Nexstar's WOOD-TV Fires Four Over 'Anti-Gay' News Memo

The news director of a Michigan TV station and three members of staff have been fired over an 'anti-gay' memo which encouraged reporters to get 'both sides' of LGBTQ issues.

The Daily Mail reports News Director Stanton Tang was let go from his role at WOOD-TV on Thursday during a one-to-one meeting with the general manager Julie Brinks after a two week investigation. 

The Desk first reported that Tang had been investigated by executives at Nexstar Media Group, the station's parent company, over whether a memo violated corporate policy. 

GM Julie Brinks

Tang had his assistant news director Amy Fox write and distribute a memo urging reports and producers to ease up on their coverage of LGBT events in Michigan. 

As a result of the memo, Tang and Fox were let go from the company, while two producers, Luke Stier and Madeline Odle, who were accused of leaking the memo in the first place were also let go. 

The original memo stated: 'We know that West Michigan is a Conservative area in many ways. We need to recognize that some stories related to LGBTQ issues are going to be controversial and polarizing in our community. While you personally may not agree with a certain position, people are entitled to their opinions, and they are our viewers. We should not cover every Pride event that we learn about. We need to do some work to discern the newsworthy-ness of the event.  If we are covering Pride events, we need to consider how to make the story balanced and get both sides of the issue.'

Stier and Odle had publicly criticized the message on social media, saying it didn't represent the beliefs of the entire newsroom.