Fox Chicago (WFLD-Channel 32) news anchor Robin Robinson made headlines the other night after revealing on the air that there is no Santa Clause (the video of the incident, as well as the on-air apology the following night are available in the posted link). As you would expect, there was a lot of feedback directed at Robinson from angry parents and other viewers.
Over on the Chicagoland Radio & Media message board, the general sentiment seems to be that Robinson was out of line for saying such remarks on the air, as it is not all too uncommon for some young children to still be up after 9 p.m. and in the same room with their parents while the news is on. An opposing view is that if children are up late enough to watch the 9 p.m. news, and old enough to learn about shootings, war and other bad things, then they are likely at an appropriate age to know the truth about Santa.
Bah humbug.
As much as the aura of Santa Clause bothers me to some extent (a separate topic for another time), I don’t think it is appropriate for anyone, especially one of prominence such as Robinson, to spoil it for other people’s children. The entire Santa Clause idea is a parental decision and should be theirs only – not a television news anchor. At the end of the day, it was just a rotten thing for her to do.
WFLD is already in plenty of hot water as it is since their ratings are among the worst in the Chicago area. To potentially alienate a high number of people actually watching their newscast was pretty stupid.
