Las Vegas Review-Journal
Sarah Tressler, former society reporter for the Houston Chronicle, is planning a “coast-to-coast stripping tour from Los Angeles to Chicago, New York, Miami, Tampa and Atlanta,” she tells Doug Elfman, entertainment columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Tressler lost her job at the Chronicle after the Houston Press reported she was blogging about her second job as a stripper. Tressler’s book about her experiences is due out next month.
Tressler has filed an EEOC complaint, asking for her job back. Gloria Allred is representing her. Tressler laid out her case to Elfman:
She says editors fired her because she didn’t list stripping on her job application. But in Houston, like in Vegas, strippers aren’t employees. They’re independent contractors. They pay clubs to let them strip, then they keep tips.
Also, does every writer at the Houston Chronicle list their service-industry history on applications?
“I’ve worked at KB Toys. I’ve worked at a surf shop. I’ve worked at multiple coffee shops. I’ve worked at Taco Bell. I’ve worked as a line cook at a restaurant,” Tressler said. “Do you really want me to put every single one of those on my job application?”
The Hearst-owned Chron isn’t talking, but in March Clifford Pugh laid out one possible line of argument for the paper: Journalists, he writes,
are held to a higher standard, which includes not doing anything to affect your credibility as a journalist and being open with an employer about anything in your past that might cause readers to view you in a different way.
Tressler was open about her job. Just not with her bosses. The case, if it proceeds, will be worth watching.
Correction: Tressler did not file a lawsuit, as this post originally reported. She filed an EEOC complaint.
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