This is one of those stories that will make any true news person cringe. 

WVEC (Norfolk) did a story on the City of Norfolk's new public service app, that helps with traffic information, let's the user report storm damage and tracks severe weather.

Sounds like a good app and an interesting story. 

Well, WVEC Marketing Director Emily Mowers did not like the story at all. In fact she says she was "shocked." It seems that Mowers thinks that the city's app is in direct competition with WVEC's app, that she has spent a lot of money and time promoting. 

She also did not like the fact that the Reporter basically showed that the city's app is actually better than the WVEC weather app, because it does so much more. 

She fired off an internal memo to the news staff, saying how displeased she was with the story (it also appears the story has been taken down from the station's website). 

She told the news staffers when they decide to cover a story, they should ask themselves, is it good for the station? Does it hurt the station? Dies it undermine the marketing objectives of the station?

Ummmmm.... How about is it news? Is this a story the public should know? Those questions were never presented in the Marketing Director's memo. 

The idea that a Marketing manager is now telling the news staff how to cover news is unfathomable. Is the News Director and the GM OK with this? What about Tegna, who owns WVEC? 

FTVLive can not believe that this really happened inside a TV newsroom. 

But it did and FTVLive has obtained the internal memo to prove it. Go ahead and read it, but if you are a true news person, you might not want to do so on a full stomach.

Just saying.....