After backlash, local sports radio show and website Louisville Sports Live, which specializes in University of Louisville sports, was forced to cancel their “Hottest Louisville Newswomen” contest.
Louisville Sports Live semi-regularly airs on Wednesday evenings at 6 p.m. on 93.9 The Ville.
The radio show was beginning the nomination process for the fourth year of this contest when they stopped retweeting nominees and the web page detailing the contest stopped working yesterday.
Later in the day, Louisville Sports Live, hosted by Ethan Moore and Nick Burch, posted the following to their social media accounts: “LSL sincerely apologizes for the 'Newswomen' post. It was supposed to be lighthearted, but after listening to some criticism, we can see it could be viewed as marginalizing the newswomen of the local media.”
While some listeners responded to this post with an eye-rolling request to lighten up, some of the women who were the object of the poll didn’t feel the contest was a laughing matter.
Lauren Jones, an anchor and meteorologist for WAVE3 since 2011, was tagged by a Louisville Sports Live listener on Twitter thereby nominating her and she tweeted back using her professional WAVE3 account saying, “Oh this list again ;)”
Whitney Harding, who joined WHAS11 in 2014 as a news and sports reporter, viewed the contest details when a friend brought it to her attention. She posted to her professional Facebook page: “I was as shocked and disgusted as my buddy. I have 2 degrees in journalism, have worked my butt off and, like many other women in this business, have had to deal with the BS that comes with being on TV. The stories I can tell about things men (coaches, athletes, viewers, etc.) have said to me would make your skin crawl. I got into this business because I believe in the power of storytelling and because I believe people want and need to be informed. I did not get into this business for a beauty-boost. This just makes me so angry.”
The web pages for the first three contests have also been removed.
Photo courtesy of Louisville Sports Live website.
