On Wednesday, a Pittsburgh TV producer who decided to have a joke at New England Patriots’ quarterback Tom Brady’s expense found out that the joke was on him: he was fired after captioning a clip of Brady “Known Cheater.”
Michael Telek, 27, said his decision to use the “Known Cheater” caption on the 4 p.m. news show on Monday came from a desire to give Pittsburgh Steeler fans “a little wink.” He told Deadspin:
So, I’m a producer, I write the news and decide the order, choose what graphics show up, etc. For the 4 p.m. news, the kicker is usually soft and sweet. We get these packages that come down from corporate and it was just like, Here are the two teams in the Super Bowl, pretty boring. So I wrote the intro about the six rings and then changed it up. I mean, it’s Pittsburgh, we hate the Patriots, we hate Tom Brady, so it was a little wink for fans.
Telek was apparently referring to the Deflategate scandal in 2015, in which Brady was accused of cheating by ordering footballs to be under-inflated so they would be easier to throw.
KDKA released a statement saying, “’While fans are entitled to have personal opinions, we have a journalistic responsibility to provide unbiased reporting. The graphic that appeared Monday violated our news standards. The individual who created the graphic no longer works for KDKA-TV.”
Telek told Deadspin:
So anyways, on Monday they said they were going to write me up and said it would be on my record. So I’m like, “Okay, cool.” Tuesday, I went to morning meeting as usual. After the noon news, as soon as that was over, no one was talking to me. So I realized something was wrong but I thought maybe there was an eight percent chance I get fired. They said at 3 p.m., we’re going to have a meeting. Then at 4:30 they actually sat me down … My manager takes me into the office, and she said that there had been an investigation. She said, “Because you did that deliberately, you no longer work at KDKA. Today is your last day.” So I said, “Okay,” and left. I went home and hung out with my friends. They set up a Gofundme for me.
Telek said he was “shocked, I think everyone pretty much was. Even some of my managers were like, ‘Oh, I feel sick about it.’ I thought, ‘Well then don’t fire me.’ But I’m not going to badmouth KDKA or anything, I liked working there and the people I worked with.”
There was plenty of positive reaction to Telek’s caption, as shown by The Daily Mail.
Telek said he had just bought a house in Pittsburgh, adding, “I’m stuck here now. Maybe I’ll try something different. I’ve always wanted to do investigative work and obviously I want to work in sports, so we’ll see.” Asked for a Super Bowl prediction, he answered, “I’m gonna bet on Tom Brady without a doubt. I love Tom Brady, I think he’s the best. It was supposed to be a little wink for all the Steelers fans. But apparently it went too far. The [Rivers] casino has a job fair on Saturday, so I’m going to be there. And I’m going to place a bet on the Patriots, because we’re connected forever now.”