Media Fail: Jennifer Livingston

Jennifer Livingston, a fat TV anchor woman based somewhere in rural America received an e-mail from an idiotic viewer who objected to her weight and feigned disappointment in her and blamed her for being a bad role model to young girls.  Everyone who is in the public eye will get a certain amount of criticism directed at them; I do and I'm at the very low level of what you'd call media.

TV is a visual medium and people are always going to pick on you if you are not thin and sport a Hollywood smile, you'll get negative feedback.  But to claim that you're being bullied and jump on the anti-bullying month (or whatever it's called) is just downright disingenuous.  If Ms Livingston had not read the e-mail on air, only she would know about it.  But she knew exactly what she was doing.  She wanted to get her large frame on every TV screen and command column inches with the bleeding hearts opining on how awful the e-mail sender is.

The media became it's own biggest audience again, as they always tend to be.  In unison, they all claimed that she's a victim but nobody called her out when the man who sent the e-mail was tracked down and hounded by news outlets and had cameras shoved into his face.

So Jennifer, you're fat, you're on TV, you decided to read the e-mail on air.  You were not bullied and no amount of photo shoots and in talk show couches is going to change that.  All the people who are suddenly interested in you are just taking advantage of a viral video not your bravery.

While the media eats itself to extinction, it might be a good idea for Ms Livingston to step away from the fridge if she's to reap the full benefits of her 15 minutes.