Another Atlanta broadcaster arrested for DUI. Let's make an example of her
If being a broadcast journalist means being a community role model and being a community role model means being held to a higher standard, then shouldn't one's redemption be as public as his or her shaming?
- 11Alive
- 11Alive's Elle Duncan was arrested for DUI last weekend.
Why is it that media personalities' jobs are always jeopardized when they get a DUI?
It's not a question likely to get much local media play, especially in the wake of yet another Atlanta-based journalist being arrested for driving under the influence. But maybe it should.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, 11Alive traffic reporter and Atlanta Hawks sideline reporter Elle Duncan was arrested on Piedmont Road after a Georgia State Patrol officer witnessed her silver Mercedes "weaving in and out of traffic in a reckless manner."
According to Rodney Ho of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Duncan worked an Atlanta Hawks' playoff game earlier that Saturday night and partied at the Buckhead Bottle & Bistro. She blew a .099, according to the police report, which was above the legal limit of 0.08. She's since issued a public statement claiming "full responsibility" for her actions. Meanwhile, her mugshot makes its way around the blogs.
Of course, this comes in the wake of longtime news anchor Amanda Davis' retirement announcement last week on Fox 5. After 26 years, it was her first - and last - appearance on the network since her DUI arrest last fall following a wrong-way accident on Piedmont Ave. Her trial is pending. On the national level, broadcasting news legend Sam Donaldson faces a similar fate as his DUI trial is set to begin in June.
In 2009, Duncan, a former on-air personality at Atlanta radio station V103, filled the slot of that station's former midday host, Porsche Foxx, who'd waged her own public battle with alcohol and drug usage dating back to a 2004 DUI arrest and subsequent termination. She was terminated from V103 for the second time in 2008 for unspecified reasons.