EXCLUSIVE: MEDIA MADNESS ABC NEWS IN LOS ANGELES DROPPING THREE WEST COAST REPORTERS

By TER Staff

The Enterprise Report has learned that three LA based west-coast correspondents for ABC News will be let go in a company wide downsizing announced earlier this month by ABC News President David Westin. 

Correspondents Brian Rooney, Lisa Fletcher and Laura Marquez have all been told that their services will no longer be needed by the network. 

Rooney, who has worked for the network for over two decades, sent an email to other staffers in Los Angeles (see below) about his fate directly and expressed his deep personal feelings about the changes for him, his counterparts and the news business itself.

A forth LA based ABC News reporter Mike Von Fremd, who according to sources has a "no cut" contract will continue at ABC News working with 'Good Morning America' until his contract expires in roughly a year and half. Fletcher recently joined ABC News in December of 2007.

Story developing...

UPDATE: 12:46P PST

Sources inside ABC tell TER that San Francisco based correspondent Laura Marquez was also informed she was being let go this morning.

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Subject: Brian's song

Word travels quickly in this business and I want as many of you as possible to hear this from me first. Late yesterday I was told that my 22 year career at ABC News is over.

I have not survived the reorganization. I cannot tell you the depth of my emotion at this time. I am having difficulty as I write. I have yet to tell my children but at the moment my thoughts are of all of you and the time we have had together. 

When I spoke at the end of Kate O’Brien’s meeting I walked away thinking I did not do justice to what I think of all of you and the memories I have. You are smart, funny, enduring. You are the odd breed that rushes into danger and disaster when all the traffic is going the other direction.

And you have done it with such grace and humor even in the worst of times. You have all done so much for me, far beyond my ability to thank you. I have been steadily employed as a reporter for 35 years, and it seems to have all passed in a blink.

I don’t know what the future holds, but I hope someone will pay me to continue being a pain in the ass. A funny anchorman I knew in Chicago used to say, “One day we will all be justifiably fired, but for the wrong reason.” My time has come.

 

                                                                                                Brian

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*EDITOR NOTE AND CORRECTION:  TER was informed by Mr. Von Fremd yesterday that he has not been informed by anyone in ABC News management that his employment will be terminated upon the completion of his "no-cut" contract which expires in approximately a year and half as reported.  Therefore we regret the error in reporting he had been informed. Our sources told us that he had been informed along with the other ABC reporters regarding future employment with the company. We have removed that reference in our story to Mr. Von Fremd and have made the appropriate correction to our story.