A Rare Win For Media Integrity: WTTW Fires Its News Director – Wirepoints

By: Mark Glennon*

When was the last time you heard of a media outlet firing one of its top people for political bias – left-leaning bias, that is?

I can think of no recent examples, but that’s evidently at the heart of why WTTW, Chicago’s PBS affiliate, gave News Director Hugo Balta the ax.

But Balta is now crying foul and wrapping himself in the cloak of victimhood and social injustice.

Balta had been the subject of complaints from other employees about his use of Twitter and Facebook to express political views and “support for liberal candidates and causes,” according to media reporter Robert Feder.” Staffers feared some of his posts could harm WTTW’s reputation for credibility and integrity, wrote Feder. Others reporting Balta’s firing include the Chicago Tribune, Current and Media Moves.

WTTW maintains a policy prohibiting certain staff from identifying with political causes, candidates and organizations, which WTTW apparently believes he ran afoul of.

WTTW told Current, “As recently as this past weekend, Balta was listed as publisher and executive editor, owner and leader, and Head of Content on Latino News Network websites. He did not disclose to WTTW management that he still held these roles.”

Other specifics of Balta’s conduct are reported in Current. For example, Balta authored this 2020 op-ed for CTLatinoNews.com that’s partisan.

Complaints also were reported based on inappropriate social media posts, reportedly including a video of Balta doing bare-chested push-ups and a video of him dancing in his boxer shorts like Tom Cruise did in “Risky Business.”

But WTTW did not specifically mention social media in its statement to the Tribune about Balta’s exit, which includes the following: “This is the result of his undisclosed conflicts of interest related to his operational and editorial roles at other media outlets, which violated the terms of his employment. In addition, he repeatedly violated the WTTW News Standards he committed to uphold and which govern the newsroom he headed.”

Particularly notable is that WTTW is hardly a conservative outlet. It leans decidedly left, probably thanks, at least during his tenure, to Balta’s oversight.

Those complaining about Balta included three familiar faces familiar to many of you, the “Chicago Tonight” show’s Phil Ponce, Brandis Friedman and Paris Schutz, who sent a letter of complaint recently to WTTW’s CEO, according to Feder.

Salute to them.

Balta says he did nothing wrong and says he refused a severance package that would have required his silence. “I’m very proud of the work that I’ve been able to lead, collaborate and personally do in the last year,” Balta told the Tribune. “I think I was wrongfully terminated, and I think there’s a lot of misinformation that was leaked to Robert Feder….”

Just as you’d expect, he’s claiming persecution.

A statement he provided to Media Moves includes this:

After a year of high-impact news coverage and a clear focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, the intolerance I’ve encountered over the last seven days saddens me and has inevitably led to my separation from WTTW.

I can only hope that at such a critical time due to COVID-19, racial reckoning following the death of George Floyd, and divisive presidential election – I have been able to lead the news team in shedding light on the inequities plaguing Chicago’s diverse communities and bring much-needed fair and accurate coverage by a local newsroom.

He told the Chicago Tribune, “This is about the silencing of raising voices and giving visibility to communities that have historically been miscategorized in news coverage, especially in legacy media. This is about looking to curb a journalist, the platform that I oversaw, to speak truth to power.”[Emphasis added.]

Maybe Balta thinks we haven’t noticed who is in power now.

And Balta said this in a statement to Feder: “Throughout my career, I have vocalized my commitment to a mission of transparency over the antiquated practices of objectivity.”

That, in a nutshell, is post-truth journalism that has become so common.

He was earlier at MSNBC and was a member of the NBC/MSNBC editorial board, which shouldn’t surprise you.

*Mark Glennon is founder of Wirepoints.

UPDATE 2/25/21: Huge Balta today has this response to his termination printed in the Chicago Sun-Times:

As a journalist, I have pursued a commitment to transparency over the antiquated practices of objectivity throughout my career. I have done everything in my power to combat inadequacy in representation and systemic racism, which often cripple newsrooms.

When WTTW hired me a year ago, the television station knew of my mission and beliefs as a journalist, as a proud Latino and a passionate advocate for diversity, equity and inclusion. Working in the public eye made me an attractive candidate and, ultimately, news director at WTTW. Sandra Micek, the station’s CEO and president, wanted to change the news department’s culture and hired an experienced, successful change agent to accomplish that goal.

A year’s worth of celebrated transformative initiatives is a testament to the success of an unconventional approach. Among them were the “In Your Neighborhood” series covering COVID-19 and the launching of “Chicago Tonight: Latino Voices” and “Chicago Tonight: Black Voices.”

It is clear to me now that WTTW leadership and veterans were not ready for real change nor impact.

I was wrongfully terminated last week because I don’t hide behind the handicap of objectivity as if journalists can check their humanity at the door. I subscribe to transparency in the pursuit of truth. By acknowledging my own biases, I surround myself with people who don’t often share the same experience, background and ideologies. It is by engaging with them in discourse about story coverage, those who tell the stories, and those who have the chance to be heard that we ensure fair and accurate coverage.

In an interview with Sun-Times columnist Laura Washington, Phil Ponce, longtime host of “Chicago Tonight” defended journalistic objectivity. “Objectivity is, you know, it’s at the core of ‘Chicago Tonight’s’ DNA,” he said. “If we become partisan and political, or people think we are, I mean, at that point, we’ve lost our credibility and relevance.”

Objectivity proposes that there are two sides to every story. But in fact, there are many perspectives, and the ones most often left out are from marginalized communities whose representation is absent from newsrooms.

It is objectivity that dilutes the coverage of systemic racism in government, health care, education, employment, victimizing communities that are not looking for handouts to survive but a fair chance to thrive.

Ponce sent posts from my personal Instagram account to WTTW’s news department that he deemed as “overtly political.” Among them was a post celebrating Kamala Harris on Inauguration Day.

Kamala Harris. The first woman to be elected vice president. The first woman of color to be elected vice president.

That post was not political; it was about a historic moment.

Laura Washington wrote: “Like every legacy news operation, it (WTTW) can always do more to cover and reflect communities of color.”

But how long do people of color have to wait?

For decades, these communities have demanded fair treatment from homogeneous leaders in the media, which all too often shape the prejudiced negative narrative that the general population considers truth. And what Ms. Washington described as creative and potent in this past year’s storytelling at WTTW was a deliberate strategy demonstrating the benefits of building a newsroom on a foundation of diversity and inclusion.

As journalists, transparency — not objectivity — delivers news and information empowering viewers, readers, and listeners.

Hugo Balta, Chicago