A television station in Nebraska recently fired its news director and co-anchor after she collected signatures for a pro-life petition aimed at making her hometown a sanctuary city for the unborn. Melanie Standiford told the Catholic News Agency that her firing from the NBC KNOP-TV came as a major “surprise.” Standiford was informed she was being let go for practicing partisan politics. “I said in response, ‘partisan politics’? I don’t believe being pro-life is partisan. There are people from both sides of the aisle who believe both ways. It’s just right versus wrong in my mind” she told CNA.
The termination came after a report by the Flatwater Free Press which stated that Standiford had distributed a pro-life petition to fellow church members in her hometown in hopes of creating a sanctuary city for the unborn. Standiford told CNA that the Flatwater Free Press asked her whether it was ethical for her to collect signatures as a an anchor and journalist. She answered, “this is in the privacy of my church. This is something that I did, acting as a Christian, in the privacy of my church.”
But when the article came out, this response was not included and the piece seemed to be an attack on Standiford. “The article was an attack; an attack directly on me,” she said. The day after the article came out, Standiford was told by her boss that she was being fired for “practicing partisan politics,” to which she replied, “I didn’t think I was being political with that in my home church, sitting in the pews in my church.”
What you do outside the job, should be allowed. This woman has a very good 1st Amendment law suit against her former employer. I my humble opinion, what she did was not political. Now the news media is cancelling people for what they do in their churches. Isn’t there something in the Constitution about separation between church and state?
Freedom of religion, and a prohibition of the government setting up their own. Think Church of England. There is no separation.
Yes. The state is prohibited from forming a religion. It does not prohibit citizens from following their faith. Such hypocrisy that the news organization would fire her for “partisan politics” when the media practices that every day in every way.
You are an employee at-will, which means you can be fired for anything. That’s how it works here in the USA, Ivan.
If she’d collected signatures for the pro-abortion position, the station wouldn’t have said a word. It’s only partisan when it’s for conservative or pro-life positions.
I’m repelled by NBC KNOP-TV’s decision since our nation affirms the human right with its 1st Amendment. It guarantees that “Congress shall make no law…abridging the freedom of…the press…” Although KNOP legislates nothing and is allowed to shape what it publishes, it seems to have stepped beyond the constitutional intent.
Perhaps KNOP believes it is allowed to control private work for a religion, also guaranteed by the 1st Amendment. Federal law forbids government employees from political electioneering and perhaps KNOP considers itself a federal agency. Perhaps our colossal broadcast conglomerates should be reassessed and treated as such.
Come to think of it, such reevaluation of big media would be disastrous for the democrat party and a boon to conservatives. And where would the FBI get its investigative material without partisan media publications? Hmmm…
You are never guaranteed a job; you are an employee at-will.
I fully support Melanie. Are we not allowed to have beliefs of our own anymore? NBC, shame on you – I for one will not watch your channel.
I really wish people would really take the time to read the decisions from Roe v. Wade forward. Roe never said that we had the constitutional right of abortion, but that we had a constitutional right of personal privacy that would allow us to choice the medical procedure of abortion. There is a big difference. Plus, the group of cases that followed, especially Casey that afformed Roe in 1993, was about states that had a competing interest of life and would allow certain requirements before an abortion could take place. Just so those requirements would not stop abortion then they have been allowed, like notification of parents of a minor or a 24 hour waiting period or informed consent by the physician instead of an office worker. We have never had a constitutional right of abortion, just a constitutional right of personal privacy to obtain an abortion within the first trimester. With that in mind, the court in Roe said that it was their hope that since 90% of abortions at that time occurred in the first trimester (15 weeks) that the only reason to have an abortion after the first trimester would be to save the life of the mother plus rape and incest. And, all Dobbs did was give this issue back to the states under the 10th where it belongs. 99% of the people have no idea what the 10th amendment means as well as the 9th. Dobbs never stopped the ability to seek an abortion, it only said that it should be up to the states to decide when and how much if any. But the 10th states that anything not mentioned in the constitution shall be left to the states. So many people are just confused and talk out of ignorance. Our rights and the ability for the Federal government to govern does not come from the top down, but from the people up under a contract theory. Yes, any city ordinance that would be in conflict with state law is void. But at the same time, any federal statute that would be passed to talk about abortions will be found void because in Dobbs, the court said that the word abortion is not found within the constitution. Therefore, the statute has to come from the state.
My biggest frustration is that so many people simply take the talking points either from Fox News or CNN and base their opinion on ignorance. But if you take the time to do some scholarly work and read the decisions themselves, Roe, Casey, and Dobbs being the three most important, you will understand that we have never had a constitutional right of abortion. Only the right of personal privacy found in the 1st, 4th, 5th, 9th and the 14th. Just read the cases and you will understand.
Hope the people boycott
That lousy channel….put her ex boss out of work