4 TVBS Newscasters Reportedly Caught In Power Struggle Likened To A “Modern-Day Palace Drama"
So is this what happens when real life takes inspiration from reel-life?
According to Taiwanese media reports, four female newscasters from Taiwanese broadcasting company TVBS (not to be confused with Hongkong’s TVB) were recently caught in a super dramatic power struggle that netizens have gleefully described as a “modern-day palace drama”.
Taiwanese media outlet United Daily News reported on May 25 that three newscasters surnamed Huang, Zhang and You were the instigators.
They were originally close friends with the newscaster they were targeting, but seemed to have fallen out due to a power struggle and personal differences.
It's said that they were competing to be the anchor for a coveted prime-time show.
Hot goss alert!
The newscaster who was bullied allegedly found her clothes had cuts in them, and her desk and belongings were drenched in an “unidentified liquid”.
These continued for a while before she secretly installed a pinhole camera to catch the culprit red-handed.
After she obtained video evidence, she immediately made a police report. It was said that TVBS wanted to fire all three newscasters who were involved. However, here’s where the real drama begins.
One newscaster apparently turned on the others, making it so that she would not be implicated.
Another stubbornly maintained that she was innocent from the start, as she was not captured doing anything incriminating on camera. She was eventually transferred to another department.
In the end, the fall was taken by the remaining newscaster, whose actions were caught on camera.
Though TVBS has since come forward to deny that the incident took place within their company, stories and screenshots sharing more about the ‘big showdown’ have been spreading like wildfire online.
According to TVBS, while there was indeed a “minor dispute” among their newscasters, it has since been handled, and no one involved called the cops, contrary to what’s been spreading online.
Straight from a former TV announcer's mouth
One day after United Daily News ran their story, a former Era News announcer, Hong Li En, weighed in on the issue, revealing that she’d heard about the incident long before it became public knowledge.
“I even checked multiple times, to ask if it was indeed those three [who were the bullies]. ‘Cos, out of those four, three of them would work together with me to report the news back when I was still a reporter. There was one who even guided me along back when I was just a newbie starting out, she was practically my mentor,” she wrote.
Li En started out as a reporter, before climbing the ranks to become a newscaster.
She added that during her time as a newscaster, she did not experience any bullying. However, she also conceded that she might have overlooked these incidents even when they happened to her as she was “too nervous” back then.
“To be frank, regardless of whether you’re a TV anchor or not, bullying happens everywhere and in all corners of society,” she wrote, before going on to denounce such actions, calling it “unacceptable" and “childish”.
Li En also spoke up for her fellow newscasters, writing that the industry is not as shady as everyone believes, and definitely not as complicated as a “palace drama”.
Photos: United Daily News, Hong Li En/Facebook, TVBS News/YouTube
