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Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Discussion pertaining to the Tri-Cities, Flint, Mt. Pleasant, and Bad Axe
autolab
Posts: 141
Joined: Sat Nov 17, 2018 2:54 am

Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by autolab » Sat Apr 13, 2019 2:04 am

Good for former TV5 reporter Nick Lulli who stuck to his guns and won a lawsuit versus parent company Meredith Broadcasting.

https://www.ftvlive.com/sqsp-test/2019/ ... t-reporter

I never understood why WNEM would sue a reporter who did not want to work there. Non-competes and lengthy contracts are archaic and need to be done away with. Why don't stations just try to treat their employees well and maybe they'll just stick around without the threat of stupid lawsuits like Nick had to endure??



nicklulli
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Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2015 3:34 am

Re: Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by nicklulli » Mon Apr 15, 2019 12:09 am

Who’s ready for the full story?



nicklulli
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Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2015 3:34 am

Re: Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by nicklulli » Thu Apr 18, 2019 12:15 am

Very soon...

Check back in tomorrow.



nicklulli
Posts: 29
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Re: Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by nicklulli » Thu Apr 18, 2019 12:20 pm




nicklulli
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2015 3:34 am

Re: Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by nicklulli » Thu Apr 18, 2019 4:24 pm

lovinlife101 wrote:
Thu Apr 18, 2019 1:12 pm
I’ll never understand why stations go after people who don’t want to be there.
Thank you for your support.

It’s also even more confusing when you tell the station you are leaving the state for personal/medical/whatever reasons, and have NO PLANS to compete against the company.

I never in a million years wanted to counter-sue and have to discuss the bad situation there. That’s what I told them. I said I wanted to just walk away and I won’t talk about it. But they chose otherwise.

Remember when I was attacked by that guy? I was sent out there alone, directed by Ian, with no photographer or other person to back me up.

By the way, there’s someone at the station who in their deposition certainly didn’t help me. Dare I say, they weren’t truthful in their sworn deposition? When confronted with their own words, they changed their story in their deposition. This hurt me very much, on a personal level. I’m so shocked and disappointed in this person.



Realist
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Location: Northern Michigan

Re: Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by Realist » Thu Apr 18, 2019 5:00 pm

nicklulli wrote:
Thu Apr 18, 2019 4:24 pm
lovinlife101 wrote:
Thu Apr 18, 2019 1:12 pm
I’ll never understand why stations go after people who don’t want to be there.
Thank you for your support.

It’s also even more confusing when you tell the station you are leaving the state for personal/medical/whatever reasons, and have NO PLANS to compete against the company.

I never in a million years wanted to counter-sue and have to discuss the bad situation there. That’s what I told them. I said I wanted to just walk away and I won’t talk about it. But they chose otherwise.

Remember when I was attacked by that guy? I was sent out there alone, directed by Ian, with no photographer or other person to back me up.

By the way, there’s someone at the station who in their deposition certainly didn’t help me. Dare I say, they weren’t truthful in their sworn deposition? When confronted with their own words, they changed their story in their deposition. This hurt me very much, on a personal level. I’m so shocked and disappointed in this person.
Nick - TV5 News is a complete and total revolving door cesspool. I’m assuming that the only reason that people watch them is because of their past reputation and heritage. You did the best thing possible in leaving there as they’ve gotten even worse.

Btw - why do I have a sneaking suspicion that the person who’s untruthful there is their H*** prima-donna Cher lover?



nicklulli
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Re: Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by nicklulli » Fri Apr 19, 2019 12:12 am

By the way, you should see in my deposition where they asked why I didn’t sue buzzboard users for criticizing me. I’m not joking. This was after I amended the lawsuit to include defamation when I found out they were using a possibly altered version of a package I did in a “how not to be a reporter” video AFTER I counter-sued them.



Realist
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Location: Northern Michigan

Re: Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by Realist » Fri Apr 19, 2019 8:28 am

nicklulli wrote:
Fri Apr 19, 2019 12:12 am
By the way, you should see in my deposition where they asked why I didn’t sue buzzboard users for criticizing me. I’m not joking. This was after I amended the lawsuit to include defamation when I found out they were using a possibly altered version of a package I did in a “how not to be a reporter” video AFTER I counter-sued them.
I can’t imagine that this used to be the credible news organization that employed Jim Rush, Art VanDyke, Jim Kiertzner, Marian Strozier, Susan Shaw (amongst others) as anchors. What a disgrace they’ve become, not only in their news product but management also.



nicklulli
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Re: Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by nicklulli » Fri Apr 19, 2019 9:03 am

All I can say is that I worked hard every day to be the best journalist I could be. Yes, the whole situation seems quite unbelievable. Imagine how much they spent in legal fees?

By the way, the Michigan Supreme Court has ruled that employee-required remuneration to the employer is illegal. That means that regardless of reasoning (health, etc.) you are allowed to leave a “contract” for any time at any reason for no penalty.

They could never even produce an original signed copy of my contract anyways for use in the case.

They also could never produce evidence of costs incurred to recruit me. I was interviewed by phone and by FaceTime. They did not spend any money to recruit me. My “replacement” testified he also received no paid training or cost the company money to recruit him.

