Last week, CN8 - the television network owned and operated by Comcast - dumped veteran newsman Barry Nolan, a former "Hard Copy" host. Nolan co-anchored CN8’s program "Backstage."
Nolan was fired after protesting "a decision by the New England media association to bestow its top journalism award on Fox News anchor [Bill O’Reilly]," reported ABC News.
Per ABC:
Nolan said he objects to the commentator’s bullying style, claiming that O’Reilly frequently bends the facts in order to get across what he described as venomous opinions. It’s not the type of journalism that should be recognized in the profession for excellence, he said.
Nolan started lobbying the board of governors in the New England chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences….Nolan says he was warned by CN8 executives to "tone it down," but he quietly distributed the six-page anti-O’Reilly handout to attendees of the event. He did not confront O’Reilly or "make a spectacle," he said.
On May 12, he was hit with a two-week suspension and on Tuesday of this week, CN8 fired him, citing him for insubordination.
Here are some snippets from Nolan’s first person account, published this morning on ThinkProgress.
So, I’m that TV guy who got fired by Comcast over Bill O’Reilly. I protested the fact that O’Reilly was chosen to receive the Governors Award at this year’s Emmy Awards ceremony. That’s the highest honor that they hand out. The important word here is: honor….
O’Reilly was an appalling choice, not because of his political views, but because he simply gets the facts wrong, abuses his guests and the powerless in general, is delusional, and, well, you might want to Google: Narcissistic Personality Disorder.
Plus there was that whole sexual harassment thing – the lawsuit he settled for an estimated $10 million. Not the kind of guy you normally think of when it comes time to pass out honors.
I found that most of my colleagues felt the same way. So, on May 10th at the Emmy Awards dinner, I quietly passed out a document that contained – not my opinion – but O’Reilly’s own words and quotes from his sexual harassment lawsuit. And that is what got me fired. I got fired from my job on a news and information network for reporting demonstrably true things in a room full of news people.
