Nexstar CEO Perry Sook sent out an email telling the staff that the company is setting up “the Nexstar Employee Assistance Fund.”

This fund will be available to Nexstar employees that have fallen on hard financial times. In an email to the employees, Sook says that those that would be entitled to the money (up to $3000) would include those that have suffered through a “natural disasters and other catastrophic events, as well as military deployments, serious illness, and domestic abuse.”

I don’t know, $3000 bucks would surely help out, but it doesn’t seem like nearly enough in some of those circumstances.

But, here is the rub in all this.

Nexstar and Sook are asking the employees to pony up the funds to pay for the “Nexstar Employee Assistance Fund.”

Huh?

Why can’t the company put the money into this fund, instead of asking the employees to do it?

In other words, Nexstar wants to employees to give them thousands of dollars and then Nexstar will hold onto the money and give it out if they think another employee deserves a handout.

I don’t know about you, but this doesn’t quite pass the smell test for me.

Here is the internal memo obtained by FTVLive: