Good way to bring up bullying or does this TV anchor make a story about them?

If the guy sent one email, he's a dick, not a bully.

If he sent dozens of emails, or had publicly harassed her, it would be different. But he didn't (as far as I know).

She's the one (through her husband) who made the email public and then call more attention to the situation with this editorial.

I think the excuse that she's talking about it because of the problems with bullying is weak. I think she wanted to vent, embarrass the emailer, and garner some sympathy.

I also don't think it's right to compare weight issues to race, sexual orientation, or disability.

 

She's a morning show talker at a random Midwestern CBS affiliate. Her job in essence is to be a personality that draws attention (and thus ratings). I'd say she did a damn good job here, intended or not. I sincerely doubt she's going on a soapbox rant every morning between pimping the lung cancer walk and announcing school closings. If she starts now, the marketplace will tune her out quickly.

I do give credit to the station for keeping her on air all these years. A lot of places would have fired her well before reaching Lane Bryant territory.

 

Commenter Jumblebums could fit in nicely over here.

 

Well, that's the other thing.

A female news anchor is going to get worked up by an email? You want to pick a fight, how about looking at your own profession.

Now that would take guts.

And, the station, which is getting a lot of credit in this situation for giving her this platform, would never allow such introspection.

 

The way I see it, Dick, smoking is a pure choice.

Obesity is not *always* a choice.

It can be, but in some cases it's not.

When I call someone out for smoking, I could give a rat's about them. I am calling them out because it has an impact on me.

 

No one answered, because your scenario is impossible today.

Those studio buildings don't/can't allow smoking, and it's not accepted practice.

 

Dick: As someone started to say earlier in this thread, smoking is typically addressed by either complaints (your smoking makes it stink near me) or legitimate health concerns, either for the smoker his/herself or those around via second-hand smoke. Obesity is most commonly addressed via hurtful insult. There, I believe, is the difference.

Ragu: YOU don't think this should be a big deal to her, relative to other complaints/threats she may receive. Wonderful. How about her? What hurts HER feelings? Maybe she's more bothered by being called fat than she is when someone threatens to burn her house down. Does that make her wrong? What about the thousands of other girls who are insulted every day because of their weight? What about THEIR feelings? Is it your - or my - place to tell them what comments they should and should not be bothered by? Or what causes they should or should not champion?

 

Smoking is doing. Overweight is being. If she were eating a Twix between sentences or talking with her mouth full, the crumbs tumbling out of her mouth, then it'd be an apt comparison.

 

She's a working mother of three young children. A leading cause of obesity in women? Pregnancy.



Also, I think a lot of you are missing the timeline on this. She didn't get a mean email and immediately respond with four minutes of air time.

She got a mean email. She disregarded it. Her husband, who is also an anchor at the station, didn't let it go. He posted it to his professional Facebook page. It got a tremendous response. The community was discussing it. To not address the situation would have been an omission in news coverage in that community. Because she did such a fantastic job, it went viral.

And the "concerned citizen" showed what a douchebag he is with a follow-up message. This clearly wasn't a one-off situation.

 

You're still missing my point. That was relatively tame compared to other types of nasty correspondence ... in your view. And clearly others here. That's fine. But obviously it's not as tame to her. Why is your perspective right and hers is wrong?

Also, she obviously saw this as an opportunity to talk about a cause, which is girls/women being mocked and/or bullied because of their weight. When you get a douchebag call/email/letter that says you're biased or stupid or belong dead in a ditch, there's not much of a cause there to take up. This case is totally different.

Whether this letter actually constituted bullying, whether the reporter should have made herself the story - those are very real discussions worth having.
Just saying she should have sucked it up and ignored it, IMO, is short-sighted.