Philly Newsroom Management Described as "Toxic, Super-White, and Trump-Apologizing Management”
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When you watch most of the Fox O&O’s across the country, for the most part, they look like real news operations and nothing like Fox News.
Despite being owned by Fox, most of the O&O’s present the news straight and stay away from the conservative slant that you see on the cable news.
But it seems that the Fox O&O in Philly (WTXF) might be trying to look more like the Hannity network.
Back on July 17th, FTVLive wrote, “sources also tell us that at least half a dozen former employees, who worked under Jim Driscoll's leadership have contacted the Philly Magazine with their story. It is said that Philly Mag is looking into the allegations.”
Well now Philly Mag is out with the story and current and former staffers of the Fox O&O are painting a picture of a newsroom that is run by "toxic, super-white, and Trump-apologizing management.”
Philly Mag has spoken with 10 former and current Fox 29 employees about their experiences working at the station. These employees, who have requested anonymity because they fear retaliation, include on-air talent, producers, newsroom staff and more; span various racial, age, and gender identities; and range from longtime current employees to former employees who left the station after brief tenures.
“Is Fox 29 turning into Fox News?” a former on-air anchor asked rhetorically when contacted by Philly Mag. “Absolutely.”
This former anchor, who worked at Fox 29 from 2013 to 2016, found the environment at the station difficult even before Trump was elected. He describes the newsroom culture under news director Jim Driscoll, who started in 2013, as “extremely white, conservative, and everything wrong you would expect from such leadership overseeing news coverage in a diverse city.”
“When I first started working at Fox 29, Driscoll called me into his office and chastised me for openly praising a Black news director working at another station,” the former anchor says. “I always felt like I had to be super-cautious of how I expressed progressive sentiments in the newsroom, whether it was stating that I was a fan of certain liberal television channels like Al Jazeera or expressing outrage when a police killing happened.”
You can read the full story here
