Did A WPB Station Spike A Story?
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Two whistleblowers handed over photographs and agreed to be interviewed on a story about conditions at the Palm Beach Zoo. The employees claimed the zoo was rat infested, animals were mistreated and fed rotten food. The story was covered by WPEC and promoted for several days. But, it never aired.
When zoo management found out about the story, one of the whistleblowers was fired the next day.
According to Gossip Extra, reporters at the station say management caved to pressure from advertisers on the zoo's volunteer board of directors. That was in 2010. This past Friday, Stacey Konwiser, a zookeeper in charge of the tiger exhibit, was attacked and killed by a 200-pound male tiger.
Gossip Extra obtained a copy of the spiked story, fronted by then anchor Emily Pantelides.
Coincidentally, in a video from the Sun-Sentinel, you can hear a zoo employee reporting the attack to 911 on a tape released to WPEC. A search on WPEC's website for stories about the attack didn't turn up any mentions of poor zoo conditions.
