Forecaster Weathers Breast Brouhaha

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – A Kentucky television station apologized after an Internet video showed its longtime weather anchor "acting in a juvenile and unprofessional manner" in front of a graphic of a woman’s breast.

WBKO-TV said on its Web site it had reprimanded weather anchor Chris Allen. It said the tape was from years earlier, never aired and had been stolen by a former employee who posted it on the Internet.

The station did not name the former employee. Rick McCue, WBKO vice president and general manager, said Thursday that Allen remains an employee of the station and was away attending training in Wisconsin that "was scheduled well before his notoriety."

A message left for Allen at WBKO-TV by The Associated Press on Thursday was not immediately returned.

The video appeared on Internet blogs and video Web sites, showing Allen next to a computer graphic, under the text "Breast Milk Donors." A grinning Allen appears to lick the nipple and squeeze the breast with both hands.

WBKO’s statement included an apology from Allen:

"I regret that a former employee has decided it is something that everyone should see and took the liberty of posting it," Allen said. "I am embarrassed by the whole ordeal and humbly apologize for anyone offended by my actions."

McCue said the station considers the tape to be copyrighted material and is endeavoring through its attorneys to have the video taken down from various sites.

"The Internet is such a wild and wooly thing," McCue said. "It’s going to be a problem for all of us if this kind of thing is allowed on the Internet, not just those of us at the television stations or the newspapers, or in private life."