Nexstar General Manager is Pushed Out
/
One officer was shot and killed, another wounded when they responded to a domestic disturbance call of a man beating a woman.
The WCIA report focused on the suspect (who was also killed). “WCIA talked to the cop killer’s family and used pictures of him with angel wings. The entire story talked about how great this cop killer was and that he was a great family man, etc,” said one person that saw the story on the station’s air, adding, “They never reported in the story that officers were called for a domestic disturbance because he was beating a woman or the fact he has two prior charges of domestic violence or the fact that he was a convicted felon and had a gun. None of it.”
The community took the station to task and a number of the station’s advertisers spoke out against WCIA’s coverage.
Earlier this month, FTVLive FIRST told you that WCIA News Director Rich Flesch was exited from the station.
At the time of that story, a station insider told FTVLive, “The GM is trying to cover her ass. She has yet to make any public statement like the station promised and still has yet to sign a single apology. The community is still pissed at them and continues to reject them.”
Well, now WCIA GM Sharon Rachal has been exited from the station.
Rachel joined WCIA as GM back in Feb. 2020 and is now gone less than a year and a half later.
As Rachel was packing up her office, a news crew from the station was trying to cover the Vermillion Co Fair. The crew was escorted off the fairgrounds by police after fair officials said they didn’t what WCIA there.
“The station is 100% still suffering backlash for their coverage of the cop killer,” said a station insider to FTVLive.
The staff was informed of the GM’s exit in an all-hands-on-deck meeting. There was no memo sent because executives feared it would end up on FTVLive.
