The rights of a news reporter just became a little stronger here in San Diego.
Dorian Hargrove is now an investigative and long-form news producer at CBS 8, a job he took after being forced out of NBC 7 in retaliation for his criticism of NBC 7’s failure to stand behind his reporting on the Ash Street debacle.
The news is that Hargrove just settled his lawsuit against NBC7 for an undisclosed amount of settlement. Dorian and his attorney, Marlea Dell’Anno were prepared to go to trial, and confident they would prevail in front of a jury.
This is not only a win for Dorian, a win for his attorney, and, more importantly, a win for journalistic integrity.
Here is the Times of San Diego report on Hargrove from May 2, 2022:
In September 2020, amid a heated mayor race, Hargrove revealed a leaked memo by outside-the-city lawyers looking into the controversial city purchase of the ill-fated 101 Ash Street property.
“Footnote 15 … raised questions about whether now-Mayor Todd Gloria withheld information about the Ash Street deal from the public and fellow council members when it was approved in 2016,” the Union-Tribune reported. “He has said he did not.”
The footnote also said Elliott helped shield Gloria from investigators for Burke, Williams & Sorensen, the Los Angeles law firm hired by the city in 2019 to examine the transaction and write the report, the U-T said. …
Hargrove became a story himself after he was publicly denounced by Mayor Todd Gloria and City Attorney Mara Elliott for reporting the infamous “Footnote 15,” which they said was fabricated.
The Times:
In the wake of official pushback, KNSD retracted the story and suspended Hargrove and investigative journalist Tom Jones.
Hargrove went back to work, but hired a lawyer to sue City Attorney Elliott, saying she violated his First Amendment rights by pressuring NBC San Diego. But in mid-December 2021, federal Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo granted the city of San Diego’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
Now Hargrove is going after his old employer. The suit says that on May 6, 2021, NBC San Diego harassed Hargrove because of his disability (effects of a horrific brain injury in 2009), age, family care or medical leave “and as a result … was reprimanded, suspended, demoted … [and] denied work opportunities or assignments.”
When Hargrove returned to NBC, the suit says, station Vice President Dawson “imposed new restrictions on Mr. Hargrove’s previously imposed discipline, most notably prohibiting Mr. Hargrove … from submitting Public Records Act requests to the city — even in his capacity of a private citizen.”
Hargrove complained about the restricted access to city government, “but his complaint fell on deaf ears,” the suit says.
By contrast, his NBC colleague Tom Jones, who helped on the 101 Ash story (and also was suspended), returned to NBC to a better position than Hargrove, the suit says. “Instead, Mr. Hargrove was told he had to send his pitches to the news managers, who repeatedly ignored them,” the suit says. “On at least one occasion, Mr. Hargrove was reprimanded for a story that he pitched.”
Hargrove eventually complained to NBC’s Ethics Department about what he called unfair treatment, the suit says, but “the adverse actions intensified.” At one point, according to the 15-page complaint, Dawson compared Hargrove to a “product defect” similar to one found in manufacturing and that his previous stories should be reviewed.
“Mr. Hargrove objected to being called a ‘product defect’ while HR Director [Nirupama] Hedge sat silently and did not say a word to Dawson about name-calling an employee in such an abusive manner,” the suit says.
Being labeled a “defect” disturbed Hargrove deeply, “sending him into a dark place emotionally” and — unable to take any more abuse and humiliation — forcing him to go on mental health leave as a “result of his severe depression.”
Another local reporter who worked with Dorian had this to say:
I closely followed this story, and it’s regrettable aftermath while I worked with Dorian at NBC and after my retirement in 2020. I was very disappointed that NBC’s lawyers and news executives failed to stand behind their reporter.
Dorian was — and is — an fair, honest, and experienced journalist. There was absolutely no reason — other than an unwillingness to devote the necessary time and money — for NBC to submit to the unwarranted demands of politicians by retracting that story.
The NBC 7 and its corporate parent had solid First Amendment grounds to forcefully defend its reporting against the baseless allegations of the public figures who were the subject of Dorian’s reporting.
Instead, they took what they thought was the easy way out by posting that retraction and abandoning their First Amendment responsibilities and their duty to their newsroom and journalists everywhere.
Worse, they made Dorian’s life hell by criticizing and demeaning him in his remaining time as an NBC employee.
I’m very happy that Dorian and his attorney settled this case on favorable terms, and encouraged that Dorian has continued his stellar career with a new employer who is more supportive of his excellent work.
