By RODNEY HO/ rho@ajc.com, originally Thursday, March 31, 2016
A local news TV blog that goes by Atlanta TV Talk (suspiciously similar to the name of my blog by the way) speculated yesterday that 11 Alive must have fired its chief meteorologist Chris Holcomb based on two pieces of "evidence": his page was not available on line and the station was seeking a new meteorologist.
Whoops. Not true.
The 11 Alive website was having some software bugs that caused Holcomb's page and others to disappear. And the new meteorologist position is not to replace Holcomb but an addition to staff.
So in this case, two plus two did not equal a firing - at least from 11 Alive.
Instead, the blog posted this news, without referencing the author of the post:
UPDATE: Well, we no longer have one writer on staff. This story was posted without approval from the editor. 11Alive has confirmed that Chris Holcomb IS NOT leaving the station. We reviewed this post and have concluded that it was not reasonable speculation. In no way were we trying to create tension at 11Alive and we congratulate Chris on his upcoming 25 years at the station and the pioneering he is doing in the Atlanta market!
11 Alive's Julie Wolfe even wrote a slightly tongue-in-cheek story about this non news in which she quoted herself:
"If you work on the cutting edge, sometimes you're going to bleed," 11Alive Director of Social Media Julie Wolfe said. "We're constantly working to be innovative and creative. And that includes turning this rumor into a chance to love on Chris Holcolmb." (Yes, that's a direct quote from me.)
Holcomb, when he found out about the false rumor, told his own station that he got nervous - for a second:
"I knew that," Holcomb said. "Well, I was pretty sure."
John Deushane, the general manager, said Holcomb was in fact the station's employee of the year in 2015. Chances of him getting fired: less than a metro area blizzard in July.
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