The IT Nerd

To be frank, I’m kind of surprised that this happened. But late on Friday night, which I am guessing was chosen by Bell Media so that it was less likely to be noticed, news surfaced that Michael Melling, the vice-president of news for Bell Media was taking a leave of absence:

CityNews has obtained a copy of the email sent to staff, informing them that Michael Melling, the vice-president of news for Bell Media, is stepping away from his role “to spend time with his family.”

“His decision reflects our shared desire to support the newsroom and do what’s best to help the team move past the current circumstances to focus on delivering the stories that matter to Canadians,” the memo reads.

The memo says Richard Gray, who is currently regional general manager of eastern region, will step in to assume Melling’s role.

If you want a quick bio on who this guy is, you can read this which was supplied by a reader and covers who he is and why Bell Media brought him in. Now his name surfaced when LaFlamme was fired. Specifically for this reason:

After Michael Melling took over as chief of CTV News, he reportedly wondered who approved the decision to “let Lisa’s hair go grey,” a senior CTV official told The Globe and Mail on Aug. 18. Melling reportedly brought up LaFlamme’s hair color when he saw it took on a purple because of studio lighting. Melling declined to comment on the report and LaFlamme directed the Globe to her Aug. 15 Twitter video.

I am guessing that the backlash was too much for him and he’s decided to run for cover. Or perhaps CTV is trying to figure out how to quietly get this guy out the door without attracting too much attention. Either is plausible. But I can say this for sure. This story has legs, and is not going away anytime soon.

This entry was posted on August 27, 2022 at 8:00 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Bell. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.