Fox Television News Reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson Fired For Refusing to Falsify Details About rGBH
Award-winning Tampa television reporters Jane Akre and Steve Wilson stepped on a career land mine in 1997 and 1998 while working on a story about human and animal health problems associated with rGBH. Their positions as news journalists at WIVT were terminated after a long and arduous tug-of-war with their managers who were pressured by Monsanto.
In 1997, Akre and Wilson, then married, began working on a four-part investigative report about the biotech giant Monsanto and their genetically modified growth hormone that caused health problems in cows and humans. Though rGBH was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1993, it was linked to cancer and banned in several other countries around the world.
When Akre and Wilson presented their report to their bosses at the Fox network, they were ordered to rewrite the story 80 times, and were even told to falsify the details of the story. Later, they were locked out of their offices, denied access to information, and were finally fired.
In repsonse, Akre and Wilson invoked the Whistleblowers Act when they sued Fox for misconduct and won the lawsuit when a jury decided that "Fox has acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plaintiff's news report on rBGH." Jane Akre was awared damages for the loss of her job. Akre and Wilson found it difficult to regain full-time employment in the mainstream media following their widely publicized lawsuit against Fox. Wilson, who is the recipient of three Emmys, accepted a television journalist position at Detroit's WXYZ in 2001, but his contract was not renewed in 2010.
In 1997, Akre and Wilson, then married, began working on a four-part investigative report about the biotech giant Monsanto and their genetically modified growth hormone that caused health problems in cows and humans. Though rGBH was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 1993, it was linked to cancer and banned in several other countries around the world.
When Akre and Wilson presented their report to their bosses at the Fox network, they were ordered to rewrite the story 80 times, and were even told to falsify the details of the story. Later, they were locked out of their offices, denied access to information, and were finally fired.
In repsonse, Akre and Wilson invoked the Whistleblowers Act when they sued Fox for misconduct and won the lawsuit when a jury decided that "Fox has acted intentionally and deliberately to falsify or distort the plaintiff's news report on rBGH." Jane Akre was awared damages for the loss of her job. Akre and Wilson found it difficult to regain full-time employment in the mainstream media following their widely publicized lawsuit against Fox. Wilson, who is the recipient of three Emmys, accepted a television journalist position at Detroit's WXYZ in 2001, but his contract was not renewed in 2010.