A female newspaper reporter for the Houston Chronicle was terminated from her job because she failed to report moonlighting activity on her application. Ironically, the reporter, who had covered fashion for the Chronicle, was working a second job as a stripper.

The stripper story was broken by another Texas paper. From media reports, the reporter had also failed to tell the paper—or her colleagues—that she was currently writing a blog (with photos) on Facebook called “Diary of an Angry Stripper,” as well as a manuscript for a book, something that reporters usually disclose to their publishers.

The reporter, Sarah Tressler, indicated she was stunned at the firing, because she was told by management that she was doing a good job covering society events, style trends, and other assignments, and because she has a master’s degree from the prestigious New York University School of Journalism. She had worked for the paper for only 2 months.

The reporter explained that she did not list the stripper job on her Chronicle job application because it was only sporadic. She indicated that she had started exotic dancing to finance her education and continued to dance because it kept her in great shape.

If Tressler was trying to hide the second job before, she certainly wasn’t lately. She filed a gender discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission through her media-friendly attorney, Gloria Allred, a frequent guest on television with her clients in sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits. According to Allred, stripping is a “female-dominated profession,” so to single it out would be discriminatory. Allred also emphasized that exotic dancing is not against the law. “Men who are independent contractors are not fired for work done legally,” Allred tolda press conference.

At press time, the Chronicle had not commented on the complaint.

Sources: CNN, NY Daily News, Houston Chronicle

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