The corporate parent of abc27 pushed back hard and publicly Friday against former daytime anchor Flora Posteraro's sexual discrimination complaint.

Posteraro left the station on March 12 after refusing to accept reassignment to a weekend anchor / reporter slot that she has tied to her participation in a summer 2017 hostile work environment complaint.

She maintains, in her complaint before the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission, that she was fired when she refused that reassignment. The station holds that Posteraro resigned.

After largely ceding the court of public opinion to Posteraro to this point, Nexstar Broadcasting Inc. fired back Friday with a two-page statement in which it made three essential points:

Posteraro's reassignment - which it says involved no pay cut - is part of a broader plan of anchor changes that will be rolled out this spring.

The August 2017 allegations,

The station is now taking pro-active measures to try to prevent any economic damage from the ongoing controversy, such as

Nexstar also made clear that, at least for the time being, they are committed to the fight.

Friday's statement stressed that while the company does not normally comment on personnel matters, it felt compelled here to respond to the "ongoing public promotion of inaccurate and misleading statements included in Ms. Posteraro's social media posts and the complaint filed...

Nexstar also said it wanted to reassure viewers, advertisers, regulators and the investment community that this occupational break-up was nothing other than "a straightforward employment contract renewal process."

It will, the company said, "pursue any and all legal remedies for damage caused by Ms. Posteraro and her advisors through their destructive public mischaracterizations."

Nexstar acquired WHTM in January 2017, as part of its larger acquisition of the now-defunct Media General company.

The statement said the new management took its time to evaluate all aspects of WHTM's operations - from the studios and news sets to programming, on-air talent and viewer engagement - after the acquisition went through.

That resulted, Friday's statement said, in "a business decision to assign several on-air personalities to new broadcasts. These decisions were based on factors such as historical performance ratings, market research and general broadcast business knowledge."

The reassignments were generally received well, but Posteraro, whose contract had expired in December, balked, Nexstar says, leading to her "unilateral decision to resign from her position."

That is the essence of the dispute.

Posteraro made her break with WHTM known in a facebook post on March 12 in which she stated, "this was not my choice."

In her subsequent complaint to the PHRC, she has alleged that her demotion was the direct result of her active pushback against what she believed to be unequal and disparaging treatment of women staffers at the station by General Manager Robert Bee.

Of that complaint, Nexstar said, "These allegations are not only preposterous, but totally contrary to the true reasons for her proposed broadcast reassignment."

The statement generally picks up a theme that Nexstar first raised internally with WHTM employees in a March 23 staff meeting, in which Senior Vice President and Regional Manager Theresa Underwood said the company would be vigorously defending Bee.

PennLive has since interviewed several WHTM employees who said they felt there was merit in the August 2017 complaints. The staffers also made plain that Posteraro was not alone in raising complaints with Bee over wardrobe, scheduling and his in-office commentary.

Friday's statement also accused Posteraro and her lawyer of trying to align her discirmination and retaliation complaint with the broader war against sexual harassment that has upended the careers of several powerful men in the news, entertainment and political worlds.

To be clear, neither Posteraro's complaint, of the group complaint that preceded it, alleged any unwanted sexual advances.

But there were allegations of sexual joking in the August complaint - of which Posteraro was a participant - that, according to Nexstar's employee guidebook, would violate a strict reading of its sexual harassment policy.

Attempts to reach Posteraro's attorney, Charles Curley, about Nexstar's statement were not immediately successful.

Posteraro has been a fixture in the Harrisburg / York / Lancaster television market since 1997, when she joined the staff at abc27 from the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia.

Even before more details became publicly revealed, Posteraro's Facebook post became widely shared and many questioned why the anchor was no longer working with the station.

Two Facebook groups, "I Stand With Flora Posteraro" and "Flora Deserves Better", appeared within a few days of Posteraro's departure. As of Friday, the groups have more than 3,600 and 1,400 followers, respectively.

Nexstar said Friday that in addition to pending anchor desk changes, other changes it is making include an expansion of locally-produced content, including the weekly political affairs show "This Week in PA," and plans to grow the weekday lifestyle show "Good Day PA" to one full hour; and a $3 million upgrade to the station's Harrisburg headquarters.