The four-minute lecture given by Jennifer Livingston at WKBT-TV in La Crosse, Wisconsin, to a viewer who questioned her about her weight has gone viral and catapulted her into a national media star.
Livingston is now doing national interviews and is the current media darling in the country. She also has struck a chord by saying what the emailer wrote was bullying, which is the topic du jour today in media circles.
Her husband now says she has a thyroid problem and has difficulties in losing weight.
Ironically, every media person interviewing her on TV is razor thing. It should also be interesting if the TV outlets offering her praise now would be willing to add her to their staff. Don’t count on it.
But not everyone thinks Livingston’s rant could exactly be compared to finding a cure for cancer.
TV folks know they are in a visual medium. In fact, many media people have told Bottom Line they really didn’t think the email was much different than ones they receive on a daily basis.
“I am proud of the anchor for responding to the decidedly rude email but don’t think it warranted 5 minutes of broadcast airtime,” says Krista Klaus, who was a staffer at the Kansas City Business Journal and now hosts a business radio show on 1660 AM.
“I also think “bullying” is too strong of a word in describing the email. TV personalities get nasty-grams all the time,” adds Klaus. “They also get unwarranted, undeserved positive attention from people all day long on Facebook, email and in public. Internalizing either extreme will make a person crazy. The highs and lows are part of the job. Sorry, but I had to weigh in. No pun intended.”
Jennifer Blome (photo), a veteran anchor at KSDK in St. Louis for more than 30 years, says her station has done an extensive series on bullying and says what the emailer did was not bullying.
“She was given four minutes to what I consider a polite email and I personally don’t consider it bullying,” said Blome, who was critical of the fact that Livingston was given so much time when on most TV stations they cannot get that much time to handle topics that impact others.
“It was probably a brilliant marketing move on her station’s part because she is going to be on the ‘Today Show.”
BULLYING CAN MAKE YOU BETTER PERSON
Good day
I am glad you took the time to respond to the bullying. I spent 42 years working for the government and if you do not think I took bullying from workers, supervisors and service members of all ranks you are not in the real world-I am a woman that came from a family of 14 and had the advantage of being able to take care of myself.
Is it right to bully, no absolutely not but most of the time it makes you a better person. Sometimes you have the tell people the truth and that may be harsh and not bullying!
People now days are looking for the perfect person and judgemental, size, shape, style, their family, what their job is and how much money do
they have! We are not a friendly, sharing society like many years ago, we need to let people be people and treat each with respect. A handshake was one of the most important thing when meeting other individuals and now that is forgotten! A hug was sincere not a sexual thing- think back our parents had it right!
BETTER THAN CHIT-CHAT
Agreed. Maybe not. At any rate, the debate will go on. But given a choice, I’d rather listen to an anchor go on for 4 minutes in response to an e-mail he or she received than listen to 4 minutes of chit-chat between anchors or between an anchor and the weather dude/dudette. Are you listening Fox 4?
WOULD NEVER DISCUSS PERSONAL ISSUES
I guess I am a majority of one..I think it was an act of petulance for the anchor to use four minutes on the publicly licensed airwaves to even the score with an admittedly knuckleheaded and insensitive EMAIL WRITER.
Monopolizing the airwaves for a perceived slight, or worse in this day and age “bullying”??
I guess it’s the era we’re in: the personal is your business, and if you don’t like it, you’re ignorant (and probably a bully, too).
I know all about bullying, and I would do well to lose weight. It’s been a lifelong issue.
But, in all my years in radio journalism, and prior to that, as a personality, I would NEVER, in my darkest hour, present my personal neuroses or personal issues in a public venue. I recognize there’s legions of people who “feel better about themselves” with this four minute monopolistic exercise, but a reporter’s job is to REPORT, not to relieve themselves of a burden.I don’t care if you’re fat, gay, pregnant, divorced, single, whatever…really, I don’t. Is a single idiotic email that upset you MY business, as opposed to the hundreds of other stories out there? I think not, and that’s probably why I would wash out in today’s journalistic climate.
Well put, Mike. Can’t add a thing.
USED TIME TO REACH OUT
I don’t think the issue here is that she spent 4 minutes of airtime talking about her OWN problem with this email, but that she used it as a platform to reach out to kids and other folks who do feel bullied by insensitive peers.
WHO APPOINTED HER A SPOKESPERSON?
who appointed her “bullying spokesperson”, and how many kids are watching the news anyway?
This reminds me of a speech at a journalists’ convention a few years back. A formerly well known anchor waxed on about how she went into journalism to “make a difference”. I didn’t (and wouldn’t) try to approach this formerly sorta famous person, but if given the chance, I would have responded, “With all due respect, it’s not our job to ‘make a difference’. It’s our job to give listeners/readers/viewers the tools to ‘make a difference’”.