Race and Tegna

While Tegna CEO Dave Lougee continues to try and backpedal from a racially insensitive incident from years ago, he says there is still much work to do.

He’s right on that.

FTVLive has heard about incidents involving a Tegna News Director and comments that the ND openly made to the staff.

Sources in the Tegna newsroom said that the News Director shared with several newsroom employees separately information from a photographer’s personnel file including car accidents over the course of a decade and bragged about how it wasn’t easy to get rid of someone of his age, tenure, and race. Specifically saying ‘it’s no secret what color he is’

Insiders say the ND bragged about her ability to fire veteran EP while convincing her to sign an agreement that she wouldn’t sue. Instead, she said, would tell the newsroom she was pursuing higher education. She said ‘It’s a move no one before I dared to make because she is black’.

There are other incidents involving this same News Director and statements they have made to the staff.

One station insider told FTVLive, “There was an effort to gather that information and take it to HR, but ultimately the decision was made that the Tegna work culture wouldn’t accept it, and instead there would be retaliation.”

Tegna might be talking a good game, but talk is cheap, it’s time to see some action.