A photographer threatened to sue Dallas media blogger Ed Bark last week after he posted a photo of KXAS‘s Kim Fischer simulating a pole dance, an image that the reporter had apparently begun using as her Facebook profile picture.
Bark spotted the suggestive photo after it had popped up on his own Facebook stream. “Tis a new world out there in TV News Land,” Bark wrote in a brief post about the photo, “as Kim Fischer’s Facebook photos keep reminding us.”
Shortly after Bark posted the photo, as well as another that shows Fischer passed out, he was contacted by photographer Bob Manzano (who goes by “Bob Manzano the Lion” on Facebook) who said that he owned the photos and threatened to sue unless they were taken down.
Bark complied, not wanting to deal with any further aggravation over “a couple of silly pictures.” As he continues to point out on his blog though, the incident and others like it suggest that stations “should take a closer look at how some of their anchors and reporters are using social media.”
Fischer has responded to Bark’s criticism in recent days, scrubbing the pole dancing photo from the internet, making her Twitter account protected, and changing her Twitter bio, which previously stated:
Lover of wit, wine and weekends. Pit Bull Mommy. Believes laughter cures most anything. Oh, and I write minute long stories that air on NBC5 in Dallas.
Fischer revised her Twitter bio to pointedly say that she was a reporter “who believes a sense of humor should not take away from Journalistic integrity.” But that too was eventually scrapped in favor of a straightforward WeFollow link.
Manzano, for his part, has this to say on his MySpace page:
In my opinion, there is nothing more beautiful than to see a woman walking across the house wearing nothing but her birthday suit being her natural self — walking ART. I admire women who wear sexy and sensual clothing when in public, and we men need to admire it as walking art and stop eye salivating them.
Fischer, who made a recent Dallas Observer list of the “Hottest TV Women” in the DFW market, joined KXAS in 2009.
And while Fischer has deleted the infamous photo from Facebook, this archived image from 123people could be it…
(Guess we’ll know if it’s the right one if we get a threatening email from Bob the Lion).