A reporter is speaking out against her former network after they fired her on her birthday, no less. Ellina Abovian didn't have great things to say about KTLA.
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She had worked at the network for a decade before being caught up in a round of layoffs. The reporter was in disbelief upon hearing the news.
"I'm sitting there, and I'm just cocooned in myself because I'm waiting to hear what they're going to say," she said on her solo podcast episode, "My KTLA Layoff." "As the words are coming out, I'm in shock, I'm in disbelief. I'm just like, no, this can't be it."
Upon hearing that she was being laid off, she had a fiery response for her employers.
"I really just said one thing in that meeting," she added. "I looked to my superiors and I said, 'Out of everyone here, you choose a single mom with two kids.' And I'm not discrediting anyone else's struggle in life."
Reporter Was in Disbelief
Prior to the layoff, she believes the universe gave her a sign. She was working with a photographer she had started her job at the network with. The reporter saw it as a full-circle moment.
"He and I worked together in San Diego. And it's as if the universe was saying, 'This is your full-circle moment. Someone you started out with in San Diego is now going to be the person you live your last day at KTLA with,'" she said.
The reporter wasn't the only one fired. The network also let go of anchors Glen Walker and Lu Parker as well as several meteorologists. The reporter and her colleagues didn't get the chance to say goodbye to viewers.
"I got this feeling that I have never experienced before on the job," she said. "This can't be it. I've been in this business 16 years. This cannot be the moment I say goodbye."
She's struggling to make peace with the decision.
"It triggers your deepest insecurities. And for me, I grew up with that scarcity mindset. I grew up in a family where everything was one paycheck away from disappearing," she said. "When something like that happens to you and you're the adult, you're the parent ... it all comes in front of you. And you think, am I now going to do that to my kids? Of course, that's not reality, and I'm going to be fine."
