Report: News Director Talked to His Church Before Memo Went Out

According to new documents obtained by The Desk, a former Nexstar Media Group news director held influential conversations with members of his church before he directed a colleague to write and distribute a controversial newsroom-wide memo encouraging journalists under his direction to pull back on coverage of Pride-related events two years ago.

The motive for the memo orchestrated by former WOOD (Grand Rapids) News Director Stanton Tang was detailed in a two-page report by former Nexstar Chief Diversity Officer Courtney Williams and the company’s Senior Vice President and Regional Manager Theresa Underwood. This report was used as justification to fire Tang and his assistant news director, Amy Fox.

According to the internal report, Tang initially offered Williams a number of confusing excuses for directing the creation of the memo, none of which had anything to do with Pride Month.

“The memo generated by Stanton Tang and Amy Fox was because of conversations he had with members of his church,” Williams wrote in the report. “He finally stated that this was the reason after being questioned about his rationale.”

The memo, which was first posted on FTVLive, led to an instant revolt within the WOOD-TV newsroom, and several journalists vowed not to follow its directive.