Categories: OLD Media Moves

Reporter's employment with public TV station ends after Alcoa story

A reporter for UNC-TV has left the public station after criticism about a documentary on Alcoa she reported, reports Benjamin Niolet.

The station is not saying how or why Eszter Vajda‘s job ended.

Niolet writes, “Zimmermann declined to discuss how or why Vajda’s employment ended.

“‘It’s a personnel matter and so I can’t say anything about that,’ she said.

“Vajda’s involvement in a documentary about aluminum maker Alcoa has been the subject of news stories.

“Alcoa is seeking to renew its federal license to operate hydroelectric dams on the Yadkin River. The state is fighting the relicensing, and wants to take over the operation.”

Read more here. More on the story can be found here.

DISCLOSURE: Three UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism professors — my colleagues — have criticized Vajda’s Alcoa reporting, but I was unaware of the situation until today. Vajda’s response to the criticism can be found here.

Chris Roush

Chris Roush was the dean of the School of Communications at Quinnipiac University in Hamden, Connecticut. He was previously Walter E. Hussman Sr. Distinguished Professor in business journalism at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is a former business journalist for Bloomberg News, Businessweek, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Tampa Tribune and the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. He is the author of the leading business reporting textbook "Show me the Money: Writing Business and Economics Stories for Mass Communication" and "Thinking Things Over," a biography of former Wall Street Journal editor Vermont Royster.