleague at a competing station for advice on what to do about the memo, something confirmed by testimony during a sworn deposition on the matter, though the testimony stopped short of saying Stier gave copies of the memo to anyone else.
In the memo, Fox reminded newsroom staffers that the concentration of WOOD-TV’s viewership was largely conservative, and said coverage of Pride Month events might rub that audience the wrong way.
“We need to recognize that some stories related to LGBTQ issues are going to be controversial and polarizing in our community. While you personally may not agree with a certain position, people are entitled to their opinions, and they are our viewers,” Fox wrote in the memo orchestrated by Tang.
The memo led to significant pushback within the newsroom, and many journalists vowed not to follow its directive. After copies of the memo were leaked to The Desk and other outlets, reporters began posting the same view on their personal and professional social media accounts.
The outcry led to a significant amount of media attention, and triggered an investigation at Nexstar. Weeks later, all four individuals — Fox, Tang, Odle and Stier — were out of a job.
About a year later, Tang and Fox sued Nexstar, claiming the company’s executives wrongfully terminated their employment and defamed them in public statements made during and after the internal investigation.
Nexstar contends that the firings were in line with its corporate policy regarding editorial coverage and management practices, and said its executives did not defame anyone.
Last year, a federal judge overseeing part of the case issued a mixed order, allowing some charges against Nexstar to be dismissed while allowing Fox and Tang to proceed to trial on a few other elements, including invasion of privacy under Michigan law and defamation by implication.
On the latter charge, Fox and Tang say they were wrongfully characterized as anti-gay and bigoted in some press coverage after copies of the memo were leaked. Under Michigan law, employers are also largely prohibited from disclosing the circumstances of a termination to the public without permission.
In pre-trial briefs, attorneys for Nexstar say their communications executive, Gary Weitman, confirmed Fox and Tang were no longer employed with the company when asked by CNN reporter Liam Reilly to confirm a story that was first published by The Desk. But the attorneys say Weitman stopped short of saying the two were fired, implying that reporters simply came to that conclusion on their own.
Lawyers for Nexstar also said Weitman and other executives never explicit characterized Fox or Tang as anti-gay or bigoted, though they acknowledge some news outlets did so in headlines and stories. The attorneys noted that Fox and Tang have not filed similar defamation lawsuits against news organizations that covered the memo. (The Desk published at least four stories describing the memo as “anti-gay” in headlines, but did not say Fox or Tang were anti-gay themselves.)
Even if Nexstar had called Fox or Tang anti-gay, some of the information learned during the course of the investigation and their subsequent, related lawsuits seem to support the notion, the broadcaster’s attorneys wrote.
At trial, Tang is expected to testify that the memo was written out of concern that WOOD-TV might face a similar public backlash as Target or Bud Light, who changed their marketing practices after consumer boycotts over Pride Month and LGBTQ-inclusive campaigns.
“Conservative viewers were complaining that there was too much Pride coverage; he considered conservative viewers as the station’s core audience and was concerned that if he would alienate these conservative viewers if the current level of Pride coverage continued,” attorneys for Nexstar wrote. “He was concerned about the station’s ratings because Pride goes against the beliefs of conservative viewers, (and) e was trying to appease conservative viewers because he did not want to have similar issues to Target and Bud Light who both faced issues with conservative customers.”
Nexstar’s lawyers said Tang will “further testify that the internal memo did, in fact, require or cal for a change in Pride month coverage,” which violated the broadcaster’s editorial and management practices. The attorneys said their belief that Tang will testify to those issues was based on answers given during a sworn deposition earlier in the case.
In their own trial brief, attorneys for Tang did not dispute Nexstar’s assertions about his forthcoming testimony at trial. Instead, they reiterated their position that the way Weitman and other Nexstar executives conducted themselves during and after the investigation that led some reporters and much of the public to view them in a light they considered defamatory.
Tang and Fox also followed all protocols and procedures under Nexstar’s written policies, and were acting in the spirit in which they were intended when they wrote and circulated the memo, the attorneys said. They didn’t ask for the memo to be leaked, and certainly didn’t ask for the public backlash that followed, but were ultimately punished for simply doing their jobs, Fox and Tang’s lawyers contend.
“The evidence shows that Nexstar violated (Fox and Tang’s) rights under (employment laws) by divulging disciplinary action about (them) to third-party national news organization CNN and other news outlets about about disciplinary action being taken against Fox and Tang without first notifying plaintiffs of such disclosure,” the attorneys wrote. They say Fox and Tang are entitled to actual and compensatory damages, plus attorneys fees, if they succeed at trial.
A joint trial on the matter is expected later this year or early next year, though one or both sides could wind up settling with Nexstar before the case reaches that point.
Tang has since joined a Christian-format radio station, while Fox is an account manager for a local non-profit organization. In court records, both said they had trouble securing long-term employment following the public controversy over the Pride Month memo.
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