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Weather Woman Fired For Racial Reference?

Discussion pertaining to Detroit, Ann Arbor, Port Huron, and SW Ontario
BillT
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Weather Woman Fired For Racial Reference?

Post by BillT » Sun Aug 07, 2022 2:30 pm

This was probably 15 to 20 years ago now, but a female weather forecaster at WDIV was fired when she made an unintentional reference to black people after a segment was shown about gorillas at a zoo. Can't remember her name, but I believe she had long blond hair, and was possibly working with Carmen Harland at the time. Anyone remember her name and whether she ever got an on air job after that? She probably payed a big price for that whether she deserved it or not.



RadioDork11
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Re: Weather Woman Fired For Racial Reference?

Post by RadioDork11 » Sun Aug 07, 2022 3:14 pm

Wasn't that Lauren Podell?



BillT
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Re: Weather Woman Fired For Racial Reference?

Post by BillT » Sun Aug 07, 2022 3:18 pm

No, this was a good ten years before that. All Podell said was that she was tired of covering black violence in Detroit, but she'll probably not work on TV again either.



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MWmetalhead
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Re: Weather Woman Fired For Racial Reference?

Post by MWmetalhead » Sun Aug 07, 2022 4:45 pm

Happened in 1995. The weathercaster was Michelle Leigh. She made that remark on-air when Emery King was sitting next to her.

It appears Ms. Leigh subsequently worked at KARK in Little Rock, WFLD Chicago (who chose not to renew her contract after a five year stint), and The Weather Channel, among other places.

You conveniently left out Ms. Podell's alleged use of the "N" word, in front of an African American colleague no less. She should've been fired long before she actually received the ax.




Editorcj
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Re: Weather Woman Fired For Racial Reference?

Post by Editorcj » Mon Aug 08, 2022 11:47 am

Poor Michelle Budenstein, she was trying to be clever on the fly and said something stupid. I was friends with her in college.



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MWmetalhead
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Re: Weather Woman Fired For Racial Reference?

Post by MWmetalhead » Mon Aug 08, 2022 12:19 pm

I have no idea how good of a broadcaster or forecaster she was. I will say termination for that offense does seem extreme, especially since she wasn't the individual who introduced skin color into the conversation.



Editorcj
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Re: Weather Woman Fired For Racial Reference?

Post by Editorcj » Mon Aug 08, 2022 1:59 pm

She was the third element in a tease and she ad-libbed a tie-in between the first 2 stories teased, one involved a black woman looking for a date for Valentines day and a new gorilla at a zoo. Goofy and dumb but not intentionally racist, I felt really bad for her at the time but she did land on her feet.



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MWmetalhead
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Re: Weather Woman Fired For Racial Reference?

Post by MWmetalhead » Mon Aug 08, 2022 4:51 pm

Sure sounds like her co-workers threw her under the bus.



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lidoshuffle
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Re: Weather Woman Fired For Racial Reference?

Post by lidoshuffle » Mon Aug 08, 2022 5:09 pm

And shortly after she was fired from WDIV, Michelle Leigh started dating Arthur Penthallow (BABYYY!!!) from WRIF, apparently from hearsay I over heard at bar conversations with WRIF people I knew back then, she was high maintenance and kept bugging Arthur P. about "When are you taking me to Maui"??

lol :rollin :rollin :rollin



ProducerXM
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Re: Weather Woman Fired For Racial Reference?

Post by ProducerXM » Mon Aug 08, 2022 10:15 pm

BillT wrote:
Sun Aug 07, 2022 3:18 pm
No, this was a good ten years before that. All Podell said was that she was tired of covering black violence in Detroit, but she'll probably not work on TV again either.
That is incorrect. She said the N word. And in case you don’t know… that’s horrible.



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