 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Steve Wilson is an American news reporter. Currently running his own nonprofit investigative reporting group, he is best known for his whistleblower lawsuit with then-wife Jane Akre against WTVT in 1997 [1] and his work as WXYZ-TV's Chief Investigative Reporter in Detroit, Michigan in the late 2000s. [2]
Wilson began his news career offering investigative news reports to various outlets in the 1980s. His reports were aired by CBS and ABC affiliates, and eventually led to Wilson joining Inside Edition , a nationally syndicated tabloid program. He would stay with Inside Edition for more than five years, and many of his reports won Emmy Awards for consumer reporting. [3]
Wilson met his future wife, Jane Akre, at a journalism convention in Washington. The two later moved to South Florida and eventually to Tampa, where they joined WTVT, the local Fox owned-and-operated television station.
In 1997, Wilson and Akre began work on a story regarding the agricultural biotechnology company Monsanto and recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH), a milk additive that had been approved for use by the Food and Drug Administration but also blamed for a number of health issues. Wilson and Akre planned a four-part investigative report on Monsanto's use of rBGH, which prompted Monsanto to write to Roger Ailes, president of Fox News Channel, in an attempt to have the report reviewed for bias and because of the "enormous damage that can be done" as a result of the report. [3]
WTVT chose not to run the report, and they would later argue in court that the report was not "breakthrough journalism". Wilson and Akre then claimed that Monsanto's actions constituted the news broadcast telling lies, while WTVT countered looking only for fairness. According to Wilson and Akre, the two rewrote the report over 83 times over the course of 1997, and WTVT decided to exercise "its option to terminate their employment contracts without cause," [4] and did not renew their contracts in 1998. WTVT would later run a report about Monsanto and rBGH in 1998, and the report included defenses from Monsanto. [3]
When their contracts were not renewed, Wilson and Akre filed a lawsuit concerning WTVT's "news distortion" under Florida's whistleblower laws, claiming their termination was retaliation for "resisting WTVT's attempts to distort or suppress the BGH story." [5] In a joint statement, Wilson claimed that he and Akre "were repeatedly ordered to go forward and broadcast demonstrably inaccurate and dishonest versions of the story," and "were given those instructions after some very high-level corporate lobbying by Monsanto (the powerful drug company that makes the hormone) and also ... by members of Florida’s dairy and grocery industries." [6] The trial commenced in summer 2000 with a jury dismissing all of the claims brought to trial by Wilson, but siding with one aspect of Akre's complaint, awarding Akre $425000 and agreeing that Akre was a whistleblower because she believed there were violations of the 1934 Federal Communications Act and that she planned on reporting WTVT to the Federal Communications Commission. Akre's argument in the trial was that they did not have to prove actual news distortion, but that they instead believed such distortion occurred. [3]
An appeal was filed, and a ruling in February 2003 came down in favor of WTVT, who successfully argued that the FCC policy against falsification was not a "law, rule, or regulation", and so the whistle-blower law did not qualify as the required "law, rule, or regulation" under section 448.102. ... Because the FCC's news distortion policy is not a "law, rule, or regulation" under section 448.102, Akre has failed to state a claim under the whistle-blower's statute." [5] The appeal did not address any falsification claims, noting that "as a threshold matter ... Akre failed to state a claim under the whistle-blower's statute," but noted that the lower court ruled against all of Wilson's charges and all of Akre's claims with the exception of the whistleblower claim that was overturned. [5]
Wilson and Akre became popular among many media outlets. The 2003 documentary The Corporation featured Wilson and Akre discussing their battle with WTVT, with Wilson claiming that the jury "determined that the story they pressured us to broadcast, the story we resisted telling, was in fact false, distorted, or slanted." [3] [7] Project Censored called their story one of the "Most Censored Stories" of 2003, [3] claiming that the "Court Ruled That the Media Can Legally Lie." [8] Robert F. Kennedy Jr. later quoted Wilson in his book, Crimes Against Nature, with Wilson asking "[W]hat reporter is going to challenge a network ... if the station can retaliate by suing the reporter to oblivion the way the courts are letting them do to us?" [9] Following the story, Akre and Wilson won the Goldman Environmental Prize for the report, [10] as well as an Ethics in Journalism Award from the Society of Professional Journalists. [11] The two continue to challenge WTVT's license, the last such challenge coming in 2005. [3]
After spending some time away from the broadcast media, Wilson joined WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan in 2001. [12] In 2005, Wilson filed a report regarding the Kilpatrick Civic Fund, a fund created by Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick to help improvements in education and voter empowerment. [13] The reports continued, with the situation escalating. Kilpatrick's bodyguards shoved Wilson in one instance. Wilson also followed Kilpatrick around the country, at one point booking a plane ticket directly next to the Mayor in an attempt to corner him for an interview. The City of Detroit later prepared and broadcast a video attacking Wilson on its city-controlled Public-access television cable TV channel, entitled Steve Wilson, the Inventive Reporter. [14]
In 2010, Wilson's contract at WXYZ was not renewed. The station's corporate management called it "a business decision." Wilson claimed he was let go "by a corporate owner who is not in this community." [15] In a follow-up email to Detroit blogger Dave Shea, Wilson noted his intent to start a not-for-profit news organization he originally dubbed The Michigan Center for Investigative Reporting. [16] On the day Wilson's non-profit (ultimately named The Michigan News Center) was to go live on the Internet, he suffered a massive heart attack. On life support for nearly a week, he later said he owed his life to the efforts of the cardiac team at Detroit's Henry Ford Hospital. Shortly after being released, Wilson ultimately posted his site and continued efforts to gain community support for the Center.[ citation needed ]
Kwame Malik Kilpatrick is an American politician, convicted fraudster and racketeer, who previously served as the 72nd mayor of Detroit – from 2002 to 2008. A member of the Democratic Party, he previously represented the 9th district in the Michigan House of Representatives from 1997 to 2002. Kilpatrick resigned as mayor in September 2008 after being convicted of perjury and obstruction of justice. He was sentenced to four months in jail and was released on probation after serving 99 days.
