Station Questions Judgment : TV Anchorwoman Fired for Pro-Jesus News Slant

A TV anchorwoman was fired after writing in a Christian magazine that she pursued some stories and quashed others on religious grounds.

“God needs servants who can influence the content of our news,” KDLT anchorwoman Marilee Joyce wrote in Good News, published by a local Christian cable TV station.

Steven Herman, KDLT president and general manager, said today that Joyce was fired for “an error in journalistic judgment” reflected in the article. The station is an NBC affiliate.

Joyce, 25, who has worked as an anchor, reporter and producer at the NBC affiliate since April, said she was devastated at being fired Tuesday. “I am a news professional and I conducted myself in that manner,” she said.

In the article, “A Different Type of TV Evangelism,” Joyce explained how she viewed her role as a Christian in the secular news media.

“Naturally, I have to lead with the hard news stories that affect our neighborhood and world . . . but it’s such a thrill to also have the power to ‘sneak’ Jesus into the news as often as possible,” she wrote.

She said that on numerous occasions she had used her position to prevent broadcast of network stories that she said were of “questionable nature,” including series on the New Age movement and on the Hare Krishna religion.

“I decided it would not be good to fill our viewers’ minds with such information, so I didn’t permit the stories to air,” Joyce wrote.

Joyce also described how she assigned several stories with religious angles, including an interview with a Christian author and a story on an anti-abortion agency.