Congratulations to Mr. Hargrove. He had a good attorney too.
I’m the “other local reporter who worked with Dorian.” So glad he ended this lawsuit in his favor. It takes guts to risk your job for what you think is right, especially when you have a family to support. I admire Dorian and Marlea for fighting the good fight!
Very inspiring to hear about a person who could have easily just accepted the fact that he’d been censored and that “connected “ politicians were too powerful to go up against.
Suffering from depression can make it difficult to just get out of bed in the morning. I can’t imagine the kind of strength and courage Mr Hargrove had to find in order to fight back in defense of his reputation and the violations against his rights.
Congratulations Dorian; you are a true trailblazer. ??
Greg Dawson (NBC7’s VP) should be investigated. He is long time friends of Nathan Fletcher and Lorena Gonzalez, and of course Todd Gloria is friends of them also. NBC’s reporting clearly shows a bias in their reporting about them over and over.
Congratulations to Mr Hargrove!
AWESOME Dorian! Good for you. I’m so glad you stood your ground and are not just another media employee that goes long to get along with issues that misleads the reality, to the public. Far too many SD politicians have become word smiths feeding the public word salads and more importantly media doesn’t call them out, and just passes on the BS to the public or takes the screwed up side version of the politician and doesn’t check to know the whole truth. I’m proud of you.
Dorian Hargrove understood the city before anyone even imagined the truth. He is a brilliant man. He worked with Ian Trowbridge, who understood the problems facing open government when the rest of us didn’t know it was a problem. The two of them taught the rest of us. Thank Dorian, for all that you have done for San Diego.
I was so thrilled to read about Dorian’s settlement. I know him from when we both worked at San Diego READER. He’s a superb rep0rter, and an awesome person.
Thank you, Dorian, for taking the more difficult path and fighting to defend yourself and your profession. Good journalists across San Diego and beyond owe you a debt.
This story says a lot of wonderful things about Dorian and his attorney, but it also reflects very negatively on Todd Gloria, Mara Elliot and everyone at NBC who was a party to these actions and bent over to accommodate Gloria and Elliot’s demands for a retraction.
When 101 Ash Street is involved, there appears to be a recurring theme when it comes to Todd Gloria. When uncomfortable information is uncovered or might potentially be uncovered, there appears to be sudden action: a news story is suddenly retracted and reporters are suspended; an asbestos-filled building is purchased years ahead of schedule costing taxpayers tens of millions of dollars more than the lease-to-own contract when a trial over the contract history is imminent; email records for the city are suddenly required to be kept for only 5 years instead of indefinitely. Are all of these actions involving Todd Gloria and 101 Ash Street coincidences? Who knows, because the trials never happen and the email records now only go back 5 years.
In any event, I applaud Dorian and his attorney and the win for journalists. It is sad that NBC didn’t stand behind its journalists and instead bowed to political pressure. Time will tell whether NBC has learned anything from this experience or whether City Hall will continue to pull strings at what is supposed to be an independent news organization.
The elephant in the room — the upshot of this article is that there then was indeed a “Footnote 15”.
And … “Footnote 15 … raised questions about whether now-Mayor Todd Gloria withheld information about the Ash Street deal from the public and fellow council members when it was approved in 2016,” the Union-Tribune reported. ‘
And this … The footnote also said Elliott helped shield Gloria from investigators for Burke, Williams & Sorensen, the Los Angeles law firm hired by the city in 2019 to examine the transaction and write the report, the U-T said. …
Hargrove became a story himself after he was publicly denounced by Mayor Todd Gloria and City Attorney Mara Elliott for reporting the infamous “Footnote 15,” which they said was fabricated. (Times of SD 2022 article)
Frank, what happened to Footnote 15? Was it removed from the report? Did it disappear or was it amended?
I’m punting this question to someone else — any takers? What happened to Footnote 15?
After NBC 7 stopped reporting on the footnote, both Jeff McDonald at the UT and Art Castanares at La Prensa continued covering the issue.
Here’s one of Jeff’s stories.
https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/2021/10/14/ash-street-memo-containing-infamous-footnote-15-surfaces-rekindling-debate-over-san-diego-city-failures/
Just Google “Footnote 15, just Google “Footnote 15 101 Ash Street”
I also found a Voice of San Diego story.
Dorian has never been anything but smart, truthful, humble, and devoted. As an HR Professional experienced in investigating and resolving complex employee relations issues, I stand by his fight and so glad he prevailed. Here here! And shame on his former HR lead on not supporting their employee in time of need as they are hired to do.