A KTLA meteorologist had an awkward moment on live TV when she was asked to cover up her dress, as many viewers considered it too revealing (video below).
In a video of the incident, meteorologist Liberte Chan can be seen delivering her weather report while wearing a black beaded dress. Her broadcast is suddenly interrupted when someone from off camera hands her a sweater.
“What’s going on?” she asks, surprised. “You want me to put this on? Why, because it’s cold?”
An off-screen voice then explains to Chan that the station was “getting a lot of emails” about her dress.
“I look like a librarian now,” a deflated Chan responds.
Chan later explained she wasn’t forced by her employers to wear the gray cardigan sweater, but that it was a “spontaneous moment” by a colleague joking about her outfit.
“I was simply playing along with my co-anchor’s joke,” she clarified, according to the New York Daily News.
“I like my bosses and enjoy working with my coworkers. Since talking to my team, I want our viewers to know it was never our intention to offend anyone.”
Chan was particularly frustrated that her outfit choice garnered so much criticism on that day, overshadowing her accomplished career in journalism.
Co-anchor Chris Burrous, who handed her the sweater, was shown earlier in the broadcast wearing an odd TV outfit himself – a suit jacket and tie with khaki shorts that couldn’t be seen on camera.
Borrous said the whole sweater stunt and outfit choice was “meant in jest but I see how it seemed.”
“I really wasn’t offended. People are kind of spinning it and saying it was sexist. I thought it was just funny,” Chan added.
Some viewers felt the criticism of Chan’s outfit was unfair.
“How rude, she looked fine. Was there a dress code violation? Perhaps, that’s between her and HR department. But live TV, sounds like jealousy at the workplace. Loved the dress, what was her name? Good looking lady,” one viewer commented.
Others, however, believed she should have adhered to a dress code.
“Every workplace has a dress code these days. If her dress was not appropriate, she should have been informed when she got to work, not while standing before the camera. This was very rude and handled badly!” another viewer commented.
“A bit inappropriate just because it is a cocktail dress, not a business dress. I would think she would have known better. I bet she was trying to make a statement of some type. There is more behind her reason to wear that particular dress,” another viewer speculated.
