EllenTV.com | ABC
Wisconsin TV anchor Jennifer Livingston appeared on “Ellen” Tuesday afternoon to talk about her response to a viewer she says bullied her about her weight. The viewer email, which called her a bad role model because of her size, was posted on Facebook by her husband, who also works at WKBT in La Crosse. Livingston said she was thick-skinned about it but “people in my newsroom, my colleagues were really upset.”
Ellen DeGeneres asked Livingston what made the comments bullying, rather than criticism, a question some readers have raised in comments on Poynter.org.
Livingston responded, “A lot of people have said — people that are more educated than I on the bullying topic — that it needs to be a repeated act, that it needs to be done in public. I’m not a bullying expert, I’m a mom. And I think one time is one time too many. That’s my opinion.”
Kenneth Krause has since apologized for his comments, telling ABC, “If Jennifer is offended then I truly apologize. That’s the last thing I wanted to do. … I am in no position to bully her. She’s a big time media personality, I’m just a working stiff.”
Krause said, “I was obese as a child, and I’ve been fighting with that all my life. Boy, I can sure empathize.”
“For me, this was never really about him,” Livingston told DeGeneres. “He was my one guy, but I think we all have that one guy or that one girl who tries to make you feel less than you are, who tries to put you in a box and slap a label on it and tell you you’re not worthy. It’s not about him for me, it’s about all of the people like that in this society that are using the Internet, that are using Twitter, that are using Facebook to try and bring people down and make them feel bad about themselves.”
Livingston’s brother John, in the audience during the “Ellen” taping, was in the movie “Mr. Wrong” with DeGeneres. Her brother Ron Livingston, also an actor, has said he is proud of her.
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