It’s not like any of us have to search far for something infuriating. But this business with KARE-TV firing a morning weatherman for … re-tweeting something a rabbi said … presses all of my buttons.
Now, I don’t personally know any of the characters involved in this remarkably spineless drama, other than John Remes, KARE’s general manager. According to the very minimal reporting on the incident to date, it was Remes who, um, enforced company policy. But everything that is visible about the firing of Sven Sundgaard is too familiar to the innocuous-oriented world of local TV news to ignore.
In an official statement — posted on Facebook, not delivered directly by Remes — the station GM makes no specific reference to the re-tweet, but instead justifies Sundgaard’s firing on “continued violations of KARE 11’s news ethics and other policies”. No further explanation. Thereby leaving the impression that the weatherman is guilty of a series of offenses, none of which can be mentioned because of, wait for it, corporate privacy policies.
The basic story is that Sundgaard, a Twin Cities native and 11-year employee (for whatever that’s worth), retweeted a comment by Michael Latz, head rabbi for Shir Tikvah, a temple in southwest Minneapolis well known for its commitment to liberal social issues.
Latz’ tweet read:
“Morning Consult, a reputable polling firm dropped a poll last week that stated 81% of Americans support our governor’s [sic] Stay At Home directives in oirder to save lives and slow the spread of COVID-19. 81% of Americans is approximately 272,000,000 people. I understand the press has an obligation to cover rallies at state capitols by the “liberate the state” white nationalist Nazi sympathizer gun fetishist miscreants. We must pay attention to armed extremists. And. Despite support from the President & the Chair of the Republican National Committee there were less than 10,000 of these protestors across the nation. Keep perspective.”
So okay, the rabbi may be admonished for the line about “white nationalist Nazi sympathizer”. But given any educated Jew’s familiarity with the Holocaust and the faces of incipient fascism, he gets a pass from me for jumping to that particular conclusion. As for the business about “gun fetishist”, and “miscreants” and “armed extremist”, what’s to debate? Would Mr. Remes care to step into the bright light of a public forum and disagree with any of those characterizations?
The Star Tribune story included a telling bit about increasingly desperate and subservient GOP Senate candidate/former talk-radio “host”, Jason Lewis tweeting on the very day Remes fired Sundgaard. Said Lewis, ” ‘Today’s forecast: mostly sunny w/ a chance of idiocy’, ‘#Covid_19 models are about as accurate as his forecasts. @kare11 should fire him’!”
Which Remes then did.
It is too facile to conclude that Lewis drove the decision, (especially since he let the anti-Sundgaard wave build in the right-wing fever swamps for 11 days before boldly leaping in to exploit the rage). But Lewis very much represents the all-too familiar existential fear of commercial news managers, TV in particular.
In the best of times, local TV executives are disproportionately reactive to anger and rage from the right wing echo chamber. Employees in any newsroom you care to ask are all too familiar with the eerily uniform flood of calls, e-mails and tweets from, as the rabbi put it, “white nationalist … gun fetishist miscreants.” (They get calls from angry minority and liberal groups as well, but rarely if ever in as great a number or in such disturbing cult-like lockstep.)
And with advertising revenue cratering faster than 2008, these are far from the best of times.
Local TV news is a low denominator game. It is constructed to offend … no one. Ever. It remains in business by assiduously avoiding conflict and controversy. It long, long ago even stopped offering regular editorial commentary on important issues. It’s business model requires marketing, along with the attractiveness of its anchors, a bland, edge-free variety of news reporting. A variety in which the station itself has no thoughts about, concerns over or stake in the appearance of … “armed extremists” on public streets.
Since Remes and KARE (owned by Gannett under it’s TEGNA umbrella) will hide behind their company’s “personnel privacy” policies as long as they can, we may never learn what other, if any, “ethics policies” Sundgaard continually violated. But until then you know, in the interest of protecting the former valued employee’s privacy, let the public’s imagination run wild! What else? Pedophilia? Embezzlement? Racketeering? Parking in Remes’ assigned spot?
It’s important to note that Sundgaard also declined comment on his firing. I suspect there is contract severance language requiring non-disparagment if not total silence.
Given the absence of any consistent media reporting or analysis in Minnesota, (a self-serving reference), it’ll be interesting to see if any entity of influence — the Strib editorial page, a pubic letter from a prominent local TV news “leader” — steps up in Sundgaard’s defense? Or at the very least to defend the right of employees to also be citizens and express concerns and opinions — about armed extremists — on their personal social media.
Far better though would be that mythical person(s) of influence examine the root of employers’ fears over First Amendment expression by citizen-employees? Is it really as shallow and cowardly as a potential loss of ad revenue?
Lacking even a minimum level of transparency — for a business based on the emotional appeal of its personalities — the public’s imagination will continue to harbor suspicions. Namely that KARE fired Sundgaard for retweeting what the majority of Minnesotans think when they see a small bunch of astro-turfed miscreants waving guns on public property.
Thank you!!! It boggles the mind. He did nothing wrong. Kare 11 is obviously totally out of touch with it’s community. Sven is well respected and loved. We all know the other local networks are already waiting in the wings to hire him after his year of separation is over. Sorry KARE 11 you lost this viewer.
Well, the concept of brave newsrooms heroically bringing us the truth takes another hit….
Well argued, Brian. Sungaard’s crime appears to have been the exhibition of conscience. We certainly can’t have that.
