Fired WUTC reporter Jacqui Helbert
Fired reporter Jacqui Helbert is suing the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga over her termination from the campus’s public radio station, WUTC-FM.
In a lawsuit filed today in Hamilton County Circuit Court, Helbert asks for "reinstatement, apology, education and training about the laws violated, lost wages, harm for the emotional distress from the retaliatory firing, reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs, and any further relief appropriate to the circumstances," up to $1 million in damages. The university and and two employees, senior associate vice chancellor of marketing and communications George Heddleston and associate vice chancellor of marketing and communications Chuck Cantrell, are named as defendants.
“Clearly I believe I was fired for reporting a story of important public interest that did not sit well with lawmakers,” Helbert says in a prepared statement.
Lawyer Justin Gilbert says that in addition to seeking justice for Helbert, the suit is about transparency.
“Jacqui told me she hoped I could help her but more importantly that I could help the students at UTC and the people of Chattanooga know what really happened. It’s important to let the facts be known,” Gilbert says. “Heddleston and Cantrell are separately named defendants because I think it’s important they be held accountable.”
The lawsuit repeats the timeline of Helbert’s travel to Legislative Plaza with the Cleveland High School Gay-Straight Alliance and the interviews with Sen. Mike Bell (R-Riceville) and Rep. Kevin Brooks (R-Cleveland), who both claim to have not noticed Helbert was a reporter, despite her headphones, shotgun microphone, press pass and WUTC-branded tote bag for her equipment. Students asked Bell and Brooks their opinion of the transgender bathroom bill, and Helbert recorded a story featuring their comments. According to her story, Bell’s comments made some students cry, as he compared being transgender to deciding one day to “feel like a dog.” However, Brooks was very sympathetic to the students and stated that he probably would not support the bathroom bill.
Reportedly, after the story aired, Brooks expressed concerns over it to Bell, who then contacted the station and also contacted Sen. Todd Gardenhire, who represents parts of Chattanooga and Bradley County. Gardenhire reportedly then contacted UTC. The university told the Scene last week that it first heard concerns from Gardenhire and Sen. Bo Watson, who also represents Chattanooga, during a March 17 meeting with the legislative delegation about other funding issues; the lawsuit contests this timeline (as did our reporting).
The lawsuit also adds more details that make it clear WUTC staff all thought legislators had threatened to pull funding from the station and the university. “After the termination, Ms. Helbert returned to WUTC where she again spoke to [news director Mike] Miller and [WUTC staffer Mary Ollie] Newman. They appeared stunned. Mr. Miller stated the termination was done purely for fear of funding cuts (retaliation/blackmail) by UTC not for any stated integrity of journalistic standards,” the filing states.
Heddleston has not yet responded to a request for comment. But NPR released a statement at the beginning of the week that confirmed WUTC staff had nothing to do with Helbert's firing, stating, in part, "[W]e at NPR believe the decisions should have been left to the journalists in charge. Taking the decisions about enforcing ethics out of their hands did more to undermine the station's credibility than the original infraction. This chain of events underscores why it is critical that newsrooms such as that at WUTC not be subject to pressure from the institutions that hold their licenses, the sponsors who give them financial support or the politicians who sometimes don't like the stories they hear or read."
The politicians involved wouldn't talk to the Scene last weekend , but Pith was finally able to get comment from two of the men involved and asked Watson if he had threatened funding to UTC.
“Threatened? No,” Watson said. “Nobody threatened to do anything to anybody. We made the university aware of the circumstances.”
But Watson said he hadn’t spoken with the university before the March 17 meeting and was unaware UTC staff had contacted WUTC with concerns prior to that date.
“We just asked … Is that appropriate for a reporter to do that? That’s the question that was raised. I don’t know why that’s a bad question to ask. And then what the university chooses to do from that point forward is not under our jurisdiction nor our responsibility, nor should it be,” Watson said.
Gardenhire told the Chattanooga Times Free Press earlier this week that Helbert “dug her own grave, and UTC [officials] are the ones that make the policy." When the Scene tried to ask him whether he had threatened UTC funding, Gardenhire threatened to call security to have us thrown out of his office. He also wouldn’t answer the question.
“Did you threaten UTC’s funding?” Pith asked, repeatedly.Â
“Please leave my office,” Gardenhire responded, repeatedly.
“So is that a yes?” Pith asked
“No, that’s nothing, that’s a nothing. Please leave my office,” Gardenhire said.
“Well, just say no if you didn’t do it,” Pith said.
“Please leave my office,” he repeated.
“Yes or no, did you threaten UTC’s funding?” we said.
“No, I’m not answering any questions,” Gardenhire said, slamming the door in our face.
Gardenhire also questioned Pith's credentials as a reporter, despite us announcing who we were three separate times.
