Female Reporters at Chicago's WFLD Reportedly Banned From Wearing Hats in Outdoor Shots

By Anna Merlan  |  January 6, 2016 | 3:43pm
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A fun idea, being instituted for what we’re sure are totally non-bullshit reasons: female reporters at Chicago Fox station WFLD are reportedly being told not to wear hats during outdoor live shots this winter. A producer apparently thinks women “look a lot better without hats.”

That’s according to Chicago Tribune media columnist Robert Feder, who was tipped off on Twitter by a reporter for another station, who hastened to add she herself is allowed to wear hats in the workplace:

Feder writes that his sources tell him the edict came from Dan Salamone, executive producer of Good Day Chicago. The directive was—you’ll never guess—reportedly not also given to male reporters. The no hats policy will be excused, Feder writes, “if it’s 20 below”—which, if true, would be very magnanimous of Dan Salamone.

We reached out to Salamone and several female reporters at WFLD for comment and will update if we hear back. It was a balmy 27 degrees in Chicago this morning when hatless reporter Anita Padilla stood outside for a live shot in front of a soon-to-be-demolished church.

Update, 5 p.m.:

Fox 32’s General Manager told the Tribune this isn’t an official policy, just something Salamone dreamed up and for which he is now in trouble:

“It was an ill-conceived, ill-thought-out email,” Welsh said Wednesday, a few hours after he said he learned of the email via Feder’s post. “It’s not a station policy. The station doesn’t stand by the email. We have no policy about wearing hats. … It’s nothing that came down from above.”

Salamone is receiving “appropriate disciplinary action,” per Welsh.

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Screenshot via WFLD Fox 32

 
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