If Only She Had Worn a One Piece

For that they fired Amy Jacobson? I have to admit that I do not watch the NBC news, and I was basically unaware of who she was. Having seen the video footage, however, I will tell you exactly what happened.

Amy Jacobson is a reporter in the Chicago television market, which I would guess puts her average work week at approximately eight zillion hours. She had an off day after the Fourth of July and promised that she would take her children swimming. She did. She happens to be covering the disappearance of one Lisa Stebic, whose husband stopped talking to the police last week. Amy Jacobson, along with probably two thousand other reporters, no doubt gave her card to the husband's family.

So, what happens? She's on her way to spend time taking her kids to the beach like she promised on her day off, and she gets a call from the husband's sister. The guy has stopped talking to the police, but now he wants to talk to her. She's in her swimsuit (the news media in Chicago is making a big deal about how she was in a bikini. Mary Ann Childers probably said "in a bikini" ten times during the report, which is also on the website. That's fine, but Ms. Jacobson was going to the beach, and I felt cheated when I went to the CBS2chicago.com website to look at the video. Tammie Souza shows more cleavage at least twice a week.) Ms. Jacobson possibly said something like, "I can't come right now, I'm taking my kids to the beach. I have to take them home and change." The response she gets is "Oh, we have a pool. Bring them over." So...

She does.

Why?

Because he apparently wants to talk now, and I feel certain other people have given the family their cards. She has the scoop. She doesn't even have to break her promise to her kids. If you look at the video, what do you see? Amy Jacobson wrapped in a towel up to her chest talking on a cell phone and trying to corral her kids. The bathing suit is a halter style bikini top, but she is wrapped in a towel so large it that it should probably come with a wimple. I've seen more revealing nun's habits. (In "The Novices.") So, we don't even see the bikini bottom. If she had been wearing a thong, I can tell you what the front page photo of the Tribune would have been today.

And who is she talking to on that cell phone? Either her husband or, more likely, her producer, and she's saying "Hey, I got him to talk to me." Meanwhile, CBS 2 Chicago, which is apparently monitoring the guy's house sees her and figures they can try to ruin her credibility by somehow making her out to be too close to the story. If she was having a rendezvous with the guy, would she bring her kids? Would she be calling anyone? Hardly.

So, NBC fired her because she crossed a line. Well, yes, she is a ten year veteran, or almost ten year veteran and she's pushing 40 years old. So, she's expensive and she's too old, and now everyone has seen her in a bikini, and it wasn't even on channel 5! And there was not even a butt shot. I heartily encourage NBC5 to take revenge in kind. I suggest a few candidates to catch in their swimwear: Tammy Souza, Tracy Butler, Mary Ann Childers, Mary Kay Kleist, Alita Guillen, Megan Mawicke, Susan Carlson and Linda Yu. Sadly Tamron Hall and Michele Leigh aren't in town anymore.

So she crossed the age line and the salary line. She says she made a lapse in judgement. And I agree. If she had the day off, she should have told them to call Anne Kavanagh. Now her, I want to see in a baby doll nightie.

Lost in all this? Amy Jacobson went over there because the husband had agreed to talk to her. Gee, I wonder about what...