Fired for Saying Dems Received More Oil Money


This goes out to a NewsBusters h/t:

Long-time DC TV news anchor Doug McKelway has been suspended by local ABC affiliate WJLA-TV (owned by Allbritton Communications, the same people who own the paper and website Politico) after a standup report last month from a liberal cap-and-trade rally trying to capitalize on the BP oil spill.

“According to several of McKelway’s colleagues,” reported Paul Farhi in The Washington Post, “the newsman’s reporting may have lapsed into partisan territory when he commented live on the air about the oil industry’s influence in Washington, particularly its contributions to Democratic politicians and legislators” — which must have included bigtime BP recipient Barack Obama.

Don’t question the Democrats from a liberal protest! Then came trouble: “The episode led to a meeting between McKelway and Bill Lord, WJLA’s station manager and news director, that featured sharp exchanges between them,” anonymous WJLA sources told the Post. They insisted the issue wasn’t the lines about Democrats, but about “insubordination.”

[….]

When asked late last month by morning radio host Elliot Segal if he had been fired, McKelway said, “All I can say is, I got a great lawyer.”

…(read more)…