The first item you must understand is that if you are on television, especially the on-air news group, you are held to a higher opinion by the public because they TRUST what you say.
By any measurement, Lee Anderson has done a good job running the Bend NBC affiliate news program. He had to possess certain qualifications to attain his position so that he might educate others in his workplace to further their carreers in preparation to move up to larger television markets.
Another item you must understand is that if you are in a room/studio that originates live broadcasts you must check your personal opinions, feelings and bias at the front door because, as we know all too well now, someone in the broadcast booth or somewhere down the broadcast line can leave a microphone open and your conversations will be heard by many.
The big question is not, “What went wrong?”, but, “How do we keep this from happening again?. All the good Lee Anderson has done for many years on camera at KTVZ can, and probably has been, washed away by that conversation he had with Molly Henderson speaking about his hiring practices which was broadcast in error. Molly had no right to ask her immediate supervisor questions of a personal nature in regards to his hiring practices and her comments about only hiring pretty girls.
People are fired for just this sort of action every day in corporate america. It is skirting the issues of preferential treatment, sexist attitudes and inappropriate discussions with your superiors.
Lee doesn’t possess a halo by any means but these kinds of discussions can only lead to problems, as it already has and was broadcast for the ears of the public.
Chris Ballu will have his hands full to hand out any disciplines necessary, if he deems any discipline is necessary, and will have to look at current operations policies on broadcast studio use and control. This might be the time to secure the proper education on interviewing and hiring practices or hire personnel trained to handle this. When it seems that one person has the ability to do the interviewing and hiring for the news department there are no checks and balances in place.
There are items that must be handled swiftly at KTVZ to stop any further erosion from occuring. Because this happened on live television I feel the viewing public has a right to know what has been done to correct the issues. Don’t bury this from the public just because YOU CAN. We want to trust what is being done and we want to trust our news department at KTVZ.

Maybe my political correctness sensors aren’t finely tuned enough, but I don’t see anything in that conversation that would warrant firing anybody. There were no obscenities, no racist or sexist epithets. They joked about Lee hiring good-looking young female reporters — which he does, and which pretty much all TV stations try to do. (How many old, ugly reporters or anchors of either sex have you ever seen?) Looks like a clear case of molehills into mountains to me.