Newsroom drama on local Los Angeles TV stations showed no signs of cooling down Thursday, a week after KTLA co-anchor Mark Meester was suspended by management for showing support for his late colleague Lynette Moreno. was fired.
A KTLA insider told TheWrap that Meester was let go on Thursday afternoon. According to the Los Angeles Times, General Manager Jayne Drafts reported the shooting to the newsroom during a brief meeting, which previously reported firing.
master was suspended earlier this week After an on-air tribute to Romero, in which he apologized on KTLA’s behalf, a person with knowledge of the situation told TheWrap. Meester’s bio has been cleared from the KTLA website – just as Moreno was the week immediately after his sudden departure.
Romero, reportedly beloved by her colleagues in the KTLA newsroom, was not allowed to clear her belongings or say goodbye to longtime viewers of the newscast. The Times, citing unnamed sources at the station, said Romero was seeking a weekday anchor shift to spend more time with her family, but management declined due to the lack of openings.
Management only said that he had left to pursue “another opportunity” and regretted that he had chosen not to stay.
Meester went off-script during Saturday’s broadcast, saying the management of her exit was “brutal” and “unfair”, and apologized on behalf of the station. The four-minute ad-lib ignored a written script from the producers, who refused to show footage of Meester, an aircraft hired to fly a banner at the station that said “We love you”. Lynette.”
Meester did not immediately respond to messages from TheWrap.
In an unrelated matter this week, Weekend anchor and general assignment reporter Veronica Miracle announced she was leaving rival Los Angeles station ABC7 — without revealing where she was headed next.
Miracle announced on Twitter on Tuesday that she was leaving the station she joined in 2017 after a three-year stint at ABC30 in Fresno, California. She also hinted in her farewell post that she might be leaving Southern California, “Thanks to everyone at SoCal and ABC7 for their support over the years, it means a lot!”
miracle bio The page on the ABC7 site was blanked after her announcement, and it does not appear she was offered an on-air signoff, writing, “I anchored my last show a few weeks ago.” Neither Marvel nor ABC7 responded to requests for comment.