The Inbox....
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A former news anchor decided to weigh in on the story in an email to FTVLive:
It was rather amusing to read that viewers were basically referring to the Sports Director from Lansing as, shall we say, a "lady of the evening" because of her attire.
My first reaction to seeing the picture of her in that outfit was that she's no different than many women under the age of 35 who think they can dress anyway they want while reporting the news, weather or sports. Rather than see why their provocative outfits are, or their behavior is, distracting to viewers, they'd rather fight you on social media over it.
The fault is at the feet of news directors who don't police their newsrooms. Every talent contract I've ever seen has a clause that specifies that the employee has to be portly in their demeanor and to wear attire that does not cause attention or consternation from viewers while they're on the job (or words to that effect). The people who sign the paychecks have every right to demand that, since most talent contracts come with a clothing allowance the parent company pays for.
Some news directors are not paying enough attention to clothing distractions. If I were news director, I'd have all of the talent (male and female) haul every outfit they wear, or plan to wear, into my office and we would go over what's distracting and what's not. If the talent doesn't like what's provocative, we can address that at their next contract negotiation. Right now, what I say, goes.
My former news director and I had a system. Whenever I would buy a couple of suits or new ties in bulk, I was required to bring them into his office and we'd decide which ones were airworthy and which ones were distracting.... in almost 20 years of working with him, it wasn't worth fighting him over the ones he deemed distracting. I would always end up just taking them back to the store.
