Latino News Network,<\/a> a group of websites in New England.<\/p>\nBalta said he plans to address \"the entirety of the situation\" at WTTW in the near future, pointing out that he declined a severance offer that presumably would have carried non-disclosure and non-disparagement clauses.<\/p>\n
Balta joined WTTW in January 2020 from MSNBC, where he oversaw editorial and production of weekend shows and was a member of the NBC\/MSNBC editorial board. It marked his second stint at the network, following a run as news producer from 1999 to 2001.<\/p>\n
Earlier Balta spent seven years at ESPN as senior director of multicultural content. He also worked as managing editor of WCBS, the CBS-owned station in New York, and vice president of news at WNJU, the Telemundo station serving New York.<\/p>\n
A native of Paterson, New Jersey, Balta is a graduate of Seton Hall University and Columbia Journalism School.<\/p>\n
Here is the full text of Balta's statement:<\/strong><\/p>\nThroughout my career, I have vocalized my commitment to a mission of transparency over the antiquated practices of objectivity. I give everything in my power to combat inadequacy in representation and systemic racism which often cripple newsrooms.<\/em><\/p>\nAfter a year of high-impact news coverage and a clear focus on diversity, equity, and inclusion, the intolerance I've encountered over the last seven days saddens me and has inevitably led to my separation from WTTW.<\/em><\/p>\nI can only hope that at such a critical time due to COVID-19, racial reckoning following the death of George Floyd, and divisive presidential election - I have been able to lead the news team in shedding light on the inequities plaguing Chicago's diverse communities and bring much-needed fair and accurate coverage by a local newsroom.<\/em><\/p>\nI am extremely proud of the progress of the WTTW News Team, and together, we have made a greater effort to engage and listen to community members and leaders. We owe a great deal of thanks to the public who help shape our coverage in a more meaningful way than we could ever do on our own.<\/em><\/p>\nI will issue a full statement addressing the entirety of the situation. Still, I want to express my gratitude to the colleagues at WTTW News who exhibited their commitment to excellence in journalism. Above all, I am forever grateful to my family for the investments they have made since the beginning of this journey, including moving across the country, and for their unconditional support at this moment to speak our truth, in lieu of the severance offered for my silence.<\/em><\/p>\nHugo<\/em><\/p>\nTuesday's comment of the day:<\/a> Harry M. Politis:<\/strong> I know nobody wants to contemplate a future Chicago with only one daily newspaper, but today's actions by Alden Global Capital may well have been the beginning of the end for what was once deemed The World's Greatest Newspaper. It's been a long precipitous fall from there and we may be about to see what it looks like at rock bottom.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hugo Balta was forced out Tuesday as news director of WTTW-Channel 11 and executive producer of \u201cChicago Tonight\u201d following a staff uprising over his use of social media to express personal views. \u201cI am writing to let you know that Hugo Balta is no longer with the organization,\u201d Sandra Cordova Micek, president and CEO of... Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28684"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28684"}],"version-history":[{"count":29,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28684\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28714,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28684\/revisions\/28714"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/robertfeder.dailyherald.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}