There was no chill in the morning forecast, but that didn't stop one Los Angeles TV station from awkwardly making a female meteorologist cover up with a sweater right in the middle of her weekend weather report.
KTLA meteorologist and reporter Liberté Chan was going about her job during the Saturday broadcast when an arm dangling a gray cardigan appeared at the edge of the screen.
“What’s going on? You want me to put this on? Why? ‘Cause it’s cold?” Chan was seen asking.
“We’re getting a lot of emails,” said a male employee off-screen.
An incredulous Chan took the sweater and joked that she looked "like a librarian.”
Women regularly face unnecessary criticism for everything from their voice to their hair (and boneheaded advice for how to do their job and still look hot).
Chan later explained on social media that the "very demure" black and white patterned dress she had been wearing "keyed out" on the green screen -- meaning its pattern conflicted with the projected graphics -- so she had to don a backup dress.
Then she and her colleagues read some of the angry emails viewers sent the station.
"Liberté Chan looked like she stayed out late at a party and came to work in the same dress. Not appropriate for a morning weather report. The show's producers should not have allowed her to do it in a cocktail dress," one email read. Another called the look "totally inappropriate."
Chan had plenty of defenders on social media who told her she looked fine, while others slammed the complainers for their sexism.
Some viewers also noted the double standard in producers asking their reporter to cover up after they previously inviting lingerie-clad models into the weather report and broadcast.
In a video Chan and her colleagues posted, she expressed dismay that the focus was on her clothing and not her professional performance.
"Nobody cares about what I'm saying on the green screen," Chan said.
Chan later apologized to any viewers who were upset by her outfit -- and to the librarians she offended.