Tuesday, September 16, 2008

Valles drama

OK, so lots of my friends are requesting I sort out the Michelle Valles situation here at KXAN. Honestly, I know very little. I know that when they were trying to negotiate her new contract, something happened which led to her quitting. I do not know if she was fired. I do not know if they wanted to pay her less (though I would doubt it due to budgeting reports I know of.)

Nonetheless, KXAN released that Michelle Valles would no longer be a part of our station and we've received both praises and dismissals. The one I decided to choose was an against the decision email:

After seeing that Michelle Valles is no longer at your station, it is with much regret that we will be watching another station from now on. She gave us a perspective no one else did. And something I liked, she did NOT act like a prime donna nor was she condescending. All the "fluff" the other stations import is certainly not impressive to the people I know and Michelle made us feel like she was one of us. We wish her well, and whatever station she shows up on, we'll be there. Thanx.

Now, let's break this down a bit.

(1) "It is with much regret..." Really? I mean, we don't know who you are.
(2) "a perspective no one else did" Ok, I heart Michelle, I think she's super nice. However, at no point did she write anything on perspectives. We used to call anchors in school "glorified overpaid readers." Does that make them untalented? No way. It's hard to publically speak with great diction three times a night for thirty minutes. Still, it's not like she wrote the perspective.
(3) I can only assume he/she meant "report" instead of "import" since we are not servers.
(4) "prime donna" must be much worse than a "prima donna." Funny story, though, when I was 3, I thought it was "pre-Madonna" HAha.
(5) Michelle was one of "you." She's a person, just like all anchors. They mess up, they have bad days, they cry. Real people.
(6) Trust me, people writing in, at no point will a station in Austin hire Michelle after what she did after the "quitting/firing." So when you follow her to whatever station she shows up on, it may take a moving truck.

So, goodbye Michelle Valles. You will be missed on my personal level. However, on a professional level, I know 25 college graduates that would do your job for 1/10th of the price, including me.

2 comments:

Ashley said...

On point number 3 they possibly meant "impart". They need some serious editing, as do most of the e-mails you post. I'm surprised that many of these people even send these e-mails to a professional place because they obviously don't read over them.

Blair said...

I agree Ashley. I just think a lot of people think news stations get their ideas from leads, or people calling in. But, for the most part, we just get crazies. HAha.