Houston Blogger Fired After Calling NBA Cheerleader 'Too Chunky' to Cheer
The CBS Houston sports blogger who came under fire for questioning whether an Oklahoma City Thunder Girl was "too chunky" to be an NBA cheerleader has been fired.
A spokeswoman for CBS Radio confirmed the firing to ABCNews.com today but declined to release any further details, saying only, "The blogger who wrote the story is no longer working with the station."
The blogger, "Claire Crawford," targeted Oklahoma City Thunder cheerleader Kelsey Williams' looks on the court after the Houston Rockets faced off against the Oklahoma City Thunder in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
The Houston Chronicle reported that Crawford was a pseudonym for Anna-Megan Raley, who once blogged for the paper and posted a video of her audition to be a Houston Dynamo soccer team cheerleader. The spokeswoman for CBS Radio would not release the blogger's name or comment on the Chronicle's report.
Attempts by ABCNews.com to reach Anna-Megan Raley were not successful.
"The Rockets looked terrible in Game 1, but some say they weren't the only bad-looking people on the court," Crawford wrote in the April 22 post on Houston's SportsRadio 610, also noting that Oklahoma City fans had criticized Williams for "having 'pudginess' around her waistline."
Crawford conceded Williams was a "pretty blonde" and concluded her post by writing, "We think she's beautiful," but her blog drew criticism nonetheless.
Drawing perhaps the strongest outrage was the poll attached to the six-paragraph article that asked readers if "this chick is 'too chunky' to be a cheerleader."
Voters could choose that Williams either had "the perfect look to be an NBA cheerleader," "she could use some tightening up in her midsection," or, "she has no business wearing that outfit in front of people."
Williams politely fired back at the post on Twitter.
"To be womanly always, discouraged never," she wrote.
"We wouldn't know what blessings were if we didn't go through trials. Thank you to EVERYONE for the compassion and love today. I'm in awe," she tweeted on April 24.
CBS Houston has since removed the post from its website, but a cached version of the page is still available online.
ABC News' Alexis Shaw contributed to this report.