How ironic this emanated within a news organization. Journalism? The business model is attracting and holding eyeballs. Bottom line. Period.
Thanks for this. I would like to encourage everyone (hoping in the tens of thousands) to mail (not email) letters and postcards protesting this injustice. Do it now!
KARE-11
8811 Olson Memorial Hwy, Golden Valley, MN 55427
Rabbi Latz may have a point about white nationalists. The WaPo article “Protests Spread, Fueled by Economic Woes and Internet Subcultures,” had this to say: “In many cases the protests, which have been supported by conservative megadonors, have ties to a host of darker Internet subcultures — people who oppose vaccination, the self-identified Western-chauvinist Proud Boys group, anti-government conspiracy theorists known as QAnon, and people touting a coming civil war.”
Proud Boys say they are not racist, using that disclaimer as cover for some ideas which are in fact very racist. They comprise various sub-groups, and anti-Semitism is tolerated within the organization. Co-founder Gavin McGinnes posted a video called “Ten Things I Hate About Jews,” and has made other anti-Semitic gestures and statements. (See ADL’s article at https://www.adl.org/resources/backgrounders/proud-boys-0).
We can quibble about whether or not white nationalism is the same thing as Naziism, but such a conversation would be splitting hairs. Anyone with Jewish ancestry, or friendly ties with the Jewish community, should be very concerned about the support of these protests by monied powers-that-be. The firing of Sven, taken in this context, seems very menacing to me.
to your point about anti semitism and possible Nazi links with these protestors, here is an article from today’s WaPo:
9:27 a.m.
State official condemns Nazi slogans that target Jewish governor at ‘reopen Illinois’ protest
At least two signs displayed Friday at a protest outside the Illinois Capitol used Nazi slogans to urge Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D) to restart the state’s economy, according to photos from the event.
One sign read “Arbeit macht frei, J.B.” — the governor’s initials alongside the German phrase “Work sets you free” that appeared at the entrance to Auschwitz and other concentration camps during the Holocaust. Another sign said “Heil, Pritzker” and included a swastika.
Anne Caprara, Pritzker’s chief of staff, condemned the anti-Semitic signs in a statement.
“Don’t want to hear about ‘liberty’ when these signs along with the ones portraying Illinois’ Jewish Gov, whose family came to Chicago fleeing pogroms, as Hitler seem to be a staple at today’s protests,” she wrote. “You can protest a policy you don’t like without being ragingly bigoted.”
Anti-Semitic messages have appeared at other recent protests urging governors to reopen their states’ economies. A few people at a demonstration in Columbus, Ohio, on April 18 carried signs with an illustration of a rat with the Star of David on it and the words “The real plague.” A sign at an April 16 rally in Michigan said “Heil Witmer,” referencing Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Most anti-quarantine demonstrations have been organized by fairly mainstream conservative activists, but extremist groups have helped to lead or advertise some of the rallies. Far-right activists have also participated in protests in which they have not been involved organizing, according to the Anti-Defamation League, a group that opposes anti-Semitism and other extremism.
By Marisa Iati
Anybody, even a Rabbi who compares anything or anyone, to Nazis loses the argument before it is started. Sven should have been more selective in what tweets to repost.
Give up on this bromide. There actually ARE active, armed, overtly anti-Semitic and outright neo-Nazi organizations which not only exist in the USA in 2020, as well as in several other western democracies, but they are effectively recruiting supporters by means of the modern digital electronic networks, as has been well documented by the investigators of the Southern Poverty Law Center and other reliable sources. There’s also an expanding movement of armed extremist pro-Trump elements broadly described as “white nationalist”—meaning in fact, white supremacist—which may differ in insignia or slogans from the neo-nazis but that’s merely a difference in style, not in substance. These deplorable (I use the term intentionally!) hate-mongers and apostles of intolerance have been able to attract largely supportive mass audiences both on-line and in public appearances at many colleges and in mass rallies such as the gun fanatics’ Richmond capitol protest, in the period before the pandemic health crisis caused curtailment of such events. It’s a miscalculation to apply the now-outdated “rules of rhetorical disqualification” to the phenomenon of resurgent, heavily-armed ultra-rightist and overtly racialist political gangs here or in Europe or anywhere. It’s a fact also that the national administration under Trump’s direction has signaled its encouragement to these hate-instigating de-stabilizers. Part of the overall Trump stategy is to stir the specter of aggressive violence in the event of electoral defeat. Don’t you recall how he refused to say he would abide by the results of the 2016 voting, unless he won? He said that BEFORE the balloting, when most of his own campaign and neary all other observers expected Clinton would be elected. Since then, every effort has been made by the entire GOP apparatus to suppress and purge voters wherever they can; and from Day One, Trump commenced lying about the actual 2016 results and actively seeking to de-legitimize and discredit the neutral and non-partisan administration of fair and secure elections. As of now, Trump’s in no danger of losing to the hapless Mr. Biden, but if he is unsure in October, he won’t hesitate to incite these contemporary equivalents to the Nazi S.A. forces to bloodshed and terror tactics on his behalf.
The unhygienic (sans mask) protestors should know guns don’t overcome a plague. Social distancing, testing those at risk and eventually everyone will continue until there is a vaccine. Sven is a TV personality has given up a private voice to TEGNA that can legally tie his tongue. We can only #boycottKARE11. I have no other choice.