Scripps owned WEWS in Cleveland fired longtime Meteorologist Mark Johnson on Friday.

Scripps released a statement, but of course, there was no total transparency, but insiders say it started with an FTVLive story.

Before we get to that, let’s post the statement from WEWS.

“We want our audiences to know that News 5 and its parent company, Scripps, take protecting our audiences’ trust very seriously by requiring our employees to adhere to the highest ethical standards. We cannot provide further details, as this is a personnel matter,” said Steve Weinstein, WEWS VP and GM.

Now, let’s get to what sources are telling FTVLive.

A station insider tells FTVLive that this all started when FTVLive posted a story about Johnson shilling for a hamburger and a noodle joint on his social media.

Our source says that after our story, the station launched an “investigation” and learned that he was making faceless “ads” and then according to a source, he was, “linking the videos to his own social media which has lots of followers”

The station supposedly find evidence of this happening and at first he was suspended, according to a station source, but then was fired.

I’m not sure why WEWS wasn’t more forthright with employees and viewers, but then again, it’s the communication business.

This was a chance for Scripps to set an example to others in the industry doing similar antics.

This was the internal email sent to the staff: