On Monday, Bell Media announced veteran CTV news anchor, Lisa LaFlamme was being let go by the company.
Coinciding with Bell’s announcement, LaFlamme broke her silence in a final “sign off” on Twitter, a video that has since racked up 3.8 million views. Her firing has made international headlines in the past 24 hours.
LaFlamme, a news veteran of 35 years, said Bell Media explained the cancellation of her contract as a “business decision”, as explained to her on June 29. She said she was “blindsided” by Bell and is still “shocked and saddened.”
She explains her firing was to be kept confidential until the decision was made public by Bell Media, about one and a half months later. LaFlamme went on to say she was “forever grateful to loyal viewers,” adding at age 58 she thought “I’d still have more time,” but now she departs CTV “humbled by the people who put their faith in me.”
The veteran CTV national news anchor said it was “crushing” to be leaving her post, in a manner that was not her choice.
I have some news… pic.twitter.com/lTe3Rs0kOA
— Lisa LaFlamme (@LisaLaFlamme_) August 15, 2022
Bell Media issued a press release on Monday saying, “recognizing changing viewer habits, CTV recently advised LaFlamme that it had made the business decision to move its acclaimed news show, CTV National News, and the role of its Chief News Anchor in a different direction.”
“A trusted broadcaster and distinguished voice in Canadian news, Lisa has been on the front line of the world’s biggest headlines,” said Karine Moses, Senior Vice President, Content Development & News, Bell Media and Vice Chair, Québec, Bell, in a statement. “With an unfailing commitment to delivering the stories that matter most to Canadians as part of Canada’s leading news team, Lisa has deftly guided viewers through both turbulent times and celebration, and we wish her nothing but the best as she begins a new chapter.”
According to Canadaland, Michael Melling, vice president of news at Bell Media, was allegedly responsible for firing LaFlamme, after clashing heads with the veteran anchor on multiple issues.
This isn’t the first time Bell Media has let go of key staff and high-profile journalists. Back in March, Bell Media suddenly cut TV anchors and radio hosts in Vancouver, while similarly taking various TSN radio stations across Canada offline in February 2021, with no warning at all.
LaFlamme will be replaced by Omar Sachedina, now taking over as Chief News Anchor and Senior Editor of CTV National News, a role set to begin on September 5, 2022.
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
I really enjoyed watching Lisa. I don’t ever recall her making any mistakes. The network wants to save money, and probably will lose some viewers in the short term.
According to the Canadaland article, it was become Michael Melling, the VP who just started in January and fired her, hates people (especially women) who push back against any of his decisions, and regularly brags about “destroying the careers” of anyone who dares to disagree with him out of spite and retaliation.
You have no idea what you are talking about, do you. Michael Melling never did see eye to eye with Laflamme. He was going to promote Laflamme’s producer, Hwang (also female) to a powerful position of leading CP24 of Toronto. This wasn’t a gender thing.
Everything is a gender, racial, skin color, etc “thing”.
What happened to competence?
Wait, you mean hire the person with the best credentials?
Interesting idea but I think they stopped using that method when everyone became “woke”.
Check out the latest Supreme Court nomination.
QED
Move on already – people lose their jobs everyday. I’m thinking this woman has worked for thirty five years and has a net worth of $4,000,000 – not too shabby.
Any Canadian who is older than ten knows Bell Canada is a predatory and greedy company that does things that cater to their bottom line regardless of what it does to others. She must have had some idea that her days were becoming numbered.
FWIW, I’m sure some other network would be glad to offer her some type of employment for reduced wages if she chooses to continue on.
None of that makes this acceptable nor should anyone consider it as such.
I hear you and get that but unfortunately there is a real world out there that can be quite ugly (and greedy) at times.
So? Doesn’t mean it should be tolerated nor excused.
No laws were broken here bud and if you choose, stop using Bell and their services.
Who knows, if enough people feel like you do, Bell could lose some serious money here, something many of us would take great pleasure in.
As I said previously, Bell is an aggressively greedy company.
I don’t use Bell. I never said laws were broken.
There you go making excuses again. If you don’t mean to make it an excuse, don’t you the word “but”. It means you are making an exception.
Who cares. Who the hell watches old school televised mainstream news these days anyway? Viewership across all these news networks has been on significant decline over the last few years and it’s only going to continue. More and more people are looking for less bias, more transparency, and more truth. Mainstream media will never offer any of that, and will only continue to serve a specific and declining group of people – old and scared. Personally, I can’t wait for the day where ALL old school type news goes the way of the dinosaur.
Who cares. Who the hell watches old school televised mainstream news these days anyway? Viewership across all these news networks has been on significant decline over the last few years and it’s only going to continue. More and more people are looking for less bias, more transparency, and more truth. Mainstream media will never offer any of that, and will only continue to serve a specific and declining group of people – old and scared. Personally, I can’t wait for the day where ALL old school type news goes the way of the dinosaur.
Every person in my family, and to the best of my knowledge all my friends, watch “old school televised mainstream news” regularly.
What is shocking is that even if you aren’t a consumer of tv news, that you would react to this arbitrary act by Bell Media with the comment “who cares”. It shows the kind of world you think you inhabit.
What kind of world is that? One where a person can achieve and remain the absolute pinnacle in her industry for years, earn millions in compensation and eventually be replaced?
How many millionaires are we making into victims these days?
Why go with mainstream media when you have Facebook, Breitbart, TheDailyCaller, etc.? /s
“Omar Sachedina was born and raised in greater in an household.”
Of course, could this be a real clue about what this is about?