I have posted anything on this blog in awhile. I prefer the more fun and less controversial post on the retro blog. However, I wanted to comment on this story because it hits home to me. Since I'm involved in the Countdown to Halloween, I decided to post this here since it is also in keeping with many of the themes of this blog.
Not since
Jet Blue flight attendant Steven Slater have I been so proud of someone for standing up for themselves. No doubt you have seen this video of WKBT anchor Jennifer Livingston responding to a hateful e-mail from a viewer.
I'm glad management let her strike back at the idiot that wrote that hateful e-mail. From my experience in the media here in the Ozarks, if one person sends the station or newspaper an asinine complaint about an on-air person, that on-air person loses their job or gets "reassigned."
Some people are leaving snide remarks on You Tube and Facebook attack Livingston for doing this. These people do not realize the stupid crap that we in the media put up with from some people. She referred to this person as a "bully" and that is as accurate a description of many of these people.
Many people complain about silly things like hearing a commercial too often or the radio station is playing too many African-American artist (Sadly, that is a frequent complaint in the Ozarks and they usually don't use the term "African-American" when they make this complaint). I even worked at a country radio station (Don't hold it against me) where a woman complained that we played too many songs "which portrayed spousal abuse in a negative way" and "took the women's side when the husband is usually the victim." We had to stop playing "Thunder Rolls" by Garth Brooks, "Broken Wings" by Martina McBride and "Goodbye Earl" by the Dixie Chicks. Only in the Ozarks do we giving into the request of the proud mother of a wife beater.
People also don't realize there are people who do nothing but make complaints to the media. These people must have about six TVs tuned to each station and several radios on at all times, so they can hear or see something to complain about. Everyone in the media in this town knows these people, because they have all had to deal with these stupid people. Now these people are even more obnoxious, because they can friend every TV and radio station, every on-air personality or newscaster and attack them when ever they want. They also now have the advantage of suckering in more stupid right-wing, media bashing nut jobs to help them. This, of course, goes along with
my last post.
Much of this comes from one simple factor, these people who make these complaints do not think that people in the media are human beings. They would just as soon see us unemployed or dead. Many of these media complainers do this for attention. I doubt these people would want anyone to criticize them at their job, but they see no problem lashing out at those of us in the media.
If the managers of media outlets would ignore these people or allow the on-air talent to address these critics, as Jennifer Livingston so eloquently did, rather than giving in to them, we have less of this hateful bullying toward talented, dedicated people trying to provide people with the information they need. Let's face it, if Ozarkers had their way, all of the highly intelligent journalist would be replaced with Baptist preachers or auctioneers with big cowboy hats.
Of course, opinions, like this one, is why I'm considered the Super Villain of the Ozarks!!! Mwu-HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
VIDEO: WKBT Anchor Jennifer Livingston’s On-Air Response to Viewer Complaint About Her Weight - TVSpy
