Reporter Fired for Going Rogue Leaks Audio of Boss Telling Her to Worry Less ‘About the Viewers,’ More About ‘Industry Executives’
Executives at the local Fox News affiliate in Houston told a renegade reporter to be more concerned about whether “industry executives” appreciated her reporting, according to newly-released footage.
The comment came during an exchange between Fox26 News Director Susan Schiller, Assistant News Director Lee Meier, and reporter Ivory Hecker, who made headlines this week for an impromptu announcement during a live broadcast that the network was “muzzling” her.
“Everything’s going to be under the microscope,” Meier told Hecker in one recording released by Project Veritas on Tuesday evening. “You’re not posting anything without Susan or I signing off on it. … Industry executives, who are the people who hire us and keep us employed — that’s the part that needs to make a difference to you. It’s not just about the viewers. It’s about what our CEO reads. It’s about what our GM reads.”
It wasn’t clear from the recordings how the preferences of the station’s executives might have diverged from those of their audience, though the disclosures suggest advertisers may have been related. Project Veritas released another video of an unnamed operative asking the station’s sales coordinator, Jennifer Bourgeois, whether they would be responsive to advertisers who voiced concerns about “anti-vaccine” stories. Bourgeois said it was possible, telling the operative, “A lot of stuff can happen.”
Bourgeois noted in an exchange with another operative that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was “in the pocket” as a monied advertiser, while agreeing that “every other” commercial was about Covid-19.
Hecker said she clashed with Meier and Schiller over stories that included hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malarial drug touted by some last year — included former President Donald Trump —as an option for treating for Covid-19, as well as bitcoin.
“Bitcoin for poor African American audience at 5, it’s probably not going to play,” Meier told Hecker in another exchange. “That’s a choice I’m making. An editorial choice.”
The measures that for-profit media executives will take to present coverage in a manner pleasing to advertisers is an age-old grievance among reporters. It is less common for the associated conflicts to explode into public view, though it has steadily become more common with the proliferation of alternative media venues. Former HillTV host Saagar Enjeti voiced the same complaint when he departed The Hill in May to launch his own podcast, noting in an interview, “The Hill was taking advertisements from Huawei, a Chinese telecom company. And I was like, sh*t, man, what if TikTok starts advertising? … I’d be lying if I said I didn’t have to least think about it.”
Watch above via Project Veritas.
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