Jorge Mettey, former News Director and VP of News for KMEX-34 is suing Univision for wrongful termination. According to his attorney, Federico Sayree, Jorge is suing his former employer for “Wrongful termination in violation of public policy due to his termination following his refusal to allow the sale of news content.”
The suit contends KMEX allowed companies to buy time “during an actual news broadcast in which the purchasing entity appeared to be giving an interview of newsworthy material to a news-reporter, however, the true purpose was to allow the purchasing entity to promote their objective, whether through inadvertent advertisement by the appearance of their logos in the background of the interview or merely the opportunity to mention their entity name to millions of television viewers even though the story may not have been news worthy.”
The suit also alleges that Jorge was pressured by Univision to use a segment entitled “La Silla del Poder,” originally designed to speak with Fortune 500 company execs, to interview non-Spanish individuals that had no relation to the Hispanic community.Jorge claims he refused to allow the sale of news content for such commercial purposes “because it was an unethical and illegal process that compromised the integrity of a pure news-worthy broadcast.”
