After days of silence, WSLS (Channel 10) acknowledged Thursday that former employee Marc Lamarre is alive despite rampant rumors to the contrary.

"Rumors of Marc's death are simply untrue," Kathy Mohn, WSLS's general manager, said during a taped interview with anchor John Carlin. The segment first aired on Thursday's 5 p.m. newscast.

"We here at WSLS are very saddened that Marc is no longer a member of our weather team," she said. "We're going to miss him greatly. However, out of respect for Marc and his family we simply will not comment about personal matters concerning him or his family."

Despite receiving hundreds of calls and e-mails, Mohn said, the station is prevented by law from commenting. She gave no details on Lamarre's condition or whereabouts.

In a statement released by the station, Lamarre's sister, Anne Marie McPherson of Brunswick, Maine, said, "We are touched by everyone's concern about Marc. We ask that you please respect our privacy. We also appreciate all of the support from WSLS."

On Monday, news director Shane Moreland acknowledged that Lamarre, 36, was no longer a WSLS employee. His biography was pulled from the station's Web site without comment, and a photo of Lamarre and other meteorologists was removed from a window of the station. He last appeared on a newscast last week.

Lamarre joined WSLS on the weekend shift in 1998, having earlier worked as chief meteorologist at a station in Clarksburg, W.Va. He was put on the weekday evening newscasts in 1999, then later returned to weekend weather duties for WSLS and its news partner, WJPR/WFXR (Channel 21/27).

Attempts to reach Lamarre the past five days were unsuccessful. In a phone call Thursday, Lamarre's brother-in-law, John McPherson, said, "Marc is alive and well ... I can't tell you how disturbing it is to receive calls from news organizations."

In the interview with Mohn, Carlin said, "This rumor had reached such a level ... We all feel like we can't ignore it anymore."

"That's right, John," she replied. "It's gotten so out of control, the rumor, the innuendo, that it's just time to ... out of respect for Marc and our viewers, to set the record straight. He is alive. We wish him the very best both professionally and personally."

Jim Shaver, a former WBDJ (Channel 7) vice president of news and programming, said a news organization holds a public trust to report on itself when necessary. "A news organization has a responsibility to be honest," he said.

Shaver recalled an incident in which a WDBJ employee was caught forging prescriptions. "We reported on ourselves and we reported first. The first thing we thought is, we'd better be proactive instead of reactive."

In this age when news credibility is under fire, Shaver said, newspapers and television stations have to "put it out there and let the public decide. It's not an easy thing to do."

"The rumor thing is weird," said Kelly McBride, an ethics group leader at the Poynter Institute in St. Petersburg, Fla., who has advised newsrooms about reporting on themselves. "The standard is you treat journalists as you would treat other newsmakers. When people are spreading rumors, I think you have to ask yourself if there is any truth to the rumors. That's a really tight spot to be in.

"Any reporting they would have done would have raised more questions than they could have answered," she said. "Unless there's something particularly unusual about the rumors ... I don't know that you're obligated to dispel a rumor about someone's personal health. What you have is someone going through something private and no compelling reason to go public."