Barry Nolan, veteran TV journalist: "I got fired from my job on a news and information network for reporting demonstrably true things in a room full of news people."
What did he do? Who did he work for? In his own words,
So, I’m that TV guy who got fired by [Boston] Comcast [channel CN8] over Bill O’Reilly. I protested the fact that O’Reilly was chosen to receive the Governors Award at this year’s Emmy Awards ceremony. That’s the highest honor that they hand out. The important word here is: honor.
Now granted – you won’t find a lot of Albert Schweitzers or Mother Teresas working in television, but at least the people who had been honored in the past had pretty much followed the part of the Hippocratic oath that says, “First, do no harm.”
O’Reilly was an appalling choice, not because of his political views, but because he simply gets the facts wrong, abuses his guests and the powerless in general, is delusional, and, well, you might want to Google: Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Plus there was that whole sexual harassment thing – the lawsuit he settled for an estimated $10 million. Not the kind of guy you normally think of when it comes time to pass out honors.
I found that most of my colleagues felt the same way. So, on May 10th at the [local Boston] Emmy Awards dinner, I quietly passed out a document that contained – not my opinion – but O’Reilly’s own words and quotes from his sexual harassment lawsuit. And that is what got me fired. I got fired from my job on a news and information network for reporting demonstrably true things in a room full of news people.
Next time, you're wonder why CNN keeps low-ratings borderline-looney embarrassment Glen Beck on the air, remember what happens to people in the news business, who speak up for some kind of decent standard.
It is a monolith, people, and it should be destroyed.
Media delenda est.
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