Two Maine news anchors quit on air, citing pressure to do biased journalism
Cindy Michaels and Tony Consiglio of ABC’s Bangor affiliate WVII shocked many colleagues with their departure. Off the air, the pair said management had placed them in an ethical conflict.
Comments (36)By Michael Walsh / NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Wednesday, November 21, 2012, 10:22 PM
ABC News; NewsPoliticsNow3 via YouTube
Maine news anchors Tony Consiglio and Cindy Michaels' resignation didn't surprise company Vice President and General Manager Mike Palmer, who called it "unfortunate." Michaels said the pair were expected to do unbalanced political journalism.
Cindy Michaels,
46, and Tony Consiglio, 28, shocked their colleagues at ABC’s Bangor,
Maine, affiliate WVII with their sudden resignation. The announcement
appeared relatively cordial on camera.
“Some recent developments have come to our attention,” said Consiglio,
“and departing together is the best alternative we can take.”
But off camera, the co-anchors elaborated, citing alleged disrespect
from superiors and pressure to do biased journalism, reported Bangor Daily News.
“I just wanted to know that I was doing the best job I could and was
being honest and ethical as a journalist, and I thought there were times
when I wasn’t able to do that,” said Consiglio, who was also the show’s
executive producer.
Michaels, also the station’s news director, criticized upper management, with whom she had clear differences.
“It’s a culmination of ongoing occurrences that took place the last
several years and basically involved upper management practices that we
both strongly disagreed with,” said Michaels.
Consiglio started at the station as a sports reporter in 2006.
Michaels had been at the station for six years and worked in the Bangor
market for 15 years. But the alleged pressure to do shoddy journalism –
after a combined 12 ½ years – was too much to take, they said.
“It’s a little complicated,” Michaels continued, “but we were expected
to do somewhat unbalanced news, politically, in general.”
Neither anchor specified what political stances the management allegedly wanted them to espouse.
Unlike others at the station, the company’s vice president and general
manager, Mike Palmer, was not surprised by their announcement.
“That was unfortunate, but not unexpected,” Palmer said.
Michaels and Consiglio felt that upper management was not
knowledgeable enough to run a newsroom. But Palmer dismissed that
criticism, saying that news production is not upper management’s role.
“Upper management is not involved in the daily production of the news. Period,” Palmer said.
Palmer is not worried about the loss. He said he called a
spur-of-the-moment, nonmandatory staff meeting to deal with the abrupt
change. Everyone on staff reportedly attended, prepared to do whatever
is necessary to carry on, according to Bangor Daily News.
Michaels and Consiglio expressed appreciation for the “wonderful community” of Bangor in their finals minutes on air.
“We figured if we had tendered our resignations off the air,” said
Michaels, “we would not have been allowed to say goodbye to the
community on the air, and that was really important for us to do that.”
Michaels intends to focus on freelance writing, a novel and painting.
Consiglio said he will continue with his career in another capacity.
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