In attack on KARE reporter, Star Tribune columnist crosses the line

If there was a time for everyone to cut everyone else some slack, the last few days was it. Indeed, in the wake of the recitation in court on Tuesday of the last minutes of Jacob Wetterling, one could almost feel Minnesotans pulling just a bit closer, trying to shield themselves from the indecency and depravity of it all.

So the attack on Wednesday evening by Star Tribune gossip columnist C.J. -- she never uses her real name -- on KARE 11 journalist Jana Shortal because of her clothing while reporting the Wetterling story seems an indecency all its own.

As the blowback erupted on social media, the paper took the unusual step of pulling the online column without offering an explanation.

"She looked great from the waist up in a polka-dot shirt and cool blazer, but the skinny jeans did not work," she wrote, saying that she heard the same thing from other "media types," whom she did not name.

On Twitter I asked Shortal if she wished she’d worn different pants: “IDK what my clothing has to do with covering the tragedy of Jacob’s death. My only ‘wish’ on Tuesday was for Jacob’s family.”

My thoughts are also with the Wetterling family. While I cannot 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.

Edginess is the mandate of “Breaking the News,” but there is a line. Shortal has her defenders who are having their say on Twitter. To refresh memories, I have written flattering items about Shortal. Recent correspondents who have not been kind to Shortal have not found a compadre in me.

Shortal, who wears her heart on her sleeve, was justifiably upset, particularly with the suggestion that she was somehow disrespectful to the Wetterling family. She responded on her Facebook page.

On Tuesday morning I got dressed. The light on my porch woke me up. Jacob's light, his sign, to come home. Sick to my stomach I got dressed. Dreading the day I got dressed. Knowing I would learn, with all of you, what really happened to Jacob Wetterling. I dressed. I prayed. I went to work. I kept my head down. I learned what happened to him. I prayed again. I went on the air. I did my best. I gave that newscast every single shred of hope and love I had for Jacob. For his family. And for every single one of you who was hurting. I left everything I had on that newsroom floor.

And today.

You took that away.

You made it about my pants.

You. You, whose name I will never write again.

You. You with the column I will not link to.

You. The bully with the keyboard who took this night, this story, and made into gossip about my pants.

Shame on you.

You suggest this: "I would think that hipness wouldn't be a priority while covering one of the biggest, saddest stories in Minnesota history."

You are at least correct on that.

It wasn't.

I wore my clothes. The clothes it took me a very long time to feel comfortable in no thanks to the bullies like you who tried to shame me out of them.

But have you no dignity, person with the name I won't write?

You wrote about clothes in the darkest moment of Minnesota news history.

You wrote about jeans.

You were asked to create joy.

Help your neighbor.

You wrote about jeans.

You took the life out of what was meant to be a tribute to a life lost.

I won't let you do that to me.

I'm going to create joy.

I'm going to help my neighbor.

I'm going to go turn my porch light on now.

And remember why I did that show the way I did it.

And I promise you, what I won't remember, was the cut of my jeans.

C.J. dialed it up a notch on Twitter.

By then, most everyone had read the column, and the reaction was near universal in the condemnation.

Neither C.J. nor officials at the Star Tribune have yet responded to a request for comment.

(h/t: Patti Spicer)

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