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Fox4 Gives Aguilar Her Walking Papers

Posted on March 6th, 2008 9:23am by Glenn Hunter
Filed under Local News, Media

Looks like Fox4 has given reporter Rebecca Aguilar the boot for doing what reporters are supposed to do: ask tough questions and nail the story everyone else in town is chasing, too. Ed Bark has a full account.

18 Comments to “Fox4 Gives Aguilar Her Walking Papers”

SB @ March 6th, 2008 at 9:26 am

Why should media members be accountable for the way the treat people? I mean they are above the laws of common decency.

Good riddance to this b*tch.
jb @ March 6th, 2008 at 9:34 am

Good riddance, I agree. After the recent White Rock area crime wave where I live, I feel even stronger that she went too far.
Jay @ March 6th, 2008 at 10:17 am

“Aguilar, whose husband still works at Fox4, contends that the station may have “ruined my career.”

AWK WARD
Amandax9362 @ March 6th, 2008 at 10:41 am

While I think that reporters should ask the tough questions, they can also use common decency. The man had just killed someone. He was already showing remorse and crying, and she asks if he is trigger happy… I think that is what pissed people off the most. That is what I disliked least about her interview, and that she was standing in his car so he couldn’t leave if he wanted too.
Josh Pearson @ March 6th, 2008 at 11:04 am

Note to criminals - you live in Texas. If you are going to break into someone’s home (or business) prepare to be shot at. You are breaking the law and they have every legal right to protect themselves and their property. End of story.
John @ March 6th, 2008 at 11:04 am

Glenn — you overlooked the minor detail in Ed’s post that mentioned that Rebecca Miller is no longer a KXAS employee.
SB @ March 6th, 2008 at 11:15 am

“He was already showing remorse and crying, and she asks if he is trigger happy… I think that is what pissed people off the most. That is what I disliked least about her interview, and that she was standing in his car so he couldn’t leave if he wanted too.”

You hit the nail on the head, Amandax9362. Getting the story is one thing. Basically holding a man hostage so you can grandstand to him is another.
Glenn Hunter @ March 6th, 2008 at 11:27 am

Sorry, but when you blow away two people inside a few weeks–and have just purchased a brand-new firearm, to boot–you become a figure of public interest and will receive scrutiny, whether you’re 25 or 92 or whether or not the killings were “justified.” And rightfully so.
pork lover @ March 6th, 2008 at 12:35 pm

He will and should receive that scrutiny from the police department and D.A.’s office, not from a grandstanding, ambush reporter. The old man did not seek publicity for his justified and legal actions in protecting himself and his property and his privacy should have been respected until some sort of impropriety was found by the investigating authorities.
mantooth @ March 6th, 2008 at 1:20 pm

If what Aguilar did wasn’t bush league, then she shouldn’t have any problem finding another job. The market will provide the answer.
SB @ March 6th, 2008 at 1:31 pm

Kudos to pork lover and mantooth. Excellent posts. The commenters are tearing this blog item up!

Maybe if people don’t want to be “blown away” they should stop trying to take what’s not theirs. Seems like a pretty simple solution to me.
SB @ March 6th, 2008 at 1:32 pm

It’s too damn bad that Glenn posted this while Trey is on vacation. I think there would be a little inter-office turmoil regarding this issue.
SilverBullet @ March 6th, 2008 at 1:55 pm

Other blogs have called us GUN FREAKS or NRA’er types. What? But then we’re no better when we call Aguilar names. Even though I had big problems with her report; I’m sorry she lost her job. I live in Dallas, and have watched her for years. I thought she was a decent reporter.
She made a mistake. She needs to move on and we need to move on. We still have our rights. She didn’t take those away.
SB, I didn’t get that Trey comment.
Nathan @ March 6th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

When you have multiple documented calls into 911 and police reports about break-ins and thefts at your home/place of business, especially inside 2-3 weeks, you should have more right than others to shoot first and ask later. Even if this had been his first break-in and theft to suffer, he still has every right to protect himself and his property. No reporter should cross the line that Aguilar did. Even the police and DA’s office felt he was well within his rights under the Castle Doctrine. Whether he was 25 or 92, he still had the right to shoot the intruders. Scrutiny, absolutely not. Empathy, absolutely.
Don in Austin @ March 6th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

So, did the editor that allowed the interview to be aired get canned also?
Josh Pearson @ March 6th, 2008 at 2:50 pm

SilverBullet, I think SB was referring to the fact that Trey is very “pro right to bear arms” and that he might have a very different perspective on this issue…
Brandon @ March 7th, 2008 at 10:34 am

Rebecca Aguilar’s career is far from ruined, as long as she looks beyond this market. Maybe she can pull a Scott Sams and play at KTEN for a year or so.
Papa Rotc @ March 7th, 2008 at 11:36 am

What’s the true shame in all this is how long it took the FOX managers to do something about her. She has been a BAD reporter at FOX 4 for a LONG time, with many, many, many complaints and they didn’t do a thing about it. I turned the channel for years whenever one of her stories came on cos I knew 99 percent of it was either a lie, manufactured, or plain BS. Thanks Fox managers, maybe now I don’t have to watch the news so much with the remote ready to watch a different channel. Now can you just get Clarice to talk normally without all the unnecessary inflections? She’s as sweet as she can be, but I can’t stand to hear HER talk to DELIVER the news to YOUR viewers. I feel like I’m on an audio ROLLER coaster. But don’t switch to the Channel 5 monotone, either. My gosh. They go from a murder story to a kind story about a puppy and the tone is the same.