On September 6, KARE 11 news anchor Jana Shortal appeared on television to cover the horrific end to the story of Jacob Wetterling, and was chastised for the clothing she chose to wear while doing her goddamn job.
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“Some readers”? Right. Let us know when you track down all those readers who think C.J. was absolutely right going after a newscaster’s trousers during a story about a tragedy. The now-deleted article starts off by saying a wide-angle shot of Shortal – who was delivering news on the murder of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling – didn’t do her “any favors”.
This morning, Shortal once again took to Twitter, this time to ask her supporters to “Stop with the hatred for CJ”, and explaining, “Want to be on #teamjana?” While I can not imagine they’ll want to read or watch every media take about the horror they have been living, I would think that hipness wouldn’t be a priority while covering one of the biggest, saddest stories in Minnesota history.
Shortal fired back, though, and called C.J. a bully on Facebook. Surely the important thing is her work, not the style of her trousers.
Many have taken C.J.to task for focusing on the news anchor’s trousers instead of the subject matter and for her lack of apology afterwards.
I wore my clothes. For his family. And for every single one of you who was hurting.
In a column published and since removed from the Star Tribune, a columnist who goes by the name C.J. went after the journalist for her “inappropriate” attire.
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In response to this entire debacle, Shortal responded in an emotional Facebook post that calls out C.J. for her weird attempt to change the narrative around one of the biggest tragedies in the state to a patently ridiculous argument that women should not wear skinny jeans when reporting the news. Shortal, of course, did not declare that she had opted to make “hipness” the focal point of her broadcast. “You wrote about clothes in the darkest moment of Minnesota news history”. And today. You took that away. The Star-Tribune took down the column, but a cached version is still available. The piece was inappropriate, insensitive and did not meet the standards of the Star Tribune. “Donate to the Jacob Wetterling foundation”.
