Jesse Jones public announcement about KIRO layoff

I have a career update.
KIRO 7 has made the decision to close its consumer unit. My last day is October 23rd.

It has been an amazing ten years. I would like to express my gratitude to all the viewers who have watched and supported us.

I also want to give high praise to the fantastic producers and photographers who have done outstanding work over the past decade.

We have made an impact on consumers, both locally and nationally. Elected officials reacted to our reports by writing legislation, and some of those bills became laws.

We helped viewers reduce or eliminate their medical debt, held bad contractors to account, got answers and action from stubborn businesses and facilitated the return of cash, and lots of it, to consumers. Professionally, I have no idea what’s next. Once again, thank you.

It has been an honor and a blessing to serve as your consumer wingman.

37 thoughts on “Jesse Jones public announcement about KIRO layoff

  1. It is disgusting to see a valuable compassionate person who advocated for others shoved out the door by KIRO who claimed “company consolidation.” Jesse Jones rattled the cages of individuals, and big and small businesses, publicly shaming them to comply with the standards of decency. Jesse Jones taught us to document. Not only is Jesse a teacher he is a tenacious trustworthy investigator. Trustworthy, what an archaic concept.

    Because of Jesse Jones grounded core values, Jesse will rise above, and is now free for new adventures.

    1. Bring Jesse Jones back with a higher promotion or employee leave salary✊🏽✊🏻✊🏼✊🏾✊🏿✊
      stop with the bigot quid-pro-quo nonsense it’s about equity and fairness and not wealth and greed and racism and inhumane treatment of policies!

      1. It should not be about equity. Jesse Jones was not a DEI hire at KIRO. To my knowledge, KIRO does not push DEI/the race card like KING 5 does. I believe Jesse was let go due to cutbacks $$ plain and simple. I’m surprised he hasn’t been snatched up by KCPQ 13.

  2. The “changes” happening at KIRO-TV don’t surprise me as
    I had a bad feeling when they
    let Steve Raibel “retire”. Their
    News casts seem to be on a loop from the noon news thru
    4, 5, 6 &7pm. Why do they bother with 1/2 hr of National
    News when they’ve pretty covered that for 41/2 hrs already? Disappointing…

  3. I watched KING 5 for many years, then they started letting go some of my favorite reporters. The only one left I always would watch was Joyce T.
    I moved over to watch KIRO 7. Now the teams I always watched are all gone. Laying off/firing Jesse Jones is the final straw. Jesse Jones made it clear he cared. It’s to bad KIRO 7 doesn’t. Obviously the consumer is not what KIRO 7 seems to care about. We will watch another channel.
    Jesse, let everyone know where you land.

  4. Good bye KIRO. Hopefully Jesse will land on any station except for FOX. KOMO? That’s my station. The execs at KIRO pay no never mind of their viewers.

    1. I don’t think Jesse would ever work for the evil empire at KOMO/Sinclair. He is too much of a real journalist. Since Sinclair bought the Baltimore Sun, there has been a all-out war about mandated content and use of material from SInclair’s Fox station there. The owners, the Smith Brothers, belong on the front of a cough drop box.

  5. Guess how many non-anchor reporters random survey respondents can name in any given TV market. Answer: zero. Jesse was very likely a very, very rare exception to that phenomenon. Unreal.

  6. Jessie you are a legacy, a tradition, a hope, a hero, an inspiration. Will miss your “….Jessie Jones reporting….” will all of that swagger and body english! What a dude you are. The best to you in all of your future endeavors and hoping to see you again somewhere on the small screen. God bless!!!!!

  7. I only chose to watch Kiro 7 because of Jesse Jones. I will quickly and swiftly remedy that. What a terrible loss to the viewers of your news channel. I will no longer watch Channel 7 news because of this very uncaring and unprofessional decision. I wish Jesse the very best, and hope he shows up on another local channel. Goodby Kiro 7.

  8. This is not a smart decision for your station! Just saw his good-bye tonight, you could read between the lines that he was not ready to leave, please re-consider your decision!

