Jacksonville City Council President: Cox ‘Exercised Bad Judgment’ at WTEV-WAWS

By Merrill Knox 

1000px-Cox_Media_Group_svgJacksonville City Council President Bill Gulliford has sent a letter to Cox Media criticizing the decision to dismiss five anchors at WTEV-WAWS, the Jacksonville Daily Record reports:

In a letter to [Cox Media Group President Bill] Hoffman dated today on council letterhead, Gulliford said the move by Action News is “getting a lot of push back in the community.”

“I have heard it constantly since the story broke,” Gulliford wrote. “People are challenging the wisdom of such a move and questioning whether Cox Media really gets the local aspect of their operation here.”

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Asked about the letter, Gulliford said he heard a little more background about the situation from one of the anchors after an interview. After hearing about the situation, he said he didn’t “think someone up the line understands what Jacksonville is about.”

“I think they exercised bad judgment,” he said.

Mark Spain, Paige Kelton, Lynnsey Gardner and Mike and Tera Barz will be out in September in a move described as “hitting the station reset button.”

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