A planning and zoning committee in South Florida made a significant ruling this week, at least according to Fox-affiliate WSVN.
A developer is trying to build a strip club next door to WSVN and the committee unanimously voted against the proposed gentleman’s club on Tuesday night. While WSVN has provided extensive coverage of the decision this week, its market rivals have devoted zero airtime to the strip club “controversy.”
Following a story from veteran reporter Patrick Fraser that all but urged viewers to attend Tuesday’s meeting, WSVN has covered the committee’s decision during all of its newscasts over the past 24 hours.
“A strip club in small North Bay Village, right next to Channel 7? Not if residents have their way, and now they’ve had their say,” WSVN anchor Belkys Nerey said at the beginning of the 6 p.m. newscast on Wednesday, introducing Fraser’s coverage of the committee meeting.
Nerey attended the meeting and spoke on behalf of the station, arguing that the strip club would endanger WSVN’s female employees.
“There’s women leaving [WSVN] at midnight, one o’clock. Some women are coming in at one, two, three in the morning,” Nerey said, standing before the committee. “And if you get… men drinking, possibly drugs, who knows, that might equal violence.”
“The planning and zoning board listened to their fellow residents,” Fraser told viewers, in a story that WSVN has run repeatedly. “Then they voted five to nothing to reject the strip club. The people that came out, won.”
TVSpy has reached out to several people at the station, including Fraser, to ask about the clear ethical concerns with its coverage of the proposed strip club. We’re still waiting to hear back.
WSVN’s coverage of the committee meeting can be viewed here. (The station’s video player doesn’t allow embedding).