Heads roll at Q13
May 13, 2010, 1:38 PM | Updated: Mar 28, 2011, 3:46 pm
Q13 Fox confirms their news director has resigned, and an assignment manager has been let go.
Earlier this week Q13 issued an apology for not airing the controversial video that shows a Seattle police officer stomping on a suspect’s hand and yelling a racial slur at him.
The freelancer who shot the video believes Q13 tried to suppress the story because it has a “cozy” relationship with police agencies, and produces the show Washington’s Most Wanted.
Over the weekend, News Director Steve Kraycik told me the claim that his station didn’t want to air the police incident video because of its relationship with the law enforcement community was not true.
“Q13 FOX News did not refuse to air the videotape. In fact, we were in the process of researching additional facts and details on this incident, when the photographer we paid to work that night and who videotaped it sold our copyrighted material to a competing TV station,” Kraycik said last Saturday.
Kraycik tells me he’d “rather not comment” about the latest twist in the story – that he’s resigned.
All calls to the station newsroom are referred to General Manager Pam Pearson, who confirms to me Kraycik turned in his resignation. Pearson emailed me a copy of Kraycik’s resignation letter, which reads:
I want to let you all know today is my last day here at Q13 FOX. As the leader of this newsroom, I feel that under the circumstances it’s best for me to step aside. I don’t want to allow the issues of the past week to be a distraction to the news staff.
I’m sad to go and I will miss you. As I’ve always said, you do excellent work here and I’ve been very proud to be your News Director for the past four years. You’ve accomplished some fantastic things—expanding our newscasts in the morning and evening, earning strong ratings, launching Washington’s Most Wanted and building a better newscast. It’s hard work, but we’ve done it together.
I have no regrets about taking this job in 2006 and again, I’m very proud of the team we built and what we’ve accomplished. I wish you all good health, happiness and success.
Steve
