BEDFORD, Texas — The CEO of the North Texas-based Christian TV network Daystar accused her son and the former vice president of the network of launching a “smear campaign” against the network after his recent firing.
In a new video posted on social media, Daystar’s CEO and co-founder Joni Lamb said her son Jonathan Lamb was fired from Bedford-based Daystar after a 15-month review of his performance and “his refusal to take any steps to satisfy a detailed performance improvement plan put in place.”
Jonathan and his wife, Suzy, posted a video on social media last week confirming they no longer work at Daystar.
“A lot has been going on over the last couple of years that we just couldn’t talk about,” Jonathan says in the video. “I really felt from the Lord that even though a lot of wrong had been done to me, that I was to stand firm in the position that God had called me to and to not walk away.”
In her video, Joni said the death of her husband, Marcus, from COVID in 2021 divided the family. Marcus and Joni co-founded Daystar in the 1990s and Marcus served as its CEO until his death. The network was moved to Bedford in 2003 and now reaches 6.85 billion people worldwide, according to its website. Our content partners at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram report that the network has more than 100 TV stations and programming featuring Kenneth Copeland and Joel Osteen.
“Rather than take any steps to improve his performance at Daystar, it seems clear now that Jonathan was focused on fabricating a smear campaign. You see, Jonathan was extremely disappointed that he was not named future President of Daystar following the death of his father and my husband, Marcus, despite the fact that Marcus had clearly given a directive to the family and to the Board that I would succeed him as President,” Joni’s statement reads.
Our content partners at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram received Jonathan’s performance plan and termination letter, and report his performance review showed “deficiencies” in several areas that justified his firing, which included blackmail, breach of fiduciary responsibilities, and failure to provide adequate leadership and oversight.
Jonathan’s plan also called for him to sign a nondisclosure agreement, which Daystar told the Star-Telegram he did not sign.