Kevin Dietz
In the TV news biz, reporters commonly get their fair share of rejections while trying to climb up the ladder to a bigger station.
Kevin Dietz, an award-winning investigative journalist at WDIV, is no exception.
On Tuesday, he posted on Facebook a January 1993 rebuff from then- WJBK News Director Mort Meisner while he was a reporter in Battle Creek.
"REJECTION! 23 years ago I received this rejection letter from Ch 2," Dietz posts, adding:
TODAY is my 23 year anniversary working for WDIV TV Local 4.
Luckily Ch 4 saw something in me and I am grateful and blessed to have been bringing you the news all these years in the town I was born and raised! #GO4IT
Meisner wrote the typical rejection letter, saying: " At this time we have no openings which are suitable for your qualifications. However, we will keep your resume on file for the next six months in the even that an opening for which you are qualified becomes available."
Dietz explains in a written response to Deadline Detroit:
I had a box of old tapes I was going through and I found about a dozen letters inside the tape boxes - some were pretty brutal.
At least Mort was encouraging. In our biz you get a lot of rejection but if you never give up you will be ok!
Dietz tells Deadline Detroit that he started his career in Cheboygan, then Lansing, Battle Creek and the Kalamazoo-Grand Rapids market. He joined WDIV in June 1993.
