Courtesy the Boston Herald

(December 17, 2010) A local sports radio host has come under fire for touting an online polling game that asks men which high-profile, Boston female news anchor - Maria Stephanos, Sara Underwood or Bianca de la Garza - they would wed, bed or kill.

Barstool Sports posted the “hot Boston reporter edition” of its regular poll Tuesday. While that’s par for the course for the smutty site, “98.5 The Sports Hub” yakker Mike Felger then went on-the-air and encouraged his radio listeners to vote for Underwood - his wife and a weekend anchor and reporter for Fox 25.

Apparently, many voters were in favor of “killing” Underwood, or “the Wood” as her hubby affectionately calls her.

“I need help because I don’t need the Wood killed,” Felger told listeners. “I’m asking you to marry her or (expletive) her.”

Maureen Gallagher of Jane Doe Inc. had harsh words for Underwood’s Lesser Half.

“The fact that Mike Felger unapologetically speaks of his wife, one of the women in the poll, in these terms is disrespectful to her, offensive to all women and many men, and promotes the idea that it is funny and acceptable to degrade women, even those you supposedly love,” Gallagher said.

Felger sought to downplay his clownish on-air banter. “We try not to take ourselves that seriously,” Felger told MediaBiz.

Did he anger the missus? “She was picketing outside my house when I got home,” Felger quipped. “She’s boycotting me.”

A WFXT-TV (Ch. 25) spokeswoman declined to comment on Underwood’s behalf as well as Stephanos’.

Christina Knowles, state director of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Organization for Women, said she was surprised Felger played into the sleazy chauvinism, because his wife was among the trio being objectified.

“The fundamental basis of this game is to determine the worth of the women based on their looks - and that’s troubling,” Knowles said. “It’s completely degrading.”

Jane Doe’s Gallagher said the poll and ensuing radio dissing “minimizes the very real instances” of sexual assault and domestic violence that take place everyday in the Bay State.

De la Garza, who anchors the morning news on WCVB-TV (Ch. 5), was unavailable and the station also declined comment.

Bar Stools’ owner Dave Portnoy said his site is male-oriented and the polling game has been around for years. “I certainly don’t think it’s shocking in terms of what we do or really what anybody does,” Portnoy said. “Whether that is good or bad, I think it’s pretty mainstream.”

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