Today is May 11, 2022.
The New York Times published this on March 31, 2016:
About two weeks after a grisly shooting in a Pittsburgh suburb, Wendy Bell, a local news anchor for WTAE-TV, wrote a public Facebook post that focused in part on finding hope and offering kindness.
But before the offering kindness part, she swerved into racial commentary that led to her being fired on Wednesday.
She was responding to a shooting at a backyard party on March 9 in Wilkinsburg, Pa., that killed five people, including a pregnant woman. No one has been arrested, and the police have not yet publicly identified suspects.
Yet in her Facebook post on March 21, which was later edited and eventually deleted, Ms. Bell played detective in a way that some felt relied on damaging stereotypes.
So WTAE fired the noxious Wendy Bell on Wednesday March 30, 2016. For those who haven't found the date calculator page, that's 2,233 days or 6 years, 1 month and 11 days ago.
It was all over the news:
P-G:
Wendy Bell, an award-winning journalist with WTAE-TV for 18 years, was fired Wednesday for comments she made on her Facebook page.
A statement from Hearst Television, the station’s parent company, said, “WTAE has ended its relationship with anchor Wendy Bell. Wendy’s recent comments on a WTAE Facebook page were inconsistent with the company’s ethics and journalistic standards.”
WTAE-TV fired longtime news anchor Wendy Bell on Wednesday, more than a week after she posted a controversial message on Facebook.
And so on.
So why am I posting this?
Because I found this at WTAE's website this morning:
I snagged a screen shot with something that could be dated. See the "Breaking News" banner?
That's this story.
But wait there's more!
There's even a slideshow called "20 Things You Didn't Know About Wendy Bell"
Things like (and these are actual captions from the photos):
- At age 18, Wendy was Bachelorette #3 on an episode of "The All New Dating Game" in 1988… and she won. (slide 5 of 30)
- Wendy went to high school with actor Ricky Schroder. (slide 8 of 30)
- Wendy almost went to the prom with Erik Menendez, who was also a student at her school. (slide 11 of 30)
Hey, WTAE! You showed Wendy the proverbial door 6 years ago. Surely you can find someone to push a button and completely remove the noxious Wendy Bell from your otherwise trustworthy website.
I'm sure this is just an oversight on your part. It's time to fix it.
