Fox 17 pulls Wyoming city logo story; says reporter failed to disclose ties to atheist group

[rug]

Published: Thursday, August 02, 2012, 5:15 PM Updated: Thursday, August 02, 2012, 7:42 PM

WYOMING, MI — A West Michigan television station has apparently dismissed one of its reporters for reporting on, but failing to disclose his connections to, an out-of-state atheist group that is pressing the city of Wyoming to remove a small silhouette of a church on the city logo.

In a statement released Thursday, Fox 17 said the reporter who did the story no longer works for the station. While Fox did not identify the reporter, the story in question was reported by Jason Volentine, an anchor and weekend reporter, whose bio has been deleted from the WXMI-TV news staff page.

In July, Volentine was involved in reporting two stories for Fox 17 about the Madison, Wis.-based Freedom From Religion Foundation sending a legal letter to the city of Wyoming demanding officials there remove the depiction of a church and cross from the city’s longtime official logo.

All bylines have now been removed from first report, dated July 21 and headlined “Christian Cross Could Force Wyoming To Change City Seal,” in which it says Fox 17 “obtained” a copy of the letter, but does not specify a source.

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2012/08/fox_17_pulls_story_about_wyomi.html

[madrchsod]

1. an ethical local fox station

to bad the national fox news does`t practice ethical behavior

[brewens]

2. But did he do a "fair and balanced" story? How the f%&k would FOX know? They have

ne experience in that area. I suppose even allowing the athiests point of view to get in there was enough reason to fire him.

[SDjack]

3. Then, I assume, that a reporter who is a xian must also

identify his/her bias in such stories.

[MotherPetrie]

4. Exactly. And it would NEVER happen.

[cbayer]

7. The article explains more about why this was a conflict of interest and it wasn't

just because he is an atheist.

[kestrel91316]

5. Funny how atheists have to disclose their atheist connections,

but religious folks in the media are NEVER expected to disclose their religious connections.

Gigantic double standard. How typical.

[cbayer]

6. The issue here is that he apparently lodged the complaint with FFRF, then went on

to report on it. That's a really different than just disclosing your religious connections.