The reporter, her bikini, the tape and her lawsuit

Journalists have a reputation of dressing like slobs. (See “Madison, Oscar.”) Former Chicago TV reporter Amy Jacobson, however, probably wishes that was the worst fashion faux pas she committed.

Jacobson filed a $1 million lawsuit against the Windy City’s CBS affiliate after the station aired footage last July of bikini-wearing Jacobson at the home pool of Craig Stebic, whose wife had been missing for two months, the Chicago Tribune reported yesterday. Stebic was days away from being named a “person of interest” in the case, which has been a big news story in Chicago; Lisa Stebic remains missing to this day, according to the Tribune.

The videotape made international headlines and Jacobson, then a reporter at Chicago’s NBC affiliate, was soon fired, although the her station’s management said it was because she talked to police about Craig Stebic without telling her bosses, according to the Tribune.

Jacobson explains in her complaint she was taking her kids swimming when Craig Stebic’s sister asked her to come over to discuss the case. Jacobson let her kids swim in the pool and joined them briefly, according to the complaint. She says she had no improper motive or behavior, but was “just serving a dual role as mother and reporter.” Jacobson previously admitted she had a “lapse in judgment.”

While you could argue the CBS affiliate was wrong for airing the tape, as Jacobson alleges, her own explanation should not be glossed over. Bikini or no bikini, kids or no kids, I submit that a journalist shouldn’t go to a source’s house and discuss the source’s legal troubles. It’s one definition of getting too close to a story.

It’s also something I thought Jacobson would know, since the complaint describes her as “a well-respected television investigative journalist; some would say the best in the business.”

DANNY JACOBS, The Daily Record