News anchor claps back after trolls take aim at photo of his teen daughters dressed up
A Florida news anchor posted a photo on Facebook of himself with his two daughters, who were all dressed up for homecoming.
“My daughters look a little too good on homecoming night,” the caption on the Oct. 8 photo reads. “Believe it or not, they’re even more beautiful on the inside.”
But shortly after the photo appeared online, comments from Facebook users. began to roll in, and many of them “would shock you,” Matt Austin, the anchor who works for News 6 in Orlando, said in a TikTok that has since been viewed more than 5 million times.
“Sorry(,) my daughters would never leave the house looking for sale,” wrote one user, Robyn Kohfield-Diaz. “ ...Not cool dad.”
“Honestly, I would not let them go anywhere dressed like that!” Diane Cafarella Falabella wrote.
“I do not understand how a parent could be comfortable with their daughter’s crotches on display should they bend over or sit,” wrote another user, Jane Gannon.
Austin decided he had to clap back.
“One thing that has always pissed me off as a father of girls is when people say things like, ‘Oh these girls need to dress so they don’t’ distract the boys,’ or even worse, ‘They’re dressing in a way in which they’re asking for it,’ ” he said in an Oct. 11 TikTok.
“Let’s get something crystal clear, now,” he says in the video. “It’s not my daughters’ job to make sure your son is focused in school. Also not her job to dress hideous enough to where your son doesn’t assault her. It’s your job to not raise a pervert with no self control.”
Austin was not available for comment on Oct. 27.
‘Thanks for being a great dad’
Many internet users expressed their support for Austin.
“We need more (dads) like you,” commented one TikTok user @panicpixie1105.
“Thanks for being a great dad raising fierce women who are confident in their own skin,” commented another user, @bpawsmom.
Austin said in his TikTok that, if he could choose what his daughters wore, “it’d be 24/7 snuggies.”
But dictating their clothing would make them pull away from him, take a piece of their independence, and, even worse, he said, potentially teach them that it’s OK for a man to tell them what to wear.
‘There’s nothing wrong with this’
Austin told his news channel in an interview that he was “incensed” by the comments on the “innocent” photo of his daughters, one who’s a freshman and the other who’s a senior in high school, on the night of their homecoming.
“I tried to not post anything that would put them in a light where people would take shots at them, and unfortunately... I felt a little responsible at first and guilty and then I was like, ‘There’s nothing wrong with this,’” he told the station.
When he saw the negative comments, he felt he had to do something, he told the station. But before posting his video, he made sure to ask his daughters’ permission first.
“I said, ‘What do you think of this? I don’t know what will happen with this, but I don’t want to embarrass you,’” he told the news station. “The response I got was, ‘This might be a little embarrassing, but you’re right, go ahead and do it.’”
This story was originally published October 27, 2022 at 7:19 PM with the headline "News anchor claps back after trolls take aim at photo of his teen daughters dressed up."