The Early Show's drama didn't end with Shelley Ross' ouster. Or with last week's exits.
Yesterday, security escorted five staffers and one senior producer out of the building, we're told, in a housecleaning orchestrated by interim exec producer Rick Kaplan and CBS VP of talent/development Barbara Fedida. So the story goes, the removals were all people Ross wanted gone during her tenure. (For its part, CBS denies this was a Kaplan-Fedidia-led ouster, and was merely part of a network-wide restructuring.)
Among those removed? None other than Rob Foreman, the health producer who Ross forced to read an apology to the staff when he dared question one of her decisions. How's that for retaliation?
Not only that, but the senior producer was the show's only black staffer, who was escorted from the building along with the show's only Asian staffer. (CBS assures us this is not the case, and that there are other black and Asian staffers, not just Julie Chen.)
The black producer let go was Anjie Taylor. Jee Won Park is the Asian staffer, who made her hatred of Ross and senior producer Laurye Blackford, cohorts from Good Morning America, well known. (Ross and Blackford were the show's "Mean Girls.")
If you ask CBS, they'll tell you they're moving the show in a different direction and the firings are part of company-wide layoffs. Nevermind that they have double-digit job openings to fill, and everyone who was fired was either over 40 or a minority (CBS says this is untrue).
We're told to expect more blood spilled before someone grabs a mop.
Update: Says CBS in a statement: ""Like many news organizations, print and electronic, CBS News is taking steps to accommodate changes in technology and newsgathering and trying to best utilize our staff. To that end, some open jobs in the division are not going to being filled, some jobs are being redefined, some are being lost and some will be added."
(This item was updated from its original version.)
Editorial Director
LOL. Shelley Ross did what CBS expected her to do knowing who Ross is. It seems that it may have been a management strategy to install Shelley Ross precisely for her horrific abusive behavior and attitude….which became the same reason they fired her when they found they couldn't stand her either.
They had to finish the job themselves. Don't they know you can't trust a rabid bat? What were they thinking?
On second thought, they have might have been fired because they may have leaked inside information to the media which created the huge stench for the Early Show across the media board. That's how I believe it's most likely to have gone down.
geeze… why is this news? You're now printing the names of staffers who were layed off?
That's not fair.
Why not print names? I got fired from CBS during the Katie Couric purge, and I was proud of it!