Bikini Journalism

Chicago television reporter Amy Jacobson lost her job last week for what appeared to be a stunning lack of judgment involving a man whose wife has disappeared.

Jacobson had been covering the case of Craig Stebic, whose wife, Lisa, embroiled in a bitter divorce and attempting to evict him, has not been seen since April 30. The WMAQ correspondent, wearing a bikini, was seen at a small poolside gathering at Stebic's home in footage somehow obtained by rival station WBBM.

Why did WMAQ executives find her conduct unacceptable? We don't know, because station executives won't comment beyond a statement praising Jacobson for "her hustle and passion for news," even as they were hustling her out the door.

Jacobson wouldn't comment either, until she was dumped. She then told WGN radio that she had made "a horrible mistake" and "I can't apologize enough." Jacobson said she was on the way to a pool with her two children when she got the invitation to join the group at Stebic's house, was trying to get a competitive edge on the story and that he "never made any advances, ever." The Chicago Tribune reported Friday that Jacobson, without telling her bosses, had been briefing police on her dealings with Stebic, who has since been named a "person of interest" by investigators.

WMAQ executives are described by insiders as chagrined that the swimsuit appearance made Jacobson appear to have a friendship with Stebic and tarnished the NBC station's credibility. But they have decided to remain silent until lawyers work out the details of Jacobson's departure.

Would the station accept that explanation from a Windy City corporation that had just dismissed a top official, or an alderman who'd ousted his top aide? When one of its top reporters became the story, WMAQ went into the bunker.

The episode was reminiscent of the huge embarrassment involving Mirthala Salinas, the Telemundo anchor and reporter in Los Angeles who is having an affair with the city's mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa. Salinas, who had covered the mayor, somehow thought it was a good idea last month to read a story announcing his breakup with his wife, leaving out a certain pertinent fact.

When California blogger Luke Ford broke the story, which was confirmed by the Los Angeles Daily News, Salinas put out statements confirming the relationship, pleading for privacy and insisting she did nothing inappropriate -- but not addressing the obvious conflict. She has granted no interviews.

Neither have Telemundo executives who put out a statement praising Salinas as "one of our most respected reporters and a great professional," only to suspend her -- with pay -- the following day. Despite conflicting accounts over whether Salinas told her bosses of the affair with Villaraigosa or misled them by saying it was just a friendship, the L.A. station still hasn't addressed what happened.

The same stonewalling extends to the executive suites. After Par Ridder resigned in March as publisher of the St. Paul Pioneer Press and jumped to the rival Minneapolis Star Tribune, he was accused in a lawsuit of stealing confidential material from his former employer. Ridder, whose family once owned the Pioneer Press, insisted in statements that he had done nothing wrong but would not discuss the specifics in the few press calls he returned.

When Ridder testified at a hearing late last month, he acknowledged that he had, in fact, taken marketing and advertising documents from the Pioneer Press and had signed a noncompete agreement that appeared to bar him from joining the larger paper. In other words, the allegations were true.

Ridder still isn't commenting.