A local TV station employee out of Pittsburgh, PA, was fired after putting "known cheater" in a graphic underneath coverage of Tom Brady in a sports package. Reports say it was 27 year old TV Producer, Michael Telek who worked for this news station, that is a CBS affiliate, KDKA, who was the employee under fire. Telek claims it was meant as a joke to it's Pittsburgh viewers as it's no secret Pittsburgh fans are not big supporters of Tom Brady seeing as how the Patriots have beaten their Pittsburgh Stealers numerous times.
Despite the fact that it was meant as a joke, KDKA did fire Telek for this graphic. A spokesperson for KDKA addressed the issue saying: “While fans are entitled to have personal opinions, we have a journalistic responsibility to provide unbiased reporting. The graphic that appeared Monday violated our news standards. The individual who created the graphic no longer works for KDKA-TV.”
The axed TV Producer who was let go, Telek, has spoken out on the issue. His feelings on it? "I feel like they're acting like I put 'Tom Brady, child molester' or 'Tom Brady, murderer' or something like that. I could understand being fired for that. But for this? I was like ... when it's something soft and light, we can be soft and light with it."
Some are outraged about this producer's firing, given how within the last couple weeks a 10 year old doing a school report on Tom Brady being a cheater made national news and they ran with it not criticizing the kid but promoting the story and here is this TV Producer who was doing this as a joke and got let go. People think it was handled too harshly. What do you think? VB thinks it was. He thinks we're taking things too seriously and lost our sense of humor. I say that's easy for a Falcons fan to say!
Telek has been in the TV business for about 5-6 years. He is on the hunt for a new job now.
Today on "VB in the Middle", we talk to guests Cosmo Macero & Author of the book "12: The Inside Story of Tom Brady's Fight for Redemption" , David Wedge about the incident down in Pittsburgh:
-Producer Lightning