Posted on 10/01/2002 10:55:56 AM PDT by Dallas
The official spokeswomen at WCCO-TV remain mum about sports reporter/anchor Anne Hutchinson's current one-week suspension for, uh, unprofessional, inappropriate partying with the Minnesota Twins during their division-clinching celebration Sept. 15 in Cleveland.
Unofficially, anyone you talk to at 'CCO confirms the suspension. But the bosses aren't talking. "We don't comment on personnel matters," says the station's new mouthpiece, Bronwyn Schafer Pope.
Fine. But TV is an appearance industry, and Hutchinson's "I'm-with-the-team" party-girl antics, not to mention her hiring in the first place, have created a significant appearance problem for a station that has long traded on its reputation for serious-minded reporting.
Hutchinson has been the subject of snickering and sniping — for her giddy demeanor and implausible mane of blond hair — since her June hire, and later, for her frequent mangling of sports names and jargon.
Hutchinson might have escaped repercussions from her locker-room frolic with the Twins if it hadn't been for a piece last week in the Minneapolis-based Star Tribune newspaper, where gossip columnist Cheryl Johnson ("C.J.") opened up with the journalistic equivalent of a "Sopranos"-style whacking, emptying all six chambers on Hutchinson for her locker-room silliness, reloading and firing again.
No one I spoke to at 'CCO doubts that Hutchinson was hired by news director Maria Reitan, herself new to the Twin Cities as of January. Reitan was out of town when the C.J. piece ran, but upon her return, she was confronted with raw tape of the locker-room episode, which, sources say, shows Hutchinson pouring beverages over several players' heads, trading tokes on a cigar with second baseman Luis Rivas and squealing with delight while being chased around the room.
To her credit, Reitan wasted no time suspending Hutchinson, even if she won't say so herself. Whether she would have done anything without the C.J. column is another question — one she's not answering.
The hiring of Hutchinson, a reporter with little to no real big-city sports reporting experience, remains a curiosity. She had briefly covered some Tampa-area teams prior to getting hired at 'CCO. But most of her experience had been in Wausau, Wis., hardly a Top 25 market.
Conventional wisdom within 'CCO is that Reitan and, to some extent, station GM Rene LaSpina (new to Minnesota as of September 2001) seriously overplayed their "new sheriff in town" authority in the way they treated veteran (and well-paid) sports anchor Mark Rosen.
Ignoring Rosen's recognized stature as the Cities' best-known and most-respected TV sports anchor (based on research known to every local station), Reitan, at least, was vocal in her displeasure with Rosen and the sports department's record in breaking news stories. Likewise, she let it be known she wasn't happy with ratings for Rosen's "Sports Sunday" show, the loss of Vikings coach Mike Tice to KSTP-TV and a few other things, none of which should have clouded the fact that Rosen remains a major, indisputable asset for 'CCO.
Rosen's current contract expires in April, and 'CCO spent much of the summer making his life miserable, off-the-record sources say. Eyewitness sources say sports anchor candidates were walked through the newsroom, and finally, in June, Hutchinson was hired without a courtesy call to Rosen.
The inexplicable irony, though, for a management team allegedly committed to aggressive "breaking news" coverage is that Hutchinson's girlish act comes off as 98 percent style and 2 percent substance.
'CCO staffers are left to wonder how Hutchinson, who was woefully unprepared for her role, can possibly recover from the hit her credibility has taken.
You're going the right way for a smacked bottom.
Woof
I was going to say: Her qualifications? Yes... I'm certain that both of them are quite impressive! ;-)
"Got the bubbleheaded bleach blonde
Comes on at five..."
Qualifications: (for just about any local news job these days, it seems): Bleach-blonde hair, a vapid grin, and (I'm guessing, here) a big rack.
I would also add that being black doesn't hurt either. (at least here in Baltimore)
squealing with delight
Yeah baby!
what the --?
sorry dudes!
i thought this was going to be another good drug war thread!
carry on!
Why does the feminist fringe get to dictate what the proper appearance, demeanor and politics of a TV news actress should be?
It's American professional sports for goodness sakes! It's not NEWS. It's grown men playing. In this case. What she did does not seem that much different than some of the antics of Howard Cosell?
It's likely this young lady just got that TV station the most national recognition it's ever had. They ought to give her a raise.
So....is this a BAD thing?????
You ain't got a thing
If you ain't got that swing...
Doo-wop, doo-wop, doo-wop.....
LOL.... there is nothing what so ever that is dignified about sports reporting. I find it funny when people like you or the reporter who wrote this article try to suggest that there is.
"'CCO staffers are left to wonder how Hutchinson, who was woefully unprepared for her role, can possibly recover from the hit her credibility has taken."
hehe...who needs credibility. All that is necessary is the ability to read the scores on camera and ask about two dozen of the standard lame questions. It's the easiest job in the world.
After what Piss-POT-US did with cigars in the Oval Oriface, we're supposed to be scandalized by this?
Well, maybe if he were alive? hehe
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