Former WSMV Nashville anchor Bob Sellers vents about his layoff on Huffington Post today. Sellers, who fronted the 6 p and 10 p news at the Meredith station, says he was thrown under the bus by management focused on saving its own skin.
He writes:
I sat across the desk from a boss who told me that management had decided to go another direction. This was the same boss that a few months before had given me a glowing personnel review for the work I had done as the 6 p.m. and 10 p.m. anchor at the NBC affiliate in Nashville. The same boss who told me a piece I wrote for the Huffington Post on local flood coverage was “extraordinarily well-written” and reflected well on the station. The one who told me three months ago not to leave to take a job in Washington, D.C. because they were very happy with my work and wanted me here. (That job has since been filled.) The same boss that submitted video that resulted in my being nominated for two Emmy’s for coverage of breaking news. (The awards haven’t been handed out yet.)
This is the American workplace, 2010. No loyalty, and a cavalier consideration for the life changing consequences of treating people and their livelihoods as mere pieces on a chess board.
Sellers says the calls of concern and offers to help flood in, but subside over time–leaving him with bleak prospects for the future.
He concludes:
I just hope not to become part of the growing number of woeful stories that constitute the new American Nightmare.
Sellers has done a lot of time on cable news in his career, including CNBC and Fox News, and can write a bit–in addition to his HuffPo stuff, his book Forbes Best Business Mistakes: How Today’s Top Business Leaders Turned Missteps into Success comes out this summer.
I think Bob will land on his feet.
