A STATEMENT FROM WDBJ\’S STATION MANAGER

Ken Berwitz

The following is a statement from Jeff Marks, station manager at WDBJ, which employed Alison Parker and Adam Ward, the reporter and cameraperson killed this morning by Vester Lee Flanagan, AKA Bryce Williams, a former employee of the station:

“I\’ll tell you what I know. Vester was an unhappy man. We employed him as a reporter and he had some talent in that respect and some experience, although he had been out of the business for a while. When he was hired here, he quickly gathered a reputation as someone who was difficult to work with. He was sort of looking out for people to say things that he could take offense to. And eventually, after many incidents of his anger coming to the fore, we dismissed him. And he did not take that well. We had to call the police to escort him from the building.

“(He filed a complaint accusing the station\’s employees of racism)…we think they were fabricated.

“He then filed an action with the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission. Which he made all types of complaints. And there may have been one about Alison or Adam, I frankly don\’t remember. But about members of the staff. Making racial comments. He was African-American.

“And none of them could be corroborated by anyone. We think they were fabricated. But just as an insurance policy, we went around and talked to all of our employees, who might have been able to be exposed to this. And we have a pretty diverse workplace, and we got nothing about that. And the Equal Opportunity Employment Commission dismissed the claim out of hand. And that was that.”

Can this get any uglier?
The answer is that, yes, it can.  Let\’s hope it doesn\’t.

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