A Pittsburgh TV station employee paid a heavy price for taking a high-profile shot at Tom Brady.
Pittsburgh's CBS affiliate fired the employee responsible for identifying the New England Patriots' star quarterback as a "known cheater" in a graphic displayed Monday during KDKA-TV's 4 o'clock news program, a spokesman told Dan Gartland of Sports Illustrated. CBS is the broadcaster for Super Bowl LIII.
@KDKA throwing the shade at Brady 😂 pic.twitter.com/ZPs7gLU8Lf
— Noah M. Vereb (@nvereb) January 28, 2019
"While fans are entitled to have personal opinions, we have a journalistic responsibility to provide unbiased reporting," KDKA said in a statement. "The graphic that appeared Monday violated our news standards. The individual who created the graphic no longer works for KDKA-TV."
The NFL suspended Brady for the first four games of the 2016 season for his role in Deflategate, and the Patriots as a whole have a history of walking the line between competitive and illegal conduct; their videotaping from the sideline of other teams' play-call signals from 2002–07 is the most infamous example.
