Yesterday, FTVLive told you that Sinclair was looking for a new News Director for KATU (Portland), a station that Sinclair describes as “…one of the strongest local newsrooms in the country.”

Who knew?

Anyway, we heard from a Journalist who applied to be a Sinclair News Director, and we wanted to share their story:

Here's my experience with trying to land an ND job with Sinclair.

Multiple conversations with the recruiter at Sinclair, then conversation with the regional news director and then with the VP of News. Went great. They liked the idea of me returning to the station I started at 25+ years ago as ND.  I grew up there and worked my first job there.  Know the town intimately and the station really well.  

Flew me into St. Louis, two hours away. Rental car that was promised wasn't reserved, had to pay for my own rental.  

Drove into town, regional news director and GM were in the building. Scheduled to meet and observe the staff for two days.  After lunch on the first day, GM said "Ok I'm done with you". And I left.  

Was told I was a finalist, one of three being considered.  

Never heard another word from them.  After three months, I requested a reimbursement on the rental car, took another month to get that.  Never did hear back from the GM.

Learned some time later they hired from within.  Apparently the GM's social event buddy. 

Now I ignore emails about jobs from Sinclair.

Sadly, applying for jobs and then being ignored in this business is not just something Sinclair does.

I don’t know why a manager can’t take just a couple of minutes to call the applicant and tell them they aren’t getting the job. At the very least, send them an email.

It is the courteous thing to do, and it lets the person applying move on with their life.

Just saying…