On Saturday, we reported that Nashville Fox station sports guy Dan Phillips was fired after station management found his Prince-themed sports report to be “insensitive,” which is how Phillips described it in a Facebook post about the firing. Now, a source at the station tells us that’s not why he was fired at all—and that his conduct on Facebook Live is to blame.
A source tells us Fox 17 reporter Meagan O’Halloran was conducting a Facebook Live “fishbowl” broadcast, in which newsroom personnel are asked to pick a question out of the bowl and answer it for the live viewing audience. Phillips reportedly told O’Halloran “you better not fucking come in my office with that,” and proceeded to repeatedly yell “Fuck you! Fuck you!” on the Facebook Live broadcast after she entered his office. We’re told Phillips then told the rest of the staff “I fucking told her that would happen if she came into my office.” The video was immediately deleted, according to our source.
That meltdown, we’re told, is what led to Phillips’s firing—not the Prince tribute. We’ve reached out to Phillips for his side of the story, and will update if he returns our call. We knew Facebook Live was coming for media jobs, but didn’t think it would be like this.