A TV news gossip website reported there was a fight in the KOB-TV newsroom on Monday, with longtime anchor Tom Joles and longtime reporter Stuart Dyson involved.

The general manager of the station threw some cold water on the report and told two local newspapers that there was a “heated discussion” but no fisticuffs in the KOB newsroom on Monday. This came after it became widely shared on social media in Albuquerque and several blogs and news sites picked it up.

Mike Burgess, the general manager of KOB, told the Santa Fe New Mexican that there was no fight.

“There was no fistfight,” said KOB-TV General Manager Mike Burgess. “Someone has been embellishing.”

He elaborated later to the Albuquerque Journal.

However, KOB vice president and general manager, Mike Burgess, did confirm on Tuesday that there had been a “heated discussion” and that Joles will not be on the air pending a temporary “cool down period.” He did not say how long that might be.

“I think someone who heard about it (altercation) second-hand posted it” to the two media websites, he said. “But I can tell you there was no fight, no MMA knockdown kind of thing.”

The story on the Journal website originally cited a report by FTVLive and another by subscription-only News Blues saying that there had been punches thrown.

New Mexico Political Report put out a request for comment to Burgess and his assistant on Tuesday both before and after he spoke to the New Mexican and Journal but did not receive a response.

FTVLive reported early Tuesday that an argument between Joles and Dyson turned into a fight with punches being thrown. The site reported that a photographer was also involved.

The site said it came after news director Michelle Donaldson was speaking to a young reporter and that Joles stepped in to add his two cents at which point things escalated.

Unnamed “insiders” were cited by the TV news gossip website.