-By Warner Todd Huston
Was Washington’s WJLA TV anchorman Doug McKelway fired because he dared appear too conservative to suit the station’s left-wing news director and general manager? It sure is hard to escape that conclusion after reviewing the incident, in any case.
McKelway had a run-in with general manager Bill Lord last month that resulted in his being fired for “insubordination.” At issue was a July piece on the BP oil spill disaster in which the anchor seemed to go against the station’s liberal grain.
McKelway was sent for a stand up report near where a small protest against “dirty oil money” was held at Capitol Hill, Washington D.C. The anchor rightly pointed out that the protest was small and was peopled by little else but a group of far left fringies that are, as McKelway said, “largely representing far-left environmental groups.” The anchor went on to say that this might be a “risky strategy” because the one politician that took more BP Oil money than “anyone in history” is President Barack Obama himself.
Apparently that was all left-wing station manager Bill Lord could take and it wasn’t long before McKelway was called on the carpet for his truthful portrayal of the tiny protest. The result was that McKelway officially “resigned,” but GM Bill Lord is still claiming that McKelway was fired because of “insubordination” and “misconduct.”
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News Anchorman Fired for Being Conservative?”