'Babe Bracket' raises ire

Photo: The Canadian Press

KARK TV anchor Stephanie Sharp

The runner-up from last year's "Babe Bracket," a radio station promotion that places local female journalists in a tournament-style contest whether they want to be in it or not, started a protest on Twitter on Thursday.

Winnie Wright, a reporter at KTHV, said her station's management asked her and her colleagues to not speak publicly about the contest, but after Arkansas' governor told the radio station that "everybody enjoys" the contest, Wright took to Twitter and quickly had a following.

Wright used the hashtag "#morethanababe" on Thursday. Soon after, female journalists from other TV markets weighed in with their support. Some also shared their own stories.

"On a daily basis, while I'm working to bring important stories to the people of Arkansas, I am cat-called, have obscenities yelled at me from cars, have men comment on my appearance in a professional setting, and worse. But I am #morethanababe," Wright wrote Thursday in a series of tweets that included a list of her professional accomplishments.

By the end of the day, Marie Claire magazine, the Radio Television Digital News Association and female journalists from markets ranging from New York and Chicago to Macon and Mobile had weighed in.

"Female meteorologists aren't 'weather ladies'. We are scientists," wrote Melissa Nord of WUSA in Washington.

Isabella Moller, a KARK/KLRT journalist, said the local journalists were hopeful their message would spread.

"The goal of today's hashtag was to give the journalists and meteorologists in Little Rock and across the country a chance to say we want to be judged on how hard we work, not on our looks," she said.

A lingerie shop sponsors the "Babe Bracket," carried on KABZ after originating at another Little Rock station in 1997. Promotional material features a silhouette of a scantily clad woman behind a tournament bracket that includes photos of the reporters and anchorwomen.

"We're more than what you see on TV," Moller said.