Lynette Romero was with the KTLA station for 24 years.
Photo: Amy Sussman/Getty Images
A The Los Angeles news anchor was fired after criticizing his own network for how it handled his former partner’s sudden departuresuch a report.
Station KTLA’s Mark Mester was suspended and then kicked out after offering a surprise, off-script defense of his former co-host and friend Lynette Romero.She didn’t get a chance to say goodbye on air, according to several TV network employees told the Los Angeles Times.
The station manager reportedly informed newsroom staff of the layoff during a brief speech Thursday.
The move comes after Mester said goodbye to her “best friend” Romero in a segment in which she said it was “regrettable” that the channel didn’t give her a “proper goodbye”.
“I want to start right away by apologizing to you,” Mester told viewers on Saturday. “What viewers experienced was rude, it was cruel, it was inappropriate and we are deeply sorry.
“I also want to apologize to Lynette Romero because Lynette, I love you very much, you are literally my best friend. You didn’t deserve what happened to you.”
Mester also mentioned during his on-air monologue that a plane flew over the station with a message of thanks to Romero.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Mester chartered the plane with a banner that read, “We love you Lynette.”
Mester wanted to include the images of the plane in a compilation of pictures and videos that the broadcaster played during the farewell, the newspaper reported.
Producers wrote a script for Mester to read about Romero, newspaper staff said, but instead the host balked, saying he was appalled that Romero didn’t get airtime to let audiences know he was leaving.
“We’re going to offer him dignity and grace, which is what this station should have done from the start,” Mester said in apparent defiance.
“You didn’t deserve this, we’re sorry it was a mistake and we just hope you find it in your heart to forgive us,” Mester added.
Romero, an institution who had been with the station for 24 years, transferred to another station after unsuccessfully asking her supervisors if she could work an anchor shift Monday through Friday instead of weekends.
“I will always be grateful for the love and care I was shown by viewers in Los Angeles,” Romero tweeted last week. “Hold on my friends, I’ll be right back.”
Mester took offense at KTLA’s original salute to Romero on Sept. 14, when reporter Sam Rubin said that Romero “has decided to stop hosting our weekend morning news.”
“We really wanted him to stay and KTLA management worked hard to make that happen,” Rubin said, according to the Los Angeles Times. “Lynette decided to take another chance.
“We expected him to record a farewell message for viewers, but he declined. Lynette has been a wonderful member of the KTLA family and we wish her and her family all the best.”
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