News anchor fired after gathering petition signatures for pro-life initiative

A Nebraska news station says it fired a news director who collected signatures for a pro-life ballot initiative because her actions violated the company’s policy of journalistic impartiality and raised questions about her ability to cover the abortion issue without bias.

Melanie Standiford, the former news director and co-anchor at KNOP-TV in North Platte, worked for the company for five years before her termination last week. She gathered signatures for an initiative seeking to outlaw abortion in her hometown.

The news station terminated Standiford on the same day The Flatwater Free Press reported on her efforts to gather signatures in Curtis. The petition call for a vote in November to determine if the city will become a sanctuary for the unborn.

KNOP confirmed in a statement to The Christian Post that Standiford’s employment concluded on Friday, remarking that the company wishes her well in her future endeavors.

“Separately, KNOP can confirm that our long-standing company policy encourages civic involvement among our employees, so long as such activities do not give the appearance of interfering with journalistic impartiality,” the statement reads…. (Excerpt from The Christian Post)