Gingersnap
09-09-2009, 11:25 AM
Fired KTVE anchor files civil suit
Claims Facebook posting was not cause for termination
By Stephen Largen • slargen@monroe.gannett.com • September 1, 2009
Griffin Scott, the former senior evening anchor of KTVE who was fired last month, filed a civil lawsuit against the station and its parent company in 4th Judicial District Court on Monday.
Scott alleges wrongful termination and breach of contract.
Scott alleges he was fired on Aug. 19 because he posted a message on his personal account on the Web site Facebook on Aug. 14.
"Griffin Scott knows what the Enola Gay was and that makes me the only person under 40 who knew that in our newsroom. Not sure whether to be proud or not...," the message said.
The Enola Gay was the B-29 bomber used in the atomic mission that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan just before the end of World War II.
Tammy Esswein, the station's business manager, declined comment, but the lawsuit states that in firing Scott, the station asserted that the posting violated a clause of Scott's contract by subjecting the station to public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule.
A lawsuit represents only one side of a legal dispute.
Scott states in the lawsuit that the posting did not subject the station to any negative publicity and that only his Facebook friends have access to his Facebook postings, not the general public. Scott also asserts that the clause used to fire him is vague and ambiguous and gives the station "carte blanche to terminate an employee's contract at their whim."
So he got fired because the 20-somethings in the newsroom were outraged that people might acquire knowledge despite a public school education? :confused:
News Star (http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20090901/BUSINESS/909010301)
Claims Facebook posting was not cause for termination
By Stephen Largen • slargen@monroe.gannett.com • September 1, 2009
Griffin Scott, the former senior evening anchor of KTVE who was fired last month, filed a civil lawsuit against the station and its parent company in 4th Judicial District Court on Monday.
Scott alleges wrongful termination and breach of contract.
Scott alleges he was fired on Aug. 19 because he posted a message on his personal account on the Web site Facebook on Aug. 14.
"Griffin Scott knows what the Enola Gay was and that makes me the only person under 40 who knew that in our newsroom. Not sure whether to be proud or not...," the message said.
The Enola Gay was the B-29 bomber used in the atomic mission that destroyed Hiroshima, Japan just before the end of World War II.
Tammy Esswein, the station's business manager, declined comment, but the lawsuit states that in firing Scott, the station asserted that the posting violated a clause of Scott's contract by subjecting the station to public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule.
A lawsuit represents only one side of a legal dispute.
Scott states in the lawsuit that the posting did not subject the station to any negative publicity and that only his Facebook friends have access to his Facebook postings, not the general public. Scott also asserts that the clause used to fire him is vague and ambiguous and gives the station "carte blanche to terminate an employee's contract at their whim."
So he got fired because the 20-somethings in the newsroom were outraged that people might acquire knowledge despite a public school education? :confused:
News Star (http://www.thenewsstar.com/article/20090901/BUSINESS/909010301)