Posted on 06/16/2021 7:58:29 AM PDT by Red Badger
Ivory Hecker, the Fox affiliate reporter who went off-script during a Monday report that went viral, has been fired from her job at the Texas network.
Hecker, who stated that "Fox Corp." was "muzzling" her and stopping viewers from receiving "certain information," now states that the station has been trying to prevent its reporters from covering hydroxychloroquine and its use in treating COVID-19 patients.
What are the details? Hecker, a general assignment reporter, said Tuesday that she was fired after the viral report.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, Hecker said that she lost her job via text after an initial suspension.
KRIV-TV confirmed to the outlet that Hecker is no longer employed at the station and slammed her for going to James O'Keefe's Project Veritas with the allegations.
In a statement, the station said, "FOX 26 adheres to the highest editorial standards of accuracy and impartiality. This incident involves nothing more than a disgruntled former employee seeking publicity by promoting a false narrative produced through selective editing and misrepresentation."
Hecker told the outlet that she has no interest in working for another news corporation after this experience.
"I have been longing to part ways with this strange, slightly unhinged corporation since last August when I realized what they were," Hecker admitted. "The piece with Project Veritas doesn't touch what they did. Fox 26 knows I'm fearless. ... I have zero interest in working for another corporation. They all toe the same line."
The Project Veritas interview in question featured Hecker speaking with O'Keefe about what she said was an agenda in quashing reporting that didn't follow the line of corporate headquarters.
According to the Daily Beast:
In one piece of surreptitiously recorded footage, Fox 26 assistant news director Lee Meier was seen explaining why the station does not do more stories on Bitcoin. In the clip, Meier said it's “an editorial choice" to not cover the cryptocurrency because it likely would not appeal to the station's early-evening broadcast viewership.
“I have passed on Bitcoin stories by almost every single reporter for our five o'clock audience, because that's not our five o'clock audience," Meier stated. “So, there are lots of reasons. If I know our numbers are tanking from five to six and in one particular segment… I may say, yeah, and Bitcoin for poor African-American audience at five, it's probably not going to play. That's a choice I'm making."
Reacting to Meier's rather mundane remarks about the incentives of broadcast news, Hecker declared to O'Keefe: “I want out of this narrative news telling! I want out of this corruption!" Hecker also said that the station attempted to prevent her from covering hydroxychloroquine in treatment of COVID-19 patients:
In a recorded call with Meier and Fox 26 vice president and news director Susan Schiller, Hecker was told she “failed as a reporter" for not looking at the “latest research" on the drug before boosting a post from a local doctor hyping it as a COVID-19 treatment.
“You need to cease and desist posting about hydroxychloroquine," Schiller told Hecker.
Station management's critical comments to Hecker appear to center around an August Facebook post the reporter shared last August, featuring Dr. Joseph Varon's claim that he used hydroxychloroquine to “good success."
In the call with her bosses, Hecker claimed the studies downplaying the effectiveness and safety of the drug made Varon's comments more newsworthy. At the same time, she brought up Dr. Stella Immanuel, noting that she also referenced clinical research about hydroxychloroquine's efficacy in her story about the controversial doctor. Immanuel, who believes sex with demons makes you sick, baselessly insisted that the anti-malarial drug is a “cure for COVID," drawing praise from Trump but bans on social-media platforms. Hecker's reporting on Immanuel at the time was largely sympathetic, painting her as a victim of “mass censorship."
“They sent me to interview Dr. Joseph Varon, a highly respected doctor who did 1,600 media interviews," Hecker told The Daily Beast. “They banned me permanently — after my interview — from covering COVID-19 medical treatments."
Probably working for Project Veritas now.
I’m sure she’s shocked, haha.
Not a surprise....
She is hot enough that she will find work, beautiful people always do. Maybe she plans on going into politics where she would do well.
Kudos to her for standing up to Faux News.
O'Keefe has never lost a court battle yet.
I also noticed him mentioning that she wants to become an independent journalist. She also has a couple of "official music videos" on youtube. I don't doubt her story about fox though.
Kind of makes it obvious that Ingraham chose to shut her mouth for cash. She was the first one who was hot on the efficacy of hydroxy.
They fire the whistleblower then refer to her as “a disgruntled former employee.”
We all knew Faux has gone bad.
Ah, I see the problem. She’s a white chick reporting in Houston.
pretty sure that was only a formality...
Foxnews helped kill many people. The question is why did the Murdoch family do this?
Their ratings have tanked from last year.
The sons have taken over the business. They are left wing nuts..................
100% Not Guilty
Because they're evil quislings who did nothing but s*** on the best executive of our lifetimes. They were literal criminals on election night.
Now they're helping to cover up the steal - and muzzling their hosts. Yet some bitchlings here on FR continue to watch the scumbags.
Cucked by their even more leftist and doyenne wives
Rupert should have in his will that any family member who is a liberal / socialist loses all inheritance : )
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