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[This post has been updated to add NPR reaction]

Jacqui Helbert, 32, was fired by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, which owns WUTC, the NPR affiliate, after local politicians complained about her coverage of a group of high school students who lobbied against  a bill forcing  Tennessee students to use restrooms and locker rooms matching the sex listed on their birth certificates.

The coverage was accurate, but lawmakers objected that she didn't identify herself as a radio reporter during their meetings with students, and they say they wouldn't have said what they said if they'd known a journalist was present.

This picture is what a typical radio reporter looks like when covering a story. Headphones. Tape recorder. Big giant fluffy windscreen on the microphone. Press credentials. Plus, during the meetings, she took pictures.

"It was glaringly obvious who I was," Helbert tells the 

In her story, she noted that one of the state senators asked the students how they define transgender.   “Is it how I feel on Monday? I feel different on Tuesday? Wednesday I might feel like a dog,” Sen. Mike Bell said.

The meeting ended after the comments caused some of the students to begin crying, according to Helbert's story.

The politicians complained, the reporter was fired, and the story was scrubbed from the station website (

but nothing is ever deleted on the Internet

The station said she didn't properly identify herself as a journalist.

“If the politicians can threaten to withhold money from the University and control the reporters, it totally discounts having (the) press,” Helbert tells 

On Friday, the station defended its decision 

"We had no problem with the story she did,”  George Heddleston, the university's chancellor for marketing and communications tells 

“Even though she had a microphone clearly visible, it’s clearly an ethical violation,”  Thom Storey, a Belmont University professor of journalism, tells Nashville Scene. “That’s one of the things that I stress in my classes — always make it very clear who you are and what you are there for.”

“We still need to get people’s verbal consent before interviewing them, and they need to be explicitly told they’re being recorded for radio,” news director Mike Miller wrote in an email to the reporter before her firing. “We must always do that. Interview subjects should never be surprised to find their voices in a radio story, and we can’t assume that our mics or our badges are sufficient notice. We need to identify ourselves by name, media outlet & purpose & get verbal consent before recording. … You’re doing a great job, and I’m not criticizing you. This is simply a matter of basic ethics & policy.”

, which Miller relayed to the reporter, urges reporters to identify themselves:

Bob Garfield, who hosts public radio's On the Media, says the gear she was wearing alone constituted identification.

https://twitter.com/Bobosphere/status/846369169893478400

https://twitter.com/jacquihelbert/status/846348639039623170

[Update 3/28] - NPR's senior vice president of news and head of ethics have 

NewsCut

Bob Collins

Author

Jacqui Helbert, 32, was fired by the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, which owns WUTC, the NPR affiliate, after local politicians complained about her coverage of a group of high school students who lobbied against  a bill forcing  Tennessee students to use restrooms and locker rooms matching the sex listed on their birth certificates.


Public radio reporter fired after row over bathroom bill story

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