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'Let them eat cake' at KIRO 7 after News Director Laura Evans was walked out of the station a week ago.
Ouch! That's a lot. Looks fake to me. Cannot verify. However, one of my insider sources and former KIRO employee put it this way: "I worked for some bad managers and horrible people. Only one was both."
Pic courtesy: ftvlive.com. (Somebody sent it to them)!
Would call this a little bit of both
ReplyDeleteImagine being this person. Either heartbreaking to see or maybe a chance to look in the mirror? Did you say you worked with her Wayne? Was she just qualified or ready for this position? Being a good person is not a skill set though.
ReplyDeleteNever worked with her. She certainly seemed qualified, running KING for a few months as interim and then getting a tune-up running a Dayton newsroom. She eventually ran into a buzz saw with Cox cuts that were likely mandated, like the sports dept. SHe did not get the KING job for some reason, perhaps because her predecessor was also a woman and they wanted to bring in a marjor market guy frm San Fran. Now she's out at KIRO. Based on the quote I posted, she was not liked for whatever reason.
DeleteThe "cake" post is in poor taste and a symptom of a larger problem. Experience in newsrooms is shrinking by the minute due to the commensurately shrinking payrolls - no such thing as a thick skin anymore. Newsrooms are not for snowflakes. Laura likely deserves criticism but not character assassination. The "cake" poster should aim much, much higher at Cox and Apollo which has stripped so many resources - headcount and otherwise - from all their stations.
ReplyDeleteThis is appaling regardless of whether it is real or not. KIRO's newsroom certainly had plenty of problems during Evans' tenure, and the station staff is well within their rights to feel relieved that she is gone. But this is a bridge too far! Evans doesn't deserve this level of resentment.
ReplyDeleteWould agree. While I note what I said above, this is taking it a little far considering that all she was probably guilty of was carrying out corporate's orders.
DeleteSo FTVLive Wayne this morning has posted that the cake in fact was real; that site had an insider from the station email them to advise as much AND that there is now a trash can that has also gone up inside the station named after her. And from reading that story the only thing I will say is that this is going way too far. The people responsible for all of this ought to also be sent packing IMO.
ReplyDeleteI saw that as well. The cake was bad enough, but the trash can is just petty! Apollo/Cox corporate needs to come to Seattle and sort out KIRO before things get even more out of hand.
DeleteYes saw it. I suspected that animosity was real, but elected to pass on the that second pic. It's embarrassing to the overall station, and would make an applicant wary. I am sure HR is aware and although corporate wanted her gone, I wonder if and how they will deal with this.
ReplyDeleteWell, frankly they'd better. It's one thing that they have probably had trouble getting on-air talent to want to work there, it's a completely different issue if they have trouble now getting senior-level leadership to want to work there because of this, especially as the individuals alleged to have done it were described in the FTV story as you saw as "managers" which to me, correct me if I am wrong Wayne, would be directly below Evans in chain of command so they would theoretically be below whoever was hired to replace her in that same command setup. Apollo/Cox need to come to town and clean this up
DeleteI've gotten some additional feedback since our various comments. Evans was pushed into the job by Apollo/Cox and it was the GM who finally wanted her gone. And therefore unlikely there would be a search for the posters.
DeleteCORPORATE HR may be needed to force the issue. A real cluster!
Yeah. So the GM wanted her gone. Maybe it was over the move of the noon news then?
DeleteIt seemed to become an abrupt line in the sand followed by an abrupt departure. Go figure.
DeleteIf moving the Noon newscast to 11am was the straw that broke the camel's back here, should we expect the newscast to shift back to Noon in the coming months?
DeleteAlso, if the GM is allowing all of the vitriol towards Evans to happen unchecked, as it is, should Apollo/Cox consider reprimanding or even firing the GM?
It could be that the GM wanted to get the soap away from the lifestyle shows on 5 and 13. Maybe she fought back to no avail.
ReplyDeleteDo we know who spearheaded the move of the Noon newscast to 11am? Was it Evans or the GM? And what did Apollo/Cox corporate make of the move? If this is what ultimately led to Evans being sacked, then what happens next at KIRO with regards to the GM could very well hinge on the answers to these questions. I do agree with the logic of getting The Young and the Restless away from the lifestyle shows on KING and Fox 13, and I am even willing to suggest that having The Price is Right as the lead-in to what is now the 11am newscast could improve KIRO's performance in the midday news ratings battle. So it isn't necessarily a bad move for the station as a whole. But it does seem as though there may have been some serious internal disagreements about it.
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