TV & VIDEO - March 16, 1989

Two news executives an ABC-TV affiliate in St. Petersburg, Fla., have been fired in the wake of allegations that one tapped into the newsroom computers of a competing station. Assistant news director Michael I. Shapiro, 33, and news director Terry Cole, 32, were let go by WTSP to “avoid any questions about the objective way we do our business,” said the station’s vice president and general manager. Shapiro was charged in February with 14 computer-related counts in an alleged series of raids on the confidential news files at CBS affiliate WTVT, his former employer. He helped set up security for WTVT’s computer system before being hired by Cole in September.