Former Nextstar employee and current WTVJ meteorologist Jennifer Gray might have to go back to court over what her former employer claims was a breach of contract.
Nextstar says Gray signed a contract with their KBTV station to stay on until May 31, 2006 but left the station in 2005 and two weeks later showed up reporting for KTBS in Louisiana.
Gray’s contract according to this newspaper article stated
In the event Employee elects to breach this Agreement and leave employment prior to the conclusion of the term, the Company may accept as liquidated damages for said breach the amount of $10,000. In the event the Company determines that the liquidated damages amount described above is insufficient to cover all of its damages, the Company may seek to obtain additional compensatory and consequential damages by pursuing an action under paragraph 7(a) herein.
Nextstar filed a lawsuit and the jury ended up awarding them $1 from Jennifer Gray for nominal damages and $2000 in actual damages from KTBS.
On June 26 Texas 9th Court of Appeals reversed the jury’s ruling and said a new trial is needed to decide what compensation Nextstar will receive.
SeTexasRecord.com: Nexstar gets second shot at recovering damages from former newscaster
See, I would have gone with the route of “Former Nextstar employee and current WTVJ weather guesser who can barely do that, and is simply in that position in her hopes of becoming an anchor, Jennifer Gray might…” But that may come off on the mean side. I don’t know what it is about her. She just has a personality not made for weather. It’s not where she should be. I could see her on Access Hollywood or something, as a reporter for them. Maybe taking her down the route of entertainment reporting for TVJ or something. Just not weather…But, i know the 50+ divorced white guys who are addicted to anything that shows cleavage enjoy her… so she’s here to stay. I don’t want to be mean, but that’s my views.
I’m sure her new bosses at Al Jazeera will pay Nextstar whatever the judgement ends up being.
LOL @ Weather Guesser, As a man not white & in his 50’s I think she’s OK she doesn’t fumble words like Durda on 7. She has a calm & cool personality which is perfect for morning weather.
Meh, well she is definitely phasing out of weather. I’ve been seeing more and more liveshots with her, about non-weather related stories.
You obviously missed her work last year at Fantasy fest, which was classic stuff. I would be willing to guess she had hit Sloppy Joe’s before the 6 o’clock, and she barely got her name right. I sincerely laughed so hard, not in a mean way. She conveyed the mood better than Bryan Norcross ever did. Frankly, I’d love to see her wear the foam oversized cowboy hat everynight. She’s awful damn cute, and she seems to have a brain, unlike about half of 6’s current crew, regardless of gender.
I liked her since the 1st time I saw her on 6. Her voice, personality, and charm is perfect for TV. She is surely one of the bright spots over at 6.
Jennifer has been missing from work lately. She wasn’t thee yesterday and the managers had a meeting about possibly keeping her off the air until the lawsuit is settled.
NBC Producer, WTVJ’s new owners (and i think we all know who they are at this point) have agreed to compensate nextstar quite handsomely for their troubles. Expect to see Jen back on the air by the end of the week.
By the way, the manager meeting was not about Jen, it was about WTVJ employees posting to rumor sites during work time and what the punishment should be.
Allah be praised.
muad’dib,
Maybe what TVj and other stations are afraid of is that the rumor sites are reporting facts that they would rather keep hidden.
If they were just rumors there probably wouldn’t be any concern.
It’s funny how news stations expect and demand that everyone in the community they do stories on be open and honest and not hide anything from them. If they don’t cooperate the stations rake them through the coals.
But when the news media does wrong or when they are involved in controversy they will do anything to quell speech and they don’t want the truth known.
If you are a Tv manager worrying about blog sites I would direct you to the stern of the ship. It’s taking on water. Don’t worry about the deck chairs right now.
One thing that shouldn’t be hidden, are those sweater puppies our girl Jenny has 😉
peter,
which fact are you talking about? al jazeera? post newsweek? sunbeam? they can’t all be facts. and the ones that are posting true info, do you think a company has no right to be upset if employees are posting confidential info on the internet for the world to read? on company time no less? that doesn’t seem like something any company might be agitated about? what if someone posts something that would give their competitors an edge? if you want to play on the rumor sites at work, then maybe you should be the one on the stern with mu’ad dib.
NBCProducer-
Assuming that you are a factual producer, for WTVJ, wouldn’t you think SOME details are best kept private. Don’t want to start a man hunt at WTVJ for the dip who is leaking information about people’s jobs being on the line. It’s just unprofessional. (Even though I am a junkie for inside information)
“WTVJ’s new owners (and i think we all know who they are at this point)”
I still am going to disagree on that, until I see some REAL proof.
anonymous,
If someone from inside a company comes to your newsroom with a big story that shows wrongdoing, are you going to tell that source that they shouldn’t be releasing confidential info about their company?
Are you going to hold that person to the same standard TV stations expect their employees to abide by?
Hell no.
If it is a story you want you will milk it for all it’s worth and than promote yourselves as the great journalists who brought the story to light.
So, when TV news stations get facts wrong, misrepresent facts, call a cop’s son a drug dealer, tell viewers a man with a home is homeless, no one has the right to expose that?
No TV news station ever admits to any wrong doing or retracts any story publicly unless they are pressured to by lawyers, other media or bloggers. They never admit wrongdoing or do the right thing on their own without some sort of pressure. Never.
Remember it was a blogger that caught Dan Rather’s fraudulent letter that brought him down. It wasn’t any of the million dollar talking heads on national news or any Pulitzer Prize winning newspaper reporters and it certainly wasn’t anyone in local TV news. A lot of people at CBS and the old media criticized the bloggers, but in the end they had the facts. CBS didn’t.
By the way anonymous, are you at work? And if this is a rumor site why are you on it?
You will never see me on the back of the ship. But I’ll watch the helicopter video on TV of you climbing over women and children to save your own skin.
Peter,
you are comparing apples to oranges. let me try to explain. an individual company is going to hold its own employees to a standard, but not really care what some other company’s employees do. you obviously have some axe to grind with local news. i’m not defending the ethics of anyone. if someone from another company comes into a newsroom and the news staff wants the story, even if it is confidential, it is the other company’s problem. they need to be the ones to reign in their own employees. for you to act like just because a news dept. wants dirt on someone else, that means THEIR OWN employees should be able to divulge info on them is idiotic. a better way of putting your argument would be to say that since news depts. do that to other people and companies, they should understand when OTHER companies do it to them. that would be like the pot calling the kettle black. that doesn’t mean they should accept being screwed with from within.
as far as you expecting to be able to surf on the company’s dime, that is foolish, and don’t be surprised when you are first in line for layoffs.
by the way, i work the night shift. not lucky enough to be able to play on the net at work the way you are. or not ballsy enough. one or the other.
Well i get the feeling i know what the new post will be
WPLG-ABC 10 owner Post-Newsweek may buy WTVJ-NBC 6
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking_news/story/605477.html
I hope the talent cuts are not too deep. While 6 is in deep trouble right now they have alot of great anchors and reporters that would do great with new management, hopefully the same with weather and sports.
We would love to have her back on KTBS in Shreveport