The Nexstar Mess in LA

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FTVLive has been telling you about the giant mess at Nexstar’s KTLA.

It all started last week when popular KTLA Anchor Lynette Romero informed her bosses that she was leaving the station.

As FTVLive FIRST reported, Romero is expected to move over to KNBC and this obviously got the KTLA management’s panties in a knot.

Romero left the KTLA building and was not allowed back in. HR boxed up her desk and station insiders say that KTLA News Director Peter Saiers wrote a script to be read on air about Romero leaving the station.

Saiers handed the script to Entertainment Reporter Sam Ruben and informed him to read it. Others on set were told not to talk about Romero leaving.

People inside KTLA refer to the script handed to Rubin as the “hostage script.” It felt like Rubin was ordered to read the demands of a hostage taker on the newscast.

Here is him doing so.

As FTVLive FIRST told you over the weekend, Romero’s friend and co-anchor Mark Mester went off script and raked KTLA management over the coals during the Saturday morning newscast.

A number of station sources tell FTVLive that after Mester’s comments, he was asked by Assistant News Director Kerry Brace to come to her office, he refused.

Insiders tell FTVLive that he was then suspended via text message by the station.

Mester was scheduled to meet with KTLA General Manager Janene Drafs yesterday. Newsroom insiders tell FTVLive that prior to that meeting, Mester’s suspension was set for one week. Word is that Saiers was called back from vacation to attend the meeting.

While many, both inside and outside KTLA are cheering Mester for calling out station management, some have pointed out that Mester violated his Nexstar contract.

Here is a portion of the Nexstar contract obtained by FTVLive in which an employee can be terminated.

If the station keeps Mester, some say it will set a precedent that makes the contract seem moot. What happens if another employee violates the contract and is fired, but Mester was not fired?

KTLA could be heading down a slippery slope.

But, if KTLA does fire Mester, the PR nightmare continues and right now the station is in full panic and spin mode.

Nexstar is trying to play whack-a-mole in trying to keep Mester’s Saturday comments about station management off the internet. They have filed copyright claims with YouTube as they try hard for you not to see the video.

KTLA has a morale problem that longtime staffers say they have never seen before. Over a dozen people, on camera and behind the scenes have left recently and others are trying to get out.

Many of those that FTVLive has talked to point to both Nexstar and News Director Peter Saiers as the reason for why the station is toxic.

“Pete is behind all of it. Nexstar sucks too. Cheap AF, but Pete is confrontational, mean, rude, and doesn't have one iota of people skills,” said a KTLA staffer to FTVLive.

It has gotten to the point that Nexstar corporate needs to step in and do something.

Will they do so?

That remains to be seen.