  9. So now there’s an extra slot for the weather report. KIRO management is at fault. Bring back DeeDee Sun and Gwen to anchor positions on weekends.

    1. I agree with everyone else that Kiro made a major mistake. At a time in our lives where it’s hard enough to get help to do anything for help you go and cancel the entire program. I hope you don’t sleep at nights from all the people you’ve hurt and will hurt.

  10. WHAT IDIOTS!!! Jesse Jones genuinely HELPED people when no one else would. He did it with compassion and humor.

    So KIRO7 can repeat the weather report 4 times per hour, but they’re getting rid of a unique news segment and journalist who’d be an asset anywhere.

  11. Insane to lay-off an investigative reporter like Jesse Jones! Both KIRO7 and KING are promoting their “Investigative Teams” comprised of 4-6 reporters and part time anchors. I find it unfathomable that Jesse Jones was not on this team at all. What are you all thinking at KIRO7? I think I will switch my allegiance on KING5 and KIRO7 and move over to FOX13. Being number 3 or 4 depending on how well they do against KOMO, they somehow manage to do investigative reporting and so far with no layoffs of tenured reporters. You’ve lost me, KIRO7. I hope others do the same and show KIRO their numbers depend on solid reporters – not voice talents who should be selling furniture or cars on the air instead. (You know who this is.)

  12. When Jesse Jones left King TV for Kiro, so did I. Just knowing he was there was a kind of security blanket. A couple days ago my neighbor was worried that her insurance company was being unfair. We talked about what she could do and ended with “you can just call Jesse”. This morning I saw an ad about the Kiro investigative team. Jesse wasn’t there! I looked it up and read about him being fired. I can’t believe they did that I have watched Kiro for local news for a decade, but as of today I will get my local news elsewhere. Kiro doesn’t care about their audience; they proved that by making consumer investigations a part time job for their announcers. I hope they lose a large portion of market share over this decision. I certainly plan on telling all my friends that I am not watching Kiro news anymore and why. Hopefully they will have the same reaction as me

    1. Totally agree with you, Joanne. I, too,transferred my evening news watching to KIRO, and Jesse’s segments were favorites and always looked forward to. I’m done with them as my TV news source now, in the morning as well as the evening.

  13. Kiro is getting desperate. They now use regulars anchors as their “investigations” team just to cut costs. Jesse Jones was the best in investigations at King 5 before going to Kiro 10 years ago. What does Kiro do at 10 year mark? Cut him. Idiots at Kiro. Hopefully King 5 picks him up again.

    1. I completely agree. He was great on KING 5. They have and excellent investigative team now, however. I don’t know that they would really have a place for him. Not to do his individual style investigations.

      1. Jan, the KING5 investigators with Frame, Ingalls and Linda Byron were already well in place doing top flight reports long before Jesse joined KING. I don’t thnk he will go back there. The ship sailed years ago.

  14. This was an actual piss poor decision on KIRO. Jesse is the voice of consumers. The voice of care and concern about what happens to those who cannot fight their own battles. He made a difference and his presence was a positive impact. In these days we need fighters who genuinely care. I won’t be watching your channel anymore. Now you are just like all of the news channels producing all of whats negative. There is no longer anything different that makes your news station stand out that says you care. Thanks for choosing to be like every other news station.

    1. I’m sitting here looking at the news. Sing all these all of a sudden. It hit me. Where is Jesse Jones? So I looked it up.
      And now I know he was laid off. A total icon of the channel 7 news. The way that he reported. And aggressively. Pursued. His stories. to help the consumers. With his own style he Will be greatly missed.

  15. Jesse Jones was my favorite part of the news. True journalism is more than about reporting facts. It’s about exposing corruption & holding businesses accountable. That is what Jesse Jones did. The decision to close the consumer reporting unit is a stupid, short-sighted decision.

  16. I had not heard much about Jesse in the last few years. As I remember, KING 5 promoted him like crazy during his time there.
    Watching the evening news has been hard since usually I had either worked or have been in traffic.
    Really hasn’t crossed my mind.
    That said, I feel bad that a long career would end this way.

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