Honestly, one of the big takeaways from this is the serious tort reform needed in this country. You can sue anyone and anytime for any reason, regardless of the truth. When you’re a publicly traded corporation with billions of dollars, versus someone who made not very much money, there’s an automatic advantage. Unlike in criminal law, indigent defendants are not provided an attorney at no cost.

Their whole intent of this lawsuit was to bully me into simply paying them money. Before they filed, they wanted me to pay $800 or so and sign a NATIONWIDE non-compete. Even though I had no plans to work in television, I was not going to sign ANYTHING because I was not required to. I also had no money to give them and wasn’t going to give it if I did. They then spent almost six months trying to serve me with the lawsuit more than 1000 miles away. The POLICE finally found me to serve me.

Again, the whole thing was such a waste of time and money. It really is sad. I am the first person WNEM ever did this to. They have had plenty of people leave “under contract” and they haven’t been sued. Their lawsuit itself was discriminatory. It’s so obvious their lawsuit was punitive in nature. You can’t milk a dry cow.

By the way, the starting raw union scale pay was $32,000 for a reporter. I negotiated $34,000 (second year scale pay). That’s how much I made before city, state, federal taxes. You can calculate the take home pay. They knew I had no money. What Ian failed to tell corporate was that I can be unapologetically brutal in my quest for what’s right. They failed to realize I would not give in to intimidation.



Realist
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Location: Northern Michigan

Re: Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by Realist » Fri Apr 19, 2019 9:15 am

$34,000 divided into 2080 hours (40 hour work week x 52 weeks) is $16.35 an hour. They seriously tried pulling this shit? 🙄🙄🙄 So glad that Ian and Al are gone but it sounds as their replacements aren’t much better...

There are a couple of on air people there who aren’t bad but they need to jump ship and get off of that Titanic...



nicklulli
Posts: 29
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Re: Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by nicklulli » Fri Apr 19, 2019 10:34 am

Realist wrote:
Fri Apr 19, 2019 9:15 am
$34,000 divided into 2080 hours (40 hour work week x 52 weeks) is $16.35 an hour. They seriously tried pulling this shit? 🙄🙄🙄 So glad that Ian and Al are gone but it sounds as their replacements aren’t much better...

There are a couple of on air people there who aren’t bad but they need to jump ship and get off of that Titanic...
The mediators who voted I should get $40,000 from Meredith were “collectively baffled” according to the people in the room. Nobody has ever seen anything like this. I walked away from WNEM and never said a single negative word, nor planned to, about my experience there. If you go look at my ‘goodbye’ Facebook post, it was intentionally vague. Nobody can understand why they wanted this all dragged out into the open.



mr v
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Location: Michigan

Re: Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by mr v » Fri Apr 19, 2019 11:03 am

Here's the fabricated story management sent Nick on. You will notice there are no flags being flown to offend anyone, of any kind. Only rumors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQMgYOAMoRc



nicklulli
Posts: 29
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Re: Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by nicklulli » Fri Apr 19, 2019 11:38 am

mr v wrote:
Fri Apr 19, 2019 11:03 am
Here's the fabricated story management sent Nick on. You will notice there are no flags being flown to offend anyone, of any kind. Only rumors. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQMgYOAMoRc
So, yeah, that’s the story I got attacked on.

When I got there, the flags had been taken down.

The on-call manager that weekend was Ian Rubin. He directed me to go there on my own.

He had heard the story on a statewide radio program or on MLIVE.

I will say, the resulting ‘attack’ was legitimate. That was a very traumatizing experience. I don’t think at the time I realized the stress it could and would cause.

I agree with your assertion of it being a non-story.

They still sued me even though this was cited as a reason for my departure. I was extremely alarmed that they never followed up on the police report filed (assault) or my protection.

No matter your views on the subject matter or its merit as a news story, nobody should be assaulted on public property. We have a fundamental right to take photos or video of whatever we want as long as the subject isn’t something that normally enjoys privacy (enclosed bathrooms, bedrooms, etc.). Anyone driving or walking along that road can see what I was recording.

However, just because you have the right to do it, doesn’t make it smart. Should I have been sent to an inflammatory situation on my own? No. But, I was 21 years old and was not going to say ‘no’ to my boss after being on the job for only a couple months.



nicklulli
Posts: 29
Joined: Wed Feb 11, 2015 3:34 am

Re: Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by nicklulli » Fri Apr 19, 2019 11:54 am

lovinlife101 wrote:
Fri Apr 19, 2019 11:39 am
THEY COULDN’T EVEN PRODUCE THE CONTRACT?

CASE CLOSED!!!

How could anyone let it get to this point?!
They couldn’t produce an original ink signature. All they showed me in my deposition were photocopies and the signature did not resemble mine at all. I even produced by license and other documents signed around the same time to show what my actual signature looked like.

The reason why it can get to this point is because civil litigation is like the Wild West. You can sue anyone at any time for any reason and that doesn’t make it true. You will have to defend it at your own cost. Since they use local outside counsel for disputes, the lawyers are going to keep doing the work and sending the invoices as long as Meredith keeps paying.



mr v
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Location: Michigan

Re: Lulli 2, WNEM 0

Post by mr v » Fri Apr 19, 2019 2:05 pm

Best of luck Nick, you made a good decision to leave TV 5. Glad you are back home again and hope you are doing well.



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