Alleged executive behind Lisa LaFlamme’s ousting allegedly disagreed with former anchor on multiple issues: report

MobileSyrup - Yesterday 

Lisa LaFlamme

For the past 12 years, Canadians have seen a familiar face every weeknight on CTV National News.

Unfortunately, in a move many have called sexist, that familiar face no longer has a seat at the CTV table.

Former CTV National News anchor Lisa LaFlamme announced she would no longer fill the anchor chair through a video message viewed millions of times on Twitter.

On June 29th, Bell told LaFlamme they won’t renew her contract due to a “business decision.” She was asked to keep this information confidential. The National News staff was not aware of her departure, her message indicates.

“At 58, I thought I would have more time to tell more of the stories that impact our daily lives as I have done for so many decades,” LaFlamme said.

According to reporting from Canadaland, the decision to oust LaFlamme was allegedly made by Michael Melling, vice president of news at Bell Media. MobileSyrup hasn’t been able to confirm the news independently.

The report states LaFlamme and Melling disagreed on two alleged issues. First, LaFlamme wanted more resources to cover the war in Ukraine than the company allocated. Second, LaFlamme defended CTV National News executive producer Rosa Hwang when the executive tried to shift her to a role on CP24.

“He does not stand up for the journalists…He doesn’t like it when women push back and he brags about how he’s destroyed careers of anyone who dares push back,” Canadaland’s source said of Melling.

The outlet also says Melling allegedly broke a rule Bell Media previously made not to interfere with its News Coverage. The executive allegedly shaped the company’s coverage of LaFlamme’s forced exit, asking CTV National News to do a segment with the show’s new host, Omar Sachedina. National News staff refused, but the segment did take place on the company’s local news stations.

“Melling determined the copy that went into the show about LaFlamme’s departure,” Canadaland quoted its source as saying.

LaFlamme has worked for CTV News for the past 35 years. She earned the anchor chair for CTV National News in 2011.

Many have contrasted her abrupt exit to Lloyd Robertson, the journalist who held the role before LaFlamme took over. Robertson was 77 when he retired.

“I feel other anchors who are as experienced and storied and hard-working as Lisa were given the chance to sign off,” Johanna Schneller, a columnist for the Globe and Mail, told CBC Radio’s Here and Now.

“One can’t help but think that women still have a shorter shelf life.”

LaFlamme’s feat at the anchor’s desk didn’t fall short. She covered wars, natural disasters and interviewed federal leaders. Yet she was robbed of her final moment.

“As I sign off from CTV, I want to express my deepest gratitude to all of you who call Canada home who have shared in this journey with me, and for the unwavering support of colleagues, friends and family,” LaFlamme said in her video.

Image credit: Lisa LaFlamme/ Twitter

Source: Lisa LaFlamme, Canadaland, CBC News

LILLEY: The full story behind Lisa's 'LaFlamme out' at CTV National

Brian Lilley - Yesterday
TORONTO SUN

National CTV News anchor Lisa LaFlamme in photos provided by CTV Wednesday on February 3, 2016.


Was Lisa LaFlamme’s ouster at CTV a case of cleaning up a toxic workplace? Was it due to a company axe man clearing out high-priced talent and establishing dominance? Did LaFlamme finally pay the price for her role in a costly lawsuit?

The truth appears to be that LaFlamme’s departure from the anchor chair of Canada’s most watched television newscast was due to a number of complex reasons. Those looking for a cut and dry story with an easy-to-hate villain or easy-to-love heroine will be disappointed.

There have been claims of an abusive work environment created by LaFlamme. Others have claimed ageism and sexism were the reasons Bell pushed her out.

After speaking to more than a dozen sources who have or continue to work at the organization, including those who have, until recently, worked with LaFlamme, this looks like a clash of egos combined with a company hellbent on cost-cutting.

Supporters describe LaFlamme as professional, passionate about her job and caring, but now the victim of a cold corporate culture at Bell. Her detractors put her down as another star whose bad behaviour finally caught up with them.

The parting of ways makes no sense from the outside. Her ratings were solid, normally close to 1 million people, sometimes shooting up to 1.2 million people watching her newscast which was always in the top 30 shows, according to ratings agency Numeris.

That’s far above what Global pulls in and more than double CBC’s ratings. In an industry driven by eyeballs, that makes her abrupt dismissal more puzzling.

Bizarre departure

The circumstances around LaFlamme’s departure: she broke the news in a self-recorded video from her cottage that was posted to social media and tells us there is more to the stor y. In her own words, LaFlamme was blindsided and said CTV made what they labelled a business decision.

There was no big send off, not even an on-air goodbye. It was quick, cold, and calculating.

“You have to ask?” said one of LaFlamme’s now former colleagues when asked if her own behaviour led to the departure.

Several sources, all former colleagues, described a toxic work environment at CTV News that started at the top with LaFlamme and her senior producer Rosa Hwang, now also departed. Even one journalist who maintained that they had only experienced good things with LaFlamme and Hwang said they were often referred to as the “mean girls” in the newsroom.

“When I started reading the stories about the toxic work environment on the Ellen DeGeneres show, it was like reading about the CTV newsroom,” said one source.

