Houston Chronicle society reporter Sarah Tressler talked about her dismissal from the paper on ABC’s Good Morning American Friday after another publication exposed her second job as a night club stripper.
The Houston Press, an alternative weekly, first exposed the “double life” of Tressler on Monday in a feature story with the headline “Writer by day, stripper by night.” It also drew attention to Tressler’s blog — Dairy of an Angry Stripper — which included pictures of her scantily-clad self, as well as rich detail from the inside of the gentlemen’s club.
At the Chronicle, the largest daily newspaper in Texas, the society reporter rubs elbows with the ultra-wealthy and usually conservative VIPs who attend lavish charity balls and luncheons.
Chronicle editors would not discuss Tressler’s dismissal and referred the call to marketing.
“It is a personal matter concerning an employee and we don’t comment on such matters,” said Naomi Engle, Marketing & Community Affairs Specialist at Houston Chronicle.
Tressler, told the ABC host that the paper had dismissed her because she did not tell her supervisors about the off-hours gig.
She had recently been brought on as a full-time reporter at the Chronicle, so the time she spent picking up extra income from dancing had dwindled, she said.
Tressler told ABC that she did not expect anyone to reveal her secret because that seemed “like such a mean thing to do.”
Tressler, who holds a bachelor’s degree and a Master’s Degree, told ABC that earning money was her main incentive for stripping in clubs, which she started doing when she was a freelance writer for the Chronicle and others. She indicated that she would continue her work in the clubs. She also works as an adjunct professor at Houston University.
“I had three jobs, I lost one of them and now I have two jobs,” Tressler told ABC. “I was a stripper/reporter/professor and now I’m just a stripper/professor, and I don’t think that’s too bad.”
