Amy Jacobson is a Chicago radio talk show host. She was areporter forWMAQ-TV inChicago from 1996 to 2007, losing her job after a rival TV station broadcast a video of her in a bathing suit with her children at the home of a man she was investigating in connection with his wife's disappearance.[1]
According to Jacobson's WMAQ-TV staff biography in 2007, she is a native ofMt. Prospect, Illinois, graduated fromJohn Hersey High School in 1987, and graduatedPhi Beta Kappa from theUniversity of Iowa with abachelor's degree in broadcasting and film in 1991. She was theSigma Chi sweetheart in 1989.[2]
Prior to joining WMAQ-TV, Jacobson worked atWJBK-TV inDetroit,KVIA-TV inEl Paso,Texas,KOLD-TV inTucson, Arizona, and, starting in 1992,KSAX-TV inAlexandria, Minnesota. She started out with an internship atKGAN-TV based inCedar Rapids, Iowa.
She became a general assignment reporter atNBC-ownedWMAQ-TV in Chicago in 1996. She also occasionally contributed correspondent content forNBC News in regard to Chicago-area stories, having four appearances onToday.[2]
Jacobson, as part of her job for WMAQ-TV, had been covering the April 2007disappearance of Lisa Stebic; Stebic went missing on the same day that she asked her lawyer to help evict her husband Craig Stebic from the Stebic home.[3][4] On Friday, July 6, 2007, Jacobson was recorded on video socializing at the Stebic home.[3] Jacobson was wearing a bathing suit top and a towel and was at the house with her two sons. Several other people were present including Craig Stebic, who was the last to see his wife, and was following his lawyer's advice to avoiding speaking to police, but was in the video talking to Jacobson; and Craig Stebic's sister,[3] who Jacobson later said had invited her to the home to discuss the case with family members.[5]
The video was in the possession of rival TV stationWBBM-TV, but other news outlets, including Jacobson's employer WMAQ-TV, soon found out about the Jacobson footage.[3] WBBM-TV discussed whether the footage was newsworthy until the evening of July 9, when theChicago Sun-Times andChicago Tribune both ran the story that Jacobson was on tape at a Stebic pool party. Seeing that the print media had already broken the story, WBBM-TV ran two minutes of clips from the video, with commentary from a WBBM-TV reporter, on the July 10 early-morning news.[6]: 4 WBBM-TV also reported that, since the disappearance, Jacobson had not mentioned any social relationship with the Stebic family in her reporting, but had been seen at the house frequently and without a camera crew.[3] Jacobson claimed she was trying to cultivate sources: she said she was attempting to get closer access to Craig Stebic;[4] other sources told theChicago Tribune that Jacobson was attempting a rapport with Craig Stebic's sister.[1] Jacobson's involvement in the case resulted in national coverage[4] and the end of her employment at WMAQ-TV by the end of July 10.[1][3][4][6] Jacobson said that she would not have been fired if she were a man[4] and that she went instantly from a six-figure income to not being able to find work anywhere.[5] Both Jacobson and WBBM-TV received negative criticism: WBBM-TV responded by releasing the videotape, unedited except for the children's faces, the day after the original broadcast; Jacobson responded by limiting her interviews to local news outlets rather than national news outlets.[6]: 5
In July 2008, Jacobson filed a multi-million-dollar libel lawsuit inCook County against WBBM's parent companyCBS Corporation, multiple WBBM-TV staff, aNorthwestern University professor who spoke about the footage, and a neighbor of the Stebic home.[5][7] The lawsuit claimed that "The videotape was carefully edited in an attempt to create the appearance of an ‘illicit’ relationship" and Jacobson said that there were other mothers with children at the home when the video was shot.[5] A circuit judge rejected the lawsuit and grantedsummary judgment in favor of CBS,[6] in July 2013, saying that the CBS criticism and report was "constitutionally protected expressions of opinion" or based on facts, and that the plaintiff failed to establish that CBS fabricated unfavorable content. Jacobson's attorney said that her legal team "always figured there would be an appeal before this went to trial", and intended to appeal on the basis that Jacobson was not apublic figure when the video was released and that an earlier judge in the case had made a different ruling.[7] TheIllinois Appellate Court, sitting as a three-judge panel, rejected the appeal in December 2014, saying that Jacobson was "[a]lready a well-known local personality and high-profile reporter", that she drew further public spotlight during the period after Lisa Stebic's disappearance, and that her closer involvement with the family "invited scrutiny of her methods".[6][8] The appellate court also said that the different ruling in the earlier court, claimed by Jacobson, was not actually the statement made by that court.[6]: 11 Jacobson petitioned theIllinois Supreme Court, but was deniedleave to appeal on January 28, 2015.[9]
The season 18 episode ofLaw & Order entitled "Submission," which aired on March 12, 2008, creatively borrowed from events pertaining to the Jacobson story.[citation needed]
Jacobson made frequent guest appearances on "Livin' Large with Geoff Pinkus" onWIND (AM) and worked as a traffic and news reporter forWLS (AM) from 2008 to 2010, beginning on theRoe Conn Show, and then moving to theMancow and Cassidy show.[citation needed] She became co-host with Big John Howell on WIND.[citation needed]
Jacobson currently cohosts WIND's morning show with Florida residentDan Proft. On their August 22, 2024 show, the pair mocked the 17-year old son of Democratic vice presidential candidateTim Walz for his enthusiastic response to his dad being nominated forvice president of the United States at the2024 Democratic National Convention. The son has anonverbal learning disorder that affects one's physical coordination and ability to readsocial cues(Chicago Tribune). Parents atAmundsen High School in Chicago, where Jacobson coaches volleyball, called for her immediate dismissal. On August 28, Amundsen principal Kristi Eilers announced via email that Amundsen and Jacobsen had parted ways.[10]
Jacobson and her former husband, Jaime Anglada, married in 2002.[11] They have two sons. Her husband filed for divorce in September 2008, following the lawsuit filed against WBBM-TV.[12]: 1