This wasn’t my experience with LaFlamme the few times I’d interacted with her over the years, but in those instances, she and I were equals of sorts — both journalists working at competing outlets. I worked for Bell Media in Ottawa from 2016-19 and never even heard a whisper of gossip about this.

Over the years, the reputation of Hwang, LaFlamme’s right hand, did spread, and it wasn’t always kind. Demeaning to journalists and editors in the newsroom was a frequent description.

Once LaFlamme was gone, though, the whispers got louder with claims that the anchor was harsh and condescending to the staff.


Lisa LaFlamme holds her award for best news anchor at the Canadian Screen Awards in Toronto on March 1, 2015.

“I don’t find her toxic, she’s demanding, but she was the lead anchor for a national newscast,” said one longtime associate who described the encouraging emails or notes they would receive from LaFlamme.

Even if all the claims are true, and gossip is highest when people are down, it wouldn’t be enough to force out someone as high profile as LaFlamme. I don’t buy that argument as Bell’s reason for forcing her out, and as you will see, there is reason to doubt claims of a toxic work environment were behind efforts to remove Hwang from the CTV newsroom, as well.

Was the writing on the wall?

Eight months ago, Bell Media, which owns CTV, made a move that in retrospect should have told us bigger changes were coming — Wendy Freeman departed as head of CTV News. While officially described as Freeman stepping down, inside the industry people saw the change for what it was.

Michael Melling, the man who replaced Freeman, is described in less than flattering terms by current and former Bell Media journalists. Politely, he’s called a company man or axe man for a reason. He cut costs and was the head of news when Bell laid off numerous newsroom employees.

According to former colleagues, Melling and LaFlamme definitely didn’t see eye to eye.

Sources say it wasn’t just budgets that they fought over, though that was a particular point of contention, it was also direction and staff. According to sources, Melling had tried to break up the dynamic duo of LaFlamme and Hwang by transferring Hwang from producing CTV National News to being the head of CP24 and the massive local Toronto news department.

If Hwang’s alleged role in creating a “toxic workplace” really were a reason for moving her out of the CTV newsroom with LaFlamme, why did Melling look to move her over to a position overseeing another large and successful news operation? Regardless, she didn’t want that job and made that known.

Hwang pushed back — several sources said she retained a lawyer to fight the move — while LaFlamme backed up her longtime associate. Sources say that, combined with battles over how much to spend on coverage of big stories, like the war in Ukraine, didn’t endear LaFlamme to the new boss.

As for claims that sexism was the reason for pushing out LaFlamme, Melling’s attempt to put Hwang in charge of a highly successful operation calls that into question. As does the fact that he has appointed Ramneek Gill as the general manager of CP24 and CTV News Toronto and Sophia Skopelitis as general manager of CTV News Channel and BNN Bloomberg.

Were past issues part of this decision?

So why the push then? Why fire LaFlamme, the face of the network?

If Melling was the one behind LaFlamme’s departure, then understanding why Melling, a relative newcomer to CTV’s upper ranks, was able to push out the star anchor of close to a dozen years requires looking at events in the past that appear to have soured LaFlamme’s relationship with the executive suite.

In 2015, longtime Bell executive Kevin Crull was thrown under the bus after the CTV newsroom, led by Freeman, LaFlamme and Hwang, according to insiders, complained that he was interfering with their journalism. Crull had instructed newsrooms not to give Jean-Pierre Blais, then the chair of the CRTC, Canada’s broadcast regulator, airtime.

That instruction was made public when the newsroom revolted at the idea that the executive in charge would have any say. Crull was shown the door within days after spending years working his way up through Bell on their phone and internet side, the side where most of their money comes from.

The other incident was the story on Patrick Brown that resulted in him resigning as leader of Ontario’s Progressive Conservative Party. While CTV still says that they stand by their reporting, key facts in the initial broadcast, which LaFlamme was intimately involved in crafting, were wrong.

It seems a long and protracted lawsuit — only recently settled — didn’t help LaFlamme’s standing at Bell among the executives.

In earlier times, someone in the executive ranks might have stepped in to block Melling or others from axing the face of the network — it didn’t happen this time. One former colleague said the bean counters at Bell won the argument on whether keeping LaFlamme was worth the investment.
Was this all about saving money?

Despite high ratings, it seems Bell wanted to lose the big expense of her contract and find someone else who would do the job for what most of us would consider a handsome sum, but still well below LaFlamme’s annual take.

LaFlamme’s supporters describe her as an old school journalist who always put the story first. At Bell Media these days, that doesn’t count as much as saving money does.

My initial response to LaFlamme leaving the way she did was that she deserved better on her way out the door, especially after 35 years, regardless of the reason. That remains the case, but according to sources, she may have caught the network off guard with her video posted to social media.

LaFlamme was expected to host CTV National on Monday, they had to scramble to find a last-minute replacement. Her permanent replacement was away on vacation, nowhere near Toronto nor a CTV studio, forcing the network to scramble to get Omar Sachedina in front of a camera to speak to local affiliates during their newscasts about his launch on Sept. 5.

CTV insiders say they haven’t been briefed on the changes or what direction the newscast is taking in the future.

Seems that at this point, the ship that is Canada’s biggest broadcast news platform remains rudderless and without a captain.

The Sun reached out to Bell Media, Michael Melling, Lisa LaFlamme and Rosa Hwang for comment. All of them declined or did not respond by deadline.