I Don't Want to Kill Anyone, I Just Want to Report the News (Patreon)

FTVLive got this email from a person working at a Nexstar station and we are going to share it. 

Now, you might think this is just one disgruntled employee ranting at their company. But, we have gotten a lot of other emails from people at Nexstar stations voicing similar concerns. 

It does seem that when it comes to having employees work from home, Nexstar has the fewest of employees doing so. Some employees have said that they would prefer to work from home, but the company is not allowing them to do so. 

This is the email we want to share and we have many more that raise concerns:  

More and more viewers are watching us on-air and online these past two weeks. People are turning to us, their local news stations, as COVID-19 spreads across the nation. It seems like the numbers of confirmed cases doubles every day. As many news stations are sending their reporters and producers home to work remotely, the only change my station has made is to buy more Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer. Those who don’t work at the station are not allowed inside the building, but if you are a paid news employee, you’re walking in to a petri dish every day wondering if you’re going to start coughing and develop a fever while you’re at work, or when you get home. You wonder if you already have COVID-19 and are just spreading it to your coworkers. You worry that you might be unknowingly killing your more vulnerable coworkers, family and friends. If anybody over the age of 65 or with a medical condition gets COVID-19, they will likely die. I will have to wonder for the rest of my life, did I give them the virus? Did I kill a human being, a friend, a mentor? What if I bring the virus home and give it to my family?

This is life or death. There is no exaggeration. As a young, healthy person, I am more likely to spread the virus and kill others than I am to develop serious symptoms. I don’t want to kill anybody. I know that journalism is an essential job and we must continue reporting the news, but we don’t have to endanger the lives of ourselves and others.

At my news station, all news personnel are continuing to work as usual. We come into the station at the same time, we use the same equipment, touch the same keyboards and doorknobs, sit in the same rooms and hold meetings, go out on-scene to interview the public or government officials, and then we go home at the end of the day to our families that have been quarantined all day. Everything that I have been exposed to at the news station, I bring home to my family. Their efforts at staying healthy and safe are thwarted the moment I walk into the house.

My job, your job, all our jobs can be done from home. There is no need for us to go to a newsroom every day and expose ourselves to a potentially deadly virus. I can use Skype, access iNews from my home with a VPN, edit video on a laptop, and post web stories all without spreading COVID-19.

Management claims they are following CDC guidelines. They say corporate hasn’t given them any direction. We ask, “what happens when somebody here is diagnosed with COVID-19?” They cite CDC guidelines. We ask about sick days, and we don’t get a straight answer. State and health officials say if your job can be done remotely, then you should do that job remotely. Yet management is not doing that.

I am writing this because as a journalist, I feel the actions, or more correctly, the inactions of my superiors need to be exposed. They are putting our lives in danger every single day, and it is completely unnecessary. I don’t know why they are not being proactive, but it needs to change.

If you are required to continue walking into a newsroom every day when your job can be done from home, I encourage you to expose the management that is putting your life at risk for absolutely no reason. Leaders must be held accountable for their actions and if just one of us gets COVID-19 because we’re forced to come into work every day, you better believe I am going to hold them accountable.