Former Channel 4 TV health reporter Holly Wayment has filed suit against the station's parent company and her boss for wrongful termination, alleging that they spread false statements about her that hurt her reputation and ability to get other TV jobs.
Wayment sued Clear Channel Broadcasting, the Texas corporation that does business as KTVX Television Channel 4 in Salt Lake City, and former boss Jon Fischer.
She wants the court to stop the defendants from allegedly "maligning, accusing, defaming, slandering or libeling" her, to pay damages to be determined at trial, and to pay attorney fees.
Fischer said he could not comment now. "It's Clear Channel's policy not to comment on ongoing litigation," he said.
The lawsuit filed Friday in 3rd District Court says Wayment was hired in 1999 and began as a health reporter. The suit says the station has a strong policy of supporting community involvement, and Wayment participated in many charitable activities.
Toward the end of 2001, Wayment met with the director of the Center for Children at the Huntsman Cancer Institute and Wayment suggested creation of a community "buddy system" to link volunteers with children diagnosed with cancer.
"No firm commitments were made by either party and no money, services or valuable consideration of any type was exchanged," the suit said.
Wayment said in her legal document that Fischer expressed concern about the "potential for perception of bias in the community" and that one could surmise Wayment used her reporting contacts for personal gain.
Wayment was soon fired by Fischer, who said, "You cannot accept money from a group you report on," despite Wayment's insistence that she had received no money, according to the suit.
She said she began hearing statements from former co-workers and friends about a week and a half after her "forced resignation" that indicated she was unethical, was working for the Huntsman Cancer Institute or was taking money from the institute, the lawsuit says.
"The false statements have spread through the small broadcasting community in Salt Lake City," and, among other things, Wayment alleges that in one job interview with another local TV station she was told by a producer, "I heard you had to leave because you were getting money from a hospital."
Wayment says in her suit that she has been unable to get a job in her field since she was forced to leave Channel 4.
E-mail: lindat@desnews.com