Not sure if it is because of the many stories that FTVLive posted on the subject, but Tegna employees are being required to undergo “Conflict of Interest” training.

The company has sent out a video link that all employees are required to watch before and complete their training before August 2nd.

Here is the memo that Tegna CEO Dave Lougee sent to the Tegna employess and was obtained by FTVLive:

Dear Colleagues,

As we all know, integrity is a core value at TEGNA. As a media company, we must comply with all laws and take the necessary safeguards to prevent any action or association that may adversely impact our business and the trusted information and services we provide to our communities.

Knowing, understanding and abiding by our TEGNA Ethics Policy is fundamental to our ability to serve our communities with the highest of standards.

Because it is critical that we hold ourselves to the highest levels of ethics and professionalism, we require all employees to complete “Conflicts of Interest: Protecting Company Interests” training as well as a brief survey on ethics.

Please complete the training by Friday, August 2.

Because even the appearance of a conflict of interest can jeopardize the public’s trust that we have worked so hard to earn, it is critical that we all understand how to recognize and respond to circumstances that could lead to a conflict.

It is also more important than ever that each of us take responsibility to raise and discuss potential issues. If you have any questions about the training or TEGNA’s policies, please contact Chris Moeser, our Chief Ethics Officer, at 703-873-6964 or cmoeser@tegna.com.

You can also report ethics issues or concerns by emailing tegnaethicscomplaints@tegna.com or calling the ethics hotline at 800-695-1704. You can also use the ethics hotline and email to confidentially report harassment.

The staff at KREM, the Tegna station in Spokane were urged to complete the training early and if they did so, they have a chance to win an Amazon Echo. Here is that internal memo, obtained by FTVLive from GM RJ Merritt:

From: Merritt, RJ
Sent: Thursday, July 18, 2019 9:05 AM
Cc: KREM-All
Subject: ACTION REQUIRED: PLEASE READ: Important Training

ATTN: All KREM employees

Below is a very important email that was sent out by TEGNA CEO, Dave Lougee. TEGNA’s annual conflicts of interest training is mandatory for all employees and must be completed by August 2nd at the very latest. Completion is tracked by employee, and I will be carefully watching our progress over the next two weeks.

To create a little fun around the training, we will be giving away an Amazon Alexa Echo to a KREM employee that completes the training by July 24th. Let’s please make 7/24 the goal for all employees!

The link to the training is below, and you should also have it in your email. It is a good idea to take a screen capture of the completion page in case there is a technical issue with the reporting.

Please let me know if you have any questions!

RJ

RJ MERRITT
President and General Manager

One interesting thing… sources that have seen the video say that it appears to have been produced by an outside company and were pretty generic and did not seem to be designed solely for TV stations.

Also, one of the actors that appears in the video, looked a lot like David Espinoza Hall a former Anchor at Tegna’s KING in Seattle. As FTVLive told you a year ago, Hall had parted ways with the station.

That is a screenshot from the training video above and I posted a picture of Hall is on the right. If that is not Hall, it surely is his doppelgänger.

Good thing he is no longer employed by Tegna, or that could be a conflict of interest.

Just saying….