-The good news: During the past couple of weeks, the Webster Parish (Louisiana) CVB and its tourism promotion program has received more attention than it has ever received—ever.
-The bad news: All the attention is because the CVB’s executive director sent a live-streaming video containing nudity on the bureau’s Instagram account.
Lynn Dorsey, the Webster Parish CVB’s executive director for the past 13 years, has been placed on paid administrative after a recent episode in which she mistakenly live streaming an adult content video containing nudity on the bureau’s Instagram account.
The nude video was live-streamed for about a half-hour on the evening of Dec. 19th to the bureau’s Instagram followers. Dorsey told the Minden Press-Herald (Minden is the Parish seat) it was intended as a private message for her husband, but she mistakenly posted the video to the bureau’s account.
She streamed the video to followers in a hotel room using a new bureau issued iPhone 7. She intended to send the video to her husband. “I am a new Instagram user and, unfortunately, I pressed the wrong button,” she told the Press-Herald. “It was a horrible, honest mistake … I am mortified. I would never send that type of content out intentionally.”
It’s uncertain how many people saw the live video. Followers of the bureau’s Instagram account — including dozens of Minden residents attending a Christmas party — received a notification of the live feed. The footage is no longer visible once the feed ends.
Dorsey posted the video from a hotel room in Baton Rouge, the state capital. She was there conducting tourism business. Webster Parish (est. pop. 41,000) is in the northern part of the state, straddling Interstate Route 20—just east of Shreveport and bordering Arkansas to the north.
There doesn’t seem to be that much blowback over the episode, and the board that oversees the CVB seems to be taking on the issue with a matter-of-fact attitude. “At this time we are reviewing facts,” Jerry Madden, board president said. “We have requested she get her own phone and separate her business contacts from her personal contacts. That’s the proper thing to do.”
Madden noted that the paid administrative leave is not a disciplinary action. “She has done a great job for many years,” he said. “We want to do what is right for tourism, Webster Parish, the state and for her.”
The personnel committee will review findings during the next regularly scheduled board meeting, which is slated for the end of this month and possibly take action.
