Sports Anchor Busted as Live Feed Captures Forgotten Image on Screen Behind Him

Any career that unfolds in the public eye has its of regular hazards.

After all, it only takes one mental lapse for an unfathomably humiliating mistake to plague you for years thereafter.

Sports anchor Jake Gadon of KOVR in Sacramento, California, did not commit an error that rose to quite that level of embarrassment, but he did attract attention on the social media platform X for all the wrong reasons.

Earlier this week, during a spot for “Primetime Sacramento” on KMAX-TV — KOVR’s sister station in The Golden State’s capital city — Gadon, seated in a swiveling office chair, discussed the Las Vegas Raiders’ recent decision to fire head coach Antonio Pierce.

It sounded like any other sports report from a local television station. But it did not look that way.

An advertisement featuring musical star Rihanna appeared on the second of two computer screens behind Gadon. The ad, which showed the singer modeling red lingerie, took up much of the screen.

According to People Magazine, Rihanna modeled a new Valentine’s Day offering from her own lingerie brand, Savage X Fenty.

California-based freelance journalist Matthew Keys called attention to the racy ad on Gadon’s computer.

“Hey, @JakeGadon_TV, what, uh, what kind of sports research were you doing there, buddy?” Keys wrote on X.

WARNING: The following post contains images that may be offensive to some readers. 

Hey, @JakeGadon_TV, what, uh, what kind of sports research were you doing there, buddy? pic.twitter.com/grXGZ7rsNt

— Matthew Keys (@MatthewKeysLive) January 8, 2025

Of course, the mere appearance of Rihanna’s racy ad on the computer screen hardly qualifies as an indictment of Gadon.

For one thing, the sports writer sat in front of two different computer screens. Who knows which one he actually used?

Moreover, how much embarrassment should Gadon really feel for viewing an ad that also appeared in People Magazine?

After all, given the modern world’s prevailing attitudes toward modesty, Gadon or anyone in his position might not even have noticed the ad as he scrolled down what looked like a social media page.

Indeed, the ubiquitousness of such ads, as well as our diminished sensitivity to them, might constitute the bigger story here.

Furthermore, assuming that Gadon looked at the ad, or even assuming that he lingered over it for longer a few seconds, one can scarcely believe that an otherwise seemingly unoffensive local sports anchor will suddenly acquire an embarrassing reputation for lecherousness.

Embarrassment, properly affixed and thus properly relished by the public, rightly belongs to establishment politicians and those who enable them.

For instance, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell of California have each committed public gaffes of a very peculiar kind. As a result, one now associates their names with flatulence.

Likewise, recall that in October 2020 CNN chief legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin exposed himself on a Zoom call with colleagues.

According to CNN, Toobin returned to the network eight months later after going through therapy.

Thus, perhaps Gadon might have paid a bit closer attention to the computer screen.

One senses, however, that when it comes to rendering oneself a proper object of mockery, Gadon’s incident will hardly rise to the level of Toobin’s or even to that of the Democratic lawmakers.

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