US meteorologist Liberte Chan was handed a cardigan and told to cover up during a live broadcast on KTLA 5 in Los Angeles, sparking a furious response on social media. Chan was in the middle of her California weekend forecast when she was given a grey cardigan to put on, with someone off camera saying: 'We're receiving lots of emails.'
Viewers took to Twitter to express their outrage, with many accusing the station of publicly shaming Chan. Heather Poole tweeted: 'Whoa @KTLA I didn't like the dress either, but you don't have to make her cover up-ON AIR like that. How embarrassing.' Emily Sears added: 'KTLA you owe @libertechan an apology. As a viewer and a woman I'm completely disturbed to see this woman publicly shamed doing her job.'
The station later read some of the emails that prompted the cover-up, including one that said: 'Liberte Chan's dress is totally inappropriate.' Another read: 'Liberte Chan looks like she stayed out late and came to work in the same dress.' However, more than 8,000 tweets have since been directed at the station, with hashtags including #righttobarearms, #IstandwithLiberteChan, and #sweatergate.
Chan later explained on social media that she had chosen the black beaded dress because a more demure black and white dress she wanted to wear clashed with the green screen used for graphics. She attempted to draw a line under the furore on the programme, saying: 'It's a dress people, can we talk about my weather report?'
In a subsequent blog post, Chan insisted the incident was a joke, writing: 'For the record, I was not ordered by KTLA to put on the sweater. I was simply playing along with my co-anchor's joke... There is no controversy at KTLA.' She added that she loves her job and that the team are friends on and off air.
