I saw a lot of shit during nine years in the television business, but the highest tier of insanity was hate comments for the female talent. You should have seen the stuff that came into the newsroom. People complaining about eye shadow and clothing choices and pregnancy weight. One of our anchors even had a stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison.

The complaint this week is that Alex Holley should not wear braids on FOX 29:

Spoiler: old white people didn’t like the braids because they were too black. Let’s be real. Same boomers who think every news anchor should be clean shaven, absolutely no facial hair unless it’s Jim Gardner’s mustache. No tattoos, no piercings, none of that. The same Karens who think everybody else’s business is their business. It’s incredible how much commentary you see on this kind of stuff, like some old white lady on Facebook saying “hi Cecily, I love your weather forecasts, but please don’t wear taupe anymore because it makes you look fat.” These complaints are more common than Natty Light at a 2007 frat party. Television people take a beating in this town, both literally and figuratively.

The braids look cool. Let the talent wear what they want to wear. Serenity now! Let Mike Jerrick show up with dreadlocks and Chris O’Connell with full sleeve tattoos. We go there! Plus, who gives a shit? It’s not a big deal. Television news is so sanitized and stale and boring anyway, so we need something different. You can’t have every woman out here wearing wrap dresses with that shoulder-length, bob-looking anchor hair. It’s crazy.