Stand with TV reporter fired for pro-life beliefs: LifeFunder
(LifeSiteNews) — A television journalist was fired last week after a liberal news outlet published an article framing her personal pro-life work as unprofessional “partisan politics.”
Melanie Standiford was the news director for the Gray Media television station in North Platte, Nebraska. Two months after she circulated a pro-life petition through her church and community, the longtime reporter and mother of 13 was fired after her employer was made aware of the work she had done in private and in line with her Christian beliefs.
“They justify it as saying that in the handbook it says you can’t practice partisan politics again,” Standiford told LifeSiteNews. “I don’t think I was doing that. To me, this isn’t partisan. This is my church.”
“If you count my grandchildren, I’ve been in this community for eight generations on both sides of my family,” she said. “And so, it’s no secret in the small community of Curtis, Nebraska … that I’m pro-life. I’m a Lutheran. I am active in my church. So, everybody knows I’m pro-life.”
Standiford told LifeSiteNews that she “was not reporting” on the pro-life petition. Her work attracted attention when “a community member who is pro-choice” gave information to a liberal Omaha reporter about the petition, sparking statewide circulation of the situation. Apparently, Standiford had promoted the petition nearly two months ago and had done so without advertising her actions, which were not in any way associated with her professional work.
“I always make sure I report both sides of a story,” she said. “And if you ever look at this piece that got me fired, you’ll see that they clearly didn’t do that in that story.”
Standiford explained that she does not know how the situation will develop going forward. She shared that what she knows right now is “I gave my heart to that job. I just absolutely love the people. I love them. And I cared about them. And I just wanted to tell their story.”
Before losing her job for her beliefs, Standiford said that she had lived her faith quietly
“I have been silent. I have done the things in the background to do what I can for life … I marched in Chicago, I marched in Washington, D.C. this year. That was never known. I am able to keep that separate, but I don’t have to do that anymore. I get to stand up for what’s right. I get to do what God wants us to … God is going to turn this terrible injustice into something great.”
“Even if this situation saves one life, then it will not have been for naught … It’ll be worth it.”
A LifeFunder has been launched to support Standiford as she fights “this battle to survive the devil’s evil attack on our precious babies and the obvious attack on me by someone in my own community.”
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