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Tribune Columnist Robert Kirby Suspended Following Inquiry Prompted By Facebook Post

Courtney Kendrick stands with Salt Lake Tribune columnist Robert Kirby who was suspended by the paper after an internal investigation
Courtney Kendrick
/
Facebook
Longtime Salt Lake Tribune columnist Robert Kirby has been suspended following an internal investigation into complaints of misconduct.

Readers of The Salt Lake Tribune may have noticed something missing over the weekend - an article from popular columnist Robert Kirby, who was suspended from the paper because of inappropriate behavior.

 

Last week, writer and blogger Courtney Kendrick took to Facebook to share an encounter with the longtime Tribune columnist, first reported by KUER News, and to call out his behavior towards her at conference over the summer.

In a statement released Friday, Tribune Editor Jennifer Napier-Pearce wrote, “After researching multiple complaints, we found that Kirby’s conduct has not been in compliance with Tribune policy.” She went on to say that Kirby is subject to a three-month suspension without pay and that he has shown a “sincere commitment to change.”

The two appeared on the same panel in July at the Sunstone Symposium, a yearly Mormon conference, where Kendrick wrote that Kirby asked her to pretend to be his paid escort and gave her a marijuana edible. She wrote that she ate the edible primarily to appease him. Kirby went on to tell the audience at Sunstone that Kendrick was high, which she said “completely blindsided” her.

Kendrick responded to the Tribune’s decision with another Facebook post, saying, “My posting was never about apologies or punishments, it was about making my community aware of problematic behavior by so-called progressive men.”

After Kendrick’s post got traction online, Kirby issued an apology. But that didn’t stop Tribune management from looking into other areas of possible misconduct.

Lee Hale began listening to KUER while he was teaching English at a Middle School in West Jordan (his one hour commute made for plenty of listening time). Inspired by what he heard he applied for the Kroc Fellowship at NPR headquarters in DC and to his surprise, he got it. Since then he has reported on topics ranging from TSA PreCheck to micro apartments in overcrowded cities to the various ways zoo animals stay cool in the summer heat. But, his primary focus has always been education and he returns to Utah to cover the same schools he was teaching in not long ago. Lee is a graduate of Brigham Young University and is also fascinated with the way religion intersects with the culture and communities of the Beehive State. He hopes to tell stories that accurately reflect the beliefs that Utahns hold dear.
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