Mankato news anchor's bizarre broadcast captures attention across Internet

A weekend news anchor in Mankato is getting some publicity after a short and awkward segment in which she looks blurry eyed and stumbles over her words. Of course, viewers online say she looks drunk, but the station's news director is cautioning people not to jump to conclusions.

Author:: BMTN Staff
Publish date:: Dec 8, 2011

A weekend news anchor with KEYC in Mankato is getting some publicity after this awkward segment:

The Huffington Post goes there with the question on many people's minds: Was she drunk on the air?

The segment ends abruptly, and the anchor doesn't return.

The station's news director says people should not be jumping to conclusions and that there is no proof she was intoxicated. "The matter represents a personnel issue to be resolved internally," the station's general manager says in a written statement.

The Mankato Free Press has more.

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The KEYC anchor hasn't been on the air since a bizarre news segment went viral on the Internet, sparking rumors that she was drunk on the air. Station officials said she was having a bad reaction to medication.

Former Mankato television news anchor Annie Stensrud is speaking publicly for the first time since she lost her job at KEYC after a newscast in which she appeared drunk, a video clip that quickly went viral. It was anti-anxiety medication that had affected her on-air performance, she tells KARE 11. She later turned to alcohol and hit bottom, she says, but is now sober with a positive new outlook. "It feels good to finally talk about it," she says.

Annie Stensrud, who some people suspect was drunk on the air following an awkward newscast that went viral on the Internet, has been charged with a DWI following her arrest on suspicion of drunken driving weeks after the news segment. Police say she had a blood-alcohol level of .31 just over an hour after her arrest.

Former KEYC Mankato news anchor Annie Stensrud, who became a brief YouTube sensation after a broadcast in which she appeared drunk, was sentenced to probation in a DWI case. Police stopped Stensrud in December, a few weeks after the broadcast, with a blood alcohol level of .31.

WCCO talks with the general manager of KEYC in Mankato after an anchor's awkward newscast went viral and sparked widespread rumors that she was drunk.

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Broadcasting Industry News from the Minnesota Broadcasters Association.

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Broadcasting Industry News from the Minnesota Broadcasters Association

Longtime KARE 11 sports anchor Randy Shaver has been named the weeknight news co-anchor of KARE 11 News. Shaver will join co-anchor Julie Nelson at 5, 6 and 10 p.m. beginning July 16. He replaces Mike Pomeranz, who left the station in March to be a TV broadcaster for the San Diego Padres.