Sonya Heitshusen was forced out at Ch 13

[enisthemenace]

Well that lasted all of half an hour.

Yeah...I know. Couldn’t take it anymore

 

[CYdTracked]

I switched from 13 to 8 a few years ago, not because of how anybody looked, but because the new blonde-haired sportsreader made me want to throw bricks at my TV, I think his initials are JS.

For a second there I thought you were going to say Whitney Blakemore who they had doing a few random sports casts at one time. I hate to sound hypocritical here but her voice is annoying as hell and she probably was not hired for her looks either. And before anyone goes and accuses me of being a big fan of Sonya or whatever you can probably go back and find posts here around the time she had her drunk driving incident that I probably was harsh on her and found it worthy of being fired for since another guy at Ch 13 at the time got arrested the same weekend for drunk driving too.

I think the age and looks stereotyping in the media needs to stop. It's ironic how the media has been pushing all the equality causes for some time now but they are very hypocritical in their own industry of being stereotypical and lacking equality with their own news personality hirings. I just find pushing Sonya out like that in this day in age really strange and a bad PR move when she has more journalistic talent than the handful of pretty/young girls combined have that they've brought in recently that now likely will replace her.

 

[jdcyclone19]

When nexstar took them over, a year or so ago, they made them let go a few cameramen and editors. The people I know that work there call it "deathstar".

 

[alarson]

Love how people rush to judgement when they only hear one side of a possible story. And before someone says “well...where is the other side of the story?? Why are they refusing to comment?” It’s possible one’s refusal to comment is to protect the other party as much as anything else.

Don't rush to judgment but automatically assume there must be something bad about her her former employer is 'protecting' her from.

Use a little common sense.

 

[kcdc4isu]

How someone looks should not be the main reason they are on air. That being said I am retired but work at a golf course part time in the summer. We had an employee who worked in the club house who always put the TV on FOX, when asked one day why, his answer was they have the best looking women on air. PS the guy was later let go due to comments about female employees.

 

[qwerty]

My wife brought this up to me, and honestly my first thought was that she still looks great. I can't imagine a single person changing the channel because of how she looks. It's just weird.

What about a married person?

 

[SpokaneCY]

Love how people rush to judgement when they only hear one side of a possible story.

Because slow walks to judgement take too long?

 

[isufbcurt]

I mean look at the outstanding young talent 13 has:

Amber Alexander
Jodi Long
Melody Mercado
Monica Madden
Maria Lisignoli

and it's pretty obvious they pushed out the "old" lady of the group

 

[SpokaneCY]

How someone looks should not be the main reason they are on air. That being said I am retired but work at a golf course part time in the summer. We had an employee who worked in the club house who always put the TV on FOX, when asked one day why, his answer was they have the best looking women on air. PS the guy was later let go due to comments about female employees.

I will say attractive cart girls make lots more money than non-attractive cart girls. Not right not wrong but marketing is a huge part of any gig.

Couldn't care less about an attractive on-air "personality". Competence in any package SHOULD be the ticket but we all know that isn't the truth...

 

[Gunnerclone]

She doesn’t even look her age. They let a weird looking 1 like John Sears stick around but throw a 6 like Sonia out? ********.

 

[CYdTracked]

Love how people rush to judgement when they only hear one side of a possible story. And before someone says “well...where is the other side of the story?? Why are they refusing to comment?” It’s possible one’s refusal to comment is to protect the other party as much as anything else.

Ch13 likely is not going to comment if there is threat of a pending lawsuit. They have nothing to gain by going on the record unless they have something that rightfully contradicts what Sonya is claiming and won't damage them if she is planning to sue.

 

[SpokaneCY]

I mean look at the outstanding young talent 13 has:

Amber Alexander
Jodi Long
Melody Mercado
Monica Madden
Maria Lisignoli

and it's pretty obvious they pushed out the "old" lady of the group

Sounds like the line-up at a shakers bar...

 

[Cyforce]

Who wrote the article?

 

[isufbcurt]

She doesn’t even look her age. They let a weird looking 1 like John Sears stick around but throw a 6 like Sonia out? ********.

Sears must have a lot of dirt on everyone because in addition to looking weird, he sucks at his job. Oh and he tries to make his voice sound deeper than it really is.

 

[cmjh10]

I am kind of waiting for someone to push out Ron Steele from KWWL 7 in Waterloo. Just retire Ron. Everytime I tune in when I visit my parents its like falling into a time-warp.

He is still on air? He was old 20 years ago

 

[Cycsk]

Obviously if there was discrimination, I hope that comes to light, but the fact that she was a contract employee has to make fighting her departure an uphill climb, doesn't it? It's not the same as being terminated. Both sides fulfilled their portion of the contract and there was not a renewal. Legally, I would think that's pretty cut and dried. Doesn't mean I agree with it, but I'm sure this is the exact reason why television stations have onair talent sign contracts instead of a traditional employee relationship.

This describes most of the talking heads on TV news. "Pretty cut and dried."

 

[alarson]

Who wrote the article?

Why does it matter?

 

[Clonefan32]

Sounds like the line-up at a shakers bar...

That list reads like you are a presenter at the AVN Awards.

 

[Aclone]

Don't rush to judgment but automatically assume there must be something bad about her her former employer is 'protecting' her from.

Use a little common sense.

You might want to reread what the OP wrote. You do realize that “possible” and “automatically assume” are not the same thing, right?

Just use a little common sense. (Sorry, you earned that one)

 

[Cyforce]

Why does it matter?

I'm out of free DMR reads.

Wanted to see if they posted it on Twitter.