Bovine somatotropin or bovine somatotrophin, or bovine growth hormone (BGH), is a peptide hormone produced by cows' pituitary glands. Like other hormones, it is produced in small quantities and is used in regulating metabolic processes.
WTVT is a television station licensed to Tampa, Florida, United States, serving as the Fox network outlet for the Tampa Bay area. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, WTVT maintains studios on Kennedy Boulevard on Tampa's west side, and its transmitter is located in Riverview.
WTSP is a television station licensed to St. Petersburg, Florida, United States, serving the Tampa Bay area as an affiliate of CBS. The station is owned by Tegna Inc., and maintains studios on Gandy Boulevard on St. Petersburg's northeast side, just off the Gandy Bridge; its transmitter is located in Riverview, Florida.
Jane Akre is an American journalist best known for the whistleblower lawsuit by herself and her former husband, Steve Wilson, against Fox station WTVT in Tampa, Florida. Akre and Wilson are featured in the 2003 documentary film The Corporation which includes a section about the same lawsuit.
Michael Anthony Cox is an American attorney and politician who served as Michigan's 52nd Attorney General from 2003 to 2011. He was the first Republican to hold that office since Frank Millard in 1955. Cox took office in 2003 and won re-election in 2006. Jennifer Granholm, who went on to become the Governor of Michigan, preceded him in office.
WJBK is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, serving as the market's Fox network outlet. Owned and operated by the network's Fox Television Stations division, the station maintains studios and transmitter facilities on West 9 Mile Road in the Detroit suburb of Southfield.
WXYZ-TV is a television station in Detroit, Michigan, United States, affiliated with ABC. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside CW affiliate WMYD. Both stations share studios at Broadcast House on 10 Mile Road in Southfield, where WXYZ-TV's transmitter is also located.
The Omni La Costa Resort & Spa is a luxury destination resort hotel opened in 1965, located in Carlsbad, California and is owned by Omni Hotels & Resorts, based out of Dallas, Texas. The resort is located in the San Diego area hills and is known for its golf courses and hosts professional golf and tennis tournaments. Tournaments at La Costa were hosted starting in the late 1960s, including many PGA Tour events and tennis events such as the Southern California Open. Currently the resort is home to events such as World Team Tennis and the California State Amateur Championship. Omni La Costa Resort & Spa is a member of Historic Hotels of America, the official program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation and has hosted the La Costa Film Festival.
William Duane Bonds was an American television news anchor and reporter, best known for his work at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. Bonds became an Action News anchorman beginning in the early 1970s.
Mark S. Zaid is an American attorney, based in Washington, D.C., with a practice focused on national security law, freedom of speech constitutional claims, and government accountability.
Charles Royal LeDuff is an American journalist, writer, and media personality. He is the host of the No BS News Hour with Charlie LeDuff. LeDuff was employed by The New York Times for 12 years, then employed by The Detroit News, leaving in October 2010 after two years to join the Detroit Fox affiliate WJBK Channel 2 to do on-air journalism. LeDuff left Fox 2 Detroit on December 1, 2016. LeDuff has won a number of prestigious journalism awards, including a Pulitzer Prize, but has also faced accusations of plagiarism and distortion in his career, to which he has responded.
Keenan Smith is an American television broadcaster who is a reporter/anchor for the morning and noon newscasts at WXYZ-TV in Detroit, Michigan. Smith joined the network around September 2010 and served as the morning and noon meteorologist until March 2018. WXYZ-TV meteorologist Kevin Jeanes succeeded him with this role in the same time frame. Prior to his employment at WXYZ-TV, he was at WPTV in West Palm Beach, Florida, from 2008 to 2010 and WGN-TV and CLTV in Chicago, Illinois, before that.
Christine Rowland Beatty served as the Chief of Staff from 2002 to 2008 to Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick.
The Kilpatrick and Beatty text-messaging scandal was a political sex scandal in the United States emerging from a whistleblower lawsuit involving former Detroit Police chief Gary Brown, Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former chief of staff and paramour Christine Beatty.
On March 24, 2008, Wayne County, Michigan Prosecutor Kym Worthy announced a 12-count criminal indictment against Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and his former Chief of Staff and paramour Christine Beatty. Kilpatrick was charged with eight felonies and Beatty with seven. Charges for both included perjury, misconduct in office and obstruction of justice. Worthy also suggested that others in the Kilpatrick administration could also be charged.
Jim Schaefer is an American journalist based in Detroit, Michigan, where he works as an investigative journalist for the Detroit Free Press.
Jeffrey Taylor is an American journalist who won a Pulitzer Prize.
Monsanto was involved in several high-profile lawsuits, as both plaintiff and defendant. It had been defendant in a number of lawsuits over health and environmental issues related to its products. Monsanto also made frequent use of the courts to defend its patents, particularly in the area of agricultural biotechnology. Bayer acquired Monsanto in 2018, and the company has since paid over $10 billion to settle lawsuits involving ex-Monsanto products Roundup, PCBs and Dicamba.
The 2021 Detroit mayoral election occurred on November 2, 2021.
