Can You Say Conflict of Interest?
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Former St. Louis Anchor Sara Dayley left KSDK back in 2010 to take a spokesperson job for the fire department.
Now, she's coming back to Anchor the news on KTVI, but she is still keeping her job as a government spokeswoman.
Huh?
Dayley will start later this month as the weekend morning anchor at KTVI (Channel 2), according to a station press release. She also will report stories for other weekend casts.
Dayley confirmed that she will keep her job as public liaison for the West County EMS & Fire Protection District, a public, tax-supported entity with elected directors. She described that job as her "No. 1 priority."
When asked about potential conflicts of interest, Dayley referred questions to Audrey Prywitch, news director for KTVI.
Prywitch said that because the station is aware of Dayley's other job, "we're even more cognizant (of bias), because we don't want to appear to have any kind of bias."
She said Dayley will not read stories directly involving the fire district; those would be handled by co-anchor Anne Elise Parks.
When asked how the station would handle more general stories that could arise, such as county government issues or tax increases in other districts, Prywitch said it would be "an experiment."
"Not everything you do works out," she said. "We hope this will."
And down the slippery slope we go.
