UNC-TV Releases Emails Between Reporter, Former Board Member

UNC-TV has released additional copies of unredacted emails between reporter Eszter Vajda and Bruce Thompson, a Stanly County lobbyist who served as a member of the UNC-TV Board of Trustees during the development of Vajda’s controversial series on Alcoa.  The UNC-TV segments have been widely criticized by journalism professors as slanted, unsupported by the facts and failing to meet accepted journalism standards.  The additional emails shed even more light on how the production was influenced by those outside of UNC-TV.


Thompson is one of several Alcoa opponents -- including former House Speaker Richard Morgan, political consultant Carter Wrenn and Stanly County banker Roger Dick -- who worked closely with Vajda as part of a coordinated effort to support a government takeover of Alcoa Power Generating Inc’s Yadkin Project. The recently released emails indicate that Vajda asked for feedback from Thompson on drafts of stories about Alcoa and forwarded to him internal UNC-TV emails about the station’s resistance to produce a documentary about Alcoa.  


Thompson resigned his seat on the UNC-TV board on September 7. He requested that UNC-TV make available unredacted copies of his email correspondence with Vajda.  Click here to view the emails.


Click here to read more about the UNC-TV issue and view the complete set of public records originally provided by UNC-TV.