FTVLive

View Original

Sweeping Up with COVID-19

The first known San Diego media member to test positive for Covid-19 back in March.

But the station waited until the last day of sweeps in May to tell people about it.

KFMB Weather Anchor Shawn Styles says that he took a ski trip to France on March 11th. There were a number of reports about the coronavirus making its way through Europe, but Styles decided to go anyway.

The Centers for Disease Control listed France and Switzerland as countries that upon returning from travelers needed to stay at home and self-monitor for 14 days.

He says that he did that and on the last day he was in quarantine, he tested positive for COVID-19. He sat out another 14 days and returned to work on April 8th, which was 14 days from the day he was told he had the rona.

Staffers at KFMB tell FTVLive that they were never told that one of their own had tested positive for COVID-19.

It wasn’t until May 20th and just hours before Styles sweeps story was to air that KFMB General Manager Alberto Mier y Terán sent an email to the staff saying that one of their co-workers had tested positive for the virus almost two months ago.

“Employees at KFMB are pissed,” said one station insider to FTVLive, “Some are calling it a "Covid Cover-up and Risk for ratings,” the insider said.

One employee wrote an essay to FTVLive and has a number of questions for the station and KFMB’s corporate owners at Tegna.

The FTVLive Patrons can see that essay at this link.

Here is the internal memo sent to the staff just hours before the rest of San Diego learned the news of Styles and his positive test:


See this content in the original post