As winter is in full swing in much of the country, TV reporters who are stuck doing live shots in the cold wear hats to stay warm. But for reporters on Chicago’s Fox affiliate, WFLD (Fox 32) and specifically, the morning show, “Good Day Chicago” and even more specifically, female reporters, they were not allowed to wear them.

According to Chicago media reporter Robert Feder, Fox 32 Executive Producer Dan Salamone issued a directive that women should not wear chapeaus because they “look a lot better without hats,” but he would make an exception “if it’s 20 below.” How nice of him.

Now this directive did not apply to the male reporters so they could wear hats of their choosing. How Salamone felt he could get away with this without bringing on an Equal Employment Opportunity lawsuit is baffling.

This whole policy came to light when a reporter at crosstown WLS (ABC7) made it public on Twitter:

Once the story went public, station general manager Dennis Welsh told Phil Rosenthal of the Chicago Tribune that Salamone’s directive wasn’t well-received in his office:

“It was an ill-conceived, ill-thought-out email,” Welsh said Wednesday, a few hours after he said he learned of the email via Feder’s post. “It’s not a station policy. The station doesn’t stand by the email. We have no policy about wearing hats. … It’s nothing that came down from above.”

And to top it off:

“That person will receive appropriate disciplinary action,” Welsh said.

So the women on “Good Day Chicago” are back to wearing hats and not just when it’s 20 below. The GM went even further:

“Of course we want our reporters to be warm and there’s nothing wrong with wearing a hat in Chicago.”

What disciplinary action Salamone will face isn’t known, but suffice to say that he’ll learn a valuable lesson when writing another memo regarding hats.

[Robert Feder/Chicago Tribune]

About Ken Fang

Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013.

He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television.

Fang celebrates the four Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.