Hutchinson's locker-room frolic is bad news for WCCO (pic included...woo woo)

TwinCities.com ^

[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.

[NormsRevenge]

Squealing? :-| LOL

[HamiltonJay]

hahahah truer words have rarely been said.

[Common Tator]

You've never catch Howard Cosell doing things like this.

Many years ago (back in the 80's) ABC put on a party for station managers. The entertainmen consisted of Cosell and Dolly Parton.

I asked Roone Arlege why he hired that combination to entertain us. He said, "You know broadcast management as well as as I do ..... they like loud mouths and big..... well you get the picture."

[Havoc]

Ok, what did I miss? She was playful at a party and traded hits off a cigar. And this is supposed to be a hindrance to her ethical standing. If this were a true liberal she could let the team gangbang her in full public view and you'd be denounced as a mean spirited member of the VRWC for saying it's bad, let along for calling it what it would be. Either this is a conservative reporter or her boss is a moron or there is something not being said. Hmmm. The choices..

[christine]

that is apropos, isn't it? ;)

[christine]

you'd sure catch marv albert (was that his name?) doing something like this tho. ;)