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Video: Overweight News Anchor Destroys Email Bully

The e-mail message should have been kept private between both the news presenter and the writer of the message. Even if the news presenter could not convince the writer to change his feelings about her, the e-mail should have remained private.

The commentary over the e-mail reminded me of my local news presenters and news reporter who make personal comments during newscasts every day. What made the commentary by the news presenter from WKBT-TV different from the local commentaries is that it was the result of a personal and private matter and it was delivered as part of a separate newscast segment. 

By the way, I would not consider the news presenter overweight, obese, or fat. She should not refer to herself by any one of those terms either. She knows herself better than any other person.
 
upstate29651 said:
DToTheJ said:
"I'm overweight... Do you think I don't know that?"

Also included: the alleged bully's response - of course, his intention was not to bully the anchor. Yeah, okay.
http://www.newsnet5.com/dpp/news/lo...-livingston-viewer-criticizing-weight-a-bully
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The "bully" used bad judgement in sending out the letter, but this was not bullying. Nowhere near it. Much ado about nada.

G
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I watched the segment on morning television with the anchor. The email she received from the viewer was NOT bullying. I think this anchor just wanted her 15 minutes of fame. If she thought that email was bullying, what would she do if she was REALLY bullied.
 
It didn't seem like 'bullying' but she sure did let him inside her head.
If his opinion doesn't matter, just let it go. Unless you're looking to fill 4 minutes of audition tape for your talk show pitch.
 
I agree that the letter-writer was not "bullying," but it was spectacularly judgmental. It's the anchor's job to present the news, not be a role-model for society in general.

I, for one, am happy that news presenters no longer have to be "Barbie and Ken" young and pretty like they did in the 70s. One of the most popular news anchors in the SF Bay Area was the late Dave McElhatton, who was older, fat, and balding. I doubt anybody ever criticized him for his looks - perhaps because he was a man.

Interestingly enough, he did go on a diet at one point, and hundreds of concerned viewers wrote the station, worrying that he was wasting away, or had cancer.
 
1. We receive insulting emails and phone calls all the time. We ignore most of them, and respond privately to a few.

2. The viewer is a jerk with the tact of a drunk college student, but he is not a bully.

3. The anchor is too sensitive, and crossed the line by taking a viewer to task on the air. She and her husband knew 95% of social media would side with them, and now she feels validated. She is overweight, but definitely not obese, at least to my eyes.

Contrary theory: the anchors (both Jennifer and her husband) are the bullies by using their positions on television to shame someone in their DMA.
 
Hit the nail right on the head TheRob, it's your job to report the news, not make it. My wife was watching this when I got home last night and my first thought was holy unprofessionalism batman!
 
Mario-500 said:
The e-mail message should have been kept private between both the news presenter and the writer of the message. Even if the news presenter could not convince the writer to change his feelings about her, the e-mail should have remained private.
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I've seen stations read emails over-the-air quite often, usually as part of a public commentary segment on the news.  I see no issues, ethical or otherwise, with the anchor reading the contents of the message.  It's common practice, and the sender of the message should have been aware of it.  Really, you shouldn't expect privacy when you send an email to ANY business address.  Secretaries and network administrators can often see others' emails and shared mailboxes are common in most businesses.

The commentary over the e-mail reminded me of my local news presenters and news reporter who make personal comments during newscasts every day. What made the commentary by the news presenter from WKBT-TV different from the local commentaries is that it was the result of a personal and private matter and it was delivered as part of a separate newscast segment. 
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In the sense that it was an attempt to make news out of nothing, I agree with you here.  As The Rob mentions, when you work as a public figure, you're going to get all sorts of emails, and even phone calls, from fans and foes alike.  I can't imagine it's the first time she's gotten a letter criticizing her. 

By the way, I would not consider the news presenter overweight, obese, or fat. She should not refer to herself by any one of those terms either. She knows herself better than any other person.
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I'd agree with you here, too.  Of course, one of the problems we have is that insurance companies determine who's obese, and they have every incentive to put as many people as possible in the obese category so they can charge higher rates.  That, however, is another discussion as is the issue that we have unrealistic expectations of what people should look like.
 
Supposedly her husband put the content of the letter up on the stations facebook page, and because of viewer response/outrage they felt the need to address it during a newscast.
 
The guy who wrote her is a loser. She has had three kids.

She remains incredibly attractive and IS a role model for balancing her job, marriage, children and the occasional setting straight of a loser who clearly has too much time on his hands.
 
^Why did you say the writer was a loser? I did not notice anything in the message to the news presenter indicating that he is a person who fails constantly.
 
I agree with what everyone is saying pretty much, but let me play devil's advocate for a moment. Just the day before this story hit the Internet, there was an article entitled "How fat has become the new normal" in Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper. Basically, the article said that we as a society have become so accustomed to people around us being overweight, we no longer recognize when we or our children have an unhealthy weight. Could it be possible that because of the self-esteem movement and the movements to curb anorexia - both good movements - the pendulum has swung too far the other way to the point that we as people feel too satisfied about themselves and see it as okay to be overweight? I don't know. Just a question that I (an overweight person myself) am wondering about.

And yes, media outlets get comments about on-air staff all the time. A local television station where I'm from got angry phone calls from viewers when they put their first female news anchor on the air. The year was 1985, merely 26 years after Dorothy Fuldheim got her own newscast at a station just across Lake Erie.
 
Mario-500 said:
upstate29651 said:
umfan said:
She remains incredibly attractive ......
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Really? ew.

G
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That was not nice, upstate. I find her very beautiful also.
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I think she's attractive, though I guess I wouldn't say "incredibly."

As a man, I'm always surprised by other men who have such a limited perspective on what beauty is. I remember in college, I had a male roommate who had a beautiful woman chasing after him. He had repeatedly rejected her advances. I was jealous and would have been thrilled if she'd been after me. I asked him why he had rejected her, and he told me it was because her ass was too big. After that, I checked out her..uh...rear end ..a little more critically, and had to admit that it was a little bigger than normal...she would never have made it as a Playboy Bunny. But nevertheless, she was beautiful, and I realized my roommate was a truly shallow person.
 
Nothing wrong with being a "chubby chaser", but her face is less than inspiring, as is her sing song-y voice. I'll pass.

G
 
Maybe he meant "incredibly attractive on the inside?"
I would buy that, except for her spending 4 minutes railing against a viewer email.
 
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