Alycia Lane

Alycia Lane


Alycia Lane (born May 10, 1972) is an American television journalist. Until January 2008, she served as co-anchor of the weekday evening newscasts on KYW-TV in Philadelphia. Lane joined KYW-TV in September 2003 after working at WTVJ in Miami, where she was the weekend anchor.


Background

Lane, a native of Lake Grove, New York, on Long Island, is of Puerto Rican descent on her mother's side and Welsh descent on her father's. She has a Master’s Degree in Broadcast Journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University, and an undergraduate degree from the State University of New York at Albany where she graduated with honors. She is a member of the National Association of Hispanic Journalists and speaks fluent Spanish.

[edit] Career

Lane's television career began while completing her Master's at Northwestern, serving as a Washington, D.C.-based reporter for KSNT in Topeka, Kansas. After completing her studies, she returned to her native New York and joined Cablevision-owned News 12 the Bronx, where she served as an anchor and reporter. Among the stories she covered there was the 1999 shooting of African immigrant Amadou Diallo, who was shot to death by four New York City police officers.

In 2000, Lane moved to Miami, after being hired as a reporter for Fox affiliate WSVN. She joined a rival station, NBC-owned WTVJ a year later, and spent two years there before moving to Philadelphia.

[edit] Controversies

[edit] Bikini pictures

In May 2007 Lane became the center of a national media story, when reports surfaced that Lane emailed pictures of herself and friends, depicting her in a bikini, to the NFL Network's Rich Eisen via an account that he shared with his wife, Suzy Shuster.[1] Shuster's email response became public;[2][3] but, Lane insisted that the pictures were harmless[4] and that she and Eisen have been "purely platonic" friends "for almost 10 years", and that they "regularly exchange e-mail and photos".[5]

[edit] Arrest and firing

Lane was arrested in the early morning hours of December 16, 2007 in New York City, accused of assaulting a female police officer.[6] Lane was charged with one felony count of assault on a police officer.[7][8][9][10] The day after her arrest KYW-TV announced that she was starting a planned vacation effective immediately, and would remain off the air until further notice.[11]

On December 18, 2007, Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell was interviewed on Philadelphia radio station WIP regarding a call Lane had made after the incident. The governor indicated that he had spoken to her on December 17 about the incident but she did not ask him for assistance in her case.[12] MSNBC followed up by voting Ms. Lane as their "Loser of the Week" with New York Post reporter Laura Italiano providing details of the event.[13] [14]

On January 7, 2008, Lane was released from her contract with KYW-TV. In a statement released through the station, KYW-TV president and general manager Michael Colleran said that the decision to terminate Lane was made "...After assessing the overall impact of a series of incidents resulting from judgments she has made...we have concluded that it would be impossible for Alycia to continue to report the news as she, herself, has become the focus of so many news stories." ([1])

In response to her termination, Lane's attorney, Paul Rosen, released a statement, which partially reads: "...The termination comes at a time when there has been absolutely no determination that Alycia is guilty of any wrongful conduct, and after KYW-TV has aired her categorical denial of the alleged charge that is pending against her. The termination is unfair because Alycia has never had an opportunity to defend against this charge, and tell her side of the story publicly, before KYW-TV has taken this unusual and unwarranted step to terminate her employment."[15]