Bell is right on brand with this move.

Betting a couple of their most senior executives decided to save money and make a change.

Also betting other top level executives that head up Bell's competitors are meeting a.s.a.p. with an eye to signing Lisa LaFlamme should she choose to continue working on-air.

Her goodbye was gracious, heartfelt and professional, as was her time as one of Canada's most respected and appreciated news anchors.

Last edited by betaylored (August 15, 2022 2:58 pm)

You get called into a meeting room by your manager. An HR rep is there. A security guard is either there or loitering just outside of the room. HR and your manager inform you that you are dismissed effective immediately. They request your badge and keys, and give you a stack of documents outlining the legalities and the compensation package details. They tell you to go over them with your legal advisor, and then direct you to the security guard who will escort you to your desk so you can grab your personal effects. If IT is on the ball you will have been locked out of the computer network during the meeting. When you're ready, the guard escorts you out of the building.

Do they at least have a permanent replacement in mind? Or is Sandie Rinaldo the anointed one?

Broadcast Dialogue has LaFlamme's full written statement. 

Sadly, she had no idea it was coming and why would she? CTV National News was the #1 newscast in Canada. Only Bell could figure out that was reason enough to terminate the person who helped it get there. Idiots.

Gee, do you think this will come up as a topic on NT1010 in the same way the Derringer firing did? I'm guessing not, but you never know. 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/lisa-laflamme-ctv-blindshided-1.6551628

Coles Notes version deftly done by the CBC

Has the CTV National News had any ratings trouble at all? I thought it was CBC's National that was in trouble?

chrishch wrote:

I hope she gets a good package.  When Bell (not Bell Media) was finalizing the deal to buy the company I used to work at (they already owned 66%, just getting the rest at the time), they were firing middle managers left, right, and centre, and didn't care how long and hard these people worked.  I guess Bell Media is the same.  I have actually witnessed that a person was having a meeting, asked to go to the main boardroom and then got papers handed to her.  Just terrible.
 

Chrisphen wrote:

You get called into a meeting room by your manager. An HR rep is there. A security guard is either there or loitering just outside of the room. HR and your manager inform you that you are dismissed effective immediately. They request your badge and keys, and give you a stack of documents outlining the legalities and the compensation package details. They tell you to go over them with your legal advisor, and then direct you to the security guard who will escort you to your desk so you can grab your personal effects. If IT is on the ball you will have been locked out of the computer network during the meeting. When you're ready, the guard escorts you out of the building.

Rogers is no different. I know of one employee who worked at City TV for almost 30 years, often toiling 16 hour days without overtime because that's what the job demanded. Everyone told him he was crazy to put in those hours. Turns out they were right.

One day, he was called on the phone at home just before leaving to come in and told to arrive at another location nearby before reporting to work. He had no idea why, but he left his briefcase at his desk then went next door to the meeting, where they lowered the boom as dispassionately and cruelly as possible. 

This guy was no Lisa LaFlamme and you've probably never heard of him, but he was a key cog behind the scenes in the newsroom. After 30 years - and having just been given a raise about 6 months before the axe dropped - he was gone. 

And they were very angry that he left his briefcase at his now former desk, and they would not let him go back inside to get it. He left without being able to even take home any of his mementos, clean out his desk or collect his own personal property. They brought him his case and his coat and told him to get out. Not so much as a thanks for three decades. Just contempt. 

So the Big Red Machine is equally ruthless. A pox on both of their houses. 

If I remember the story he told me, they also fired 10 other people that day, none of whom expected it. But almost all of them were making above a certain salary, likely around the $80K a year range. So I suspect you're bang on. 

They gained money. But they lost a ton of experience that money can't buy.

I guess we know where their priorities lie. 

ED1 wrote:

Chrisphen wrote:

You get called into a meeting room by your manager. An HR rep is there. A security guard is either there or loitering just outside of the room. HR and your manager inform you that you are dismissed effective immediately. They request your badge and keys, and give you a stack of documents outlining the legalities and the compensation package details. They tell you to go over them with your legal advisor, and then direct you to the security guard who will escort you to your desk so you can grab your personal effects. If IT is on the ball you will have been locked out of the computer network during the meeting. When you're ready, the guard escorts you out of the building.

This decision was actually made at the end of June, so Lisa has been sitting on this news for like the last month and a half. The same thing happened with Global Montreal's lead news anchor Jamie Orchard, but she at least got to say goodbye on air.

This has got to be one of the dumbest moves CTV News and Bell Media have ever committed. 

I thought I’d never see them do anything more dumb than letting go Carol Ann Meehan at CJOH several years ago. Guess I was wrong.

In any event, both CBC and Global would be scoring a major coup to pick up Lisa. I’m sure we’ll see her in a high profile media position again.

MJ Vancouver wrote:

I thought I’d never see them do anything more dumb than letting go Carol Ann Meehan at CJOH several years ago. Guess I was wrong.

In any event, both CBC and Global would be scoring a major coup to pick up Lisa. I’m sure we’ll see her in a high profile media position again.

Sadly I don't think either CBC or Global have spots for her. The National just had a big anchor shuffle there, and it appears that Farah Nasser is the heir apparent to when Dawna Friesen leaves Global National (hopefully on Dawna's terms). 
 

That hill just got a bit steeper:

https://twitter.com/omarsachedina/status/1559251523493928962

Last edited by RadioAaron (August 15, 2022 5:39 pm)

It's typically considered good taste to wait at least a few days.

RadioAaron wrote:

It's typically considered good taste to wait at least a few days.

I don't disagree, but I think he had to say something.

He should have wished LaFlamme luck at the very least and thanked her for her years of informing Canadians and leaving CTV's National News in such good hands. But I wonder if silence would have been worse. 

They actually had him on their 6 PM show for a debrief, acknowledging that 'Lisa has moved on.' But most of the segment was about her replacement and not her firing. Not unexpected, but frankly, I'm kind of surprised they even broached the subject at all. They buried it at around 6:20 PM.

ED1 wrote:

This has got to be one of the dumbest moves CTV News and Bell Media have ever committed. 

,,,in a galaxy of dumb decisions.