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A top administrator at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga pushed for a university-funded radio reporter to be fired -- not suspended -- after lawmakers expressed discontent with the way she handled herself reporting on a story about them, new emails obtained by The Chattanooga Times Free Press revealed.
Steve Angle, chancellor at UTC, wrote in an email last month that “the potential repercussions for the state representative and UTC are huge. We could easily lose all funding we are providing to WUTC.”
Jacqui Helbert sat in on a meeting with state legislators and high school students, wearing bulky recording equipment, including headphones and a microphone, and a badge that identified her as a WUTC reporter. WUTC is funded by UTC.
Still, Helbert never explicitly declared herself a journalist to the lawmakers, and when her story -- which has since been removed -- about the meeting came out, several of the state representatives complained that she disguised her identity and listened in on a private meeting.
Helbert disagreed, saying, “It was glaringly obvious who I was,” but the university proceeded to fire her for the incident.
“I do not see an offense that is much worse,” Angle wrote in an email. “I feel we are gambling with the future of WUTC.”
Helbert has filed a lawsuit against UTC asking that she be reinstated to her position with WUTC and reimbursed up to $1 million in damages.
Since her termination, several donors have expressed fury at the university’s handling of the situation, threatening to withdraw future financial contributions, according to the Times Free Press.
