Michigan NBC station fires news director for traditional journalistic values
Hudson Crozier
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A top employee at an NBC-affiliated television station in Michigan was fired last week for expecting it to be a news outlet instead of an LGBT propaganda channel.
News director Stanton Tang of WOOD-TV had assistant news director Amy Fox write a memo to employees about the need to limit and adjust coverage of Pride Month, specifically Pride events. Staff swore not to obey it, pressured Tang to resign, and complained that Nexstar Media Group, the station’s parent company, hadn’t immediately suspended Tang and Fox while investigating. One employee called it “absolute malpractice” to wait while “the emotions are still raw.”
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The emotionally scarring document asked reporters not to “cover every Pride event we learn about” at the expense of limited time and resources. “We need to do some work to discern the newsworthy-ness of the event. If we are covering Pride events, we need to consider how to make the story balanced and get both sides of the issue,” Tang said.
“We know that West Michigan is a Conservative area in many ways,” he added. “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.”
Every Pride Month, many LGBT stories from mainstream outlets follow the same obnoxious formula. Journalists cover events with little to no importance beyond obsessing over the sex lives and gender identities of random people and editorializing about the right-wing “hate” they are faced with. On the other hand, objections to nudity and sexual activity in front of children or the promotion of sex change procedures rarely receive air time.
Tang made the horrible career mistake of trying to burst the liberal bubble at his network in pursuit of something resembling balance. He even spoke positively of the “number of valuable stories about Pride-related events” it had already covered. But his suggestions were enough to get him barred from editorial meetings on the topic.
An outlet called the Desk released a hit piece describing Tang’s memo as “anti-gay” without evidence and describing a history of complaints about him. Among them was the fact that he “consumed a significant amount of political news and conspiracy theories” and followed “controversial, right-of-center personalities” such as Daily Wire hosts Matt Walsh and Ben Shapiro.
Tang “occasionally emailed and texted reporters with links to conservative-oriented news articles, urging them to find similar local angles on those topics,” the Desk reported. Oh, the horror!
It’s hard to find a more transparent example of how uninterested many journalists and media organizations are in fairness and accuracy. The contempt they have for those wanting to hear alternative information makes them unapologetic about their behavior. It is becoming increasingly popular in the media to believe that many issues only have one perspective worth addressing: the “indisputably correct” stance of liberals. People in charge of protecting these fragile narratives act like the world is ending if their opponents have a voice.
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Hudson Crozier is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.