A news story with legs
Maybe Dan Rather's a better newsman than everyone gave him credit for; his supposedly rude comments about "dumbing... down and tarting up" the news are starting to look prescient.
"Can A Bikini Model Be Made Into An Instant Anchor?" the New York Post asks in a recent news story, and almost in unison, a chorus of (baritone) voices answers: "Why, yes! Yes, she can be!"
A television station in Tyler, Texas has offered itself as the filming site for a new FOX reality show, in which we are to witness the transformation of a bikini model (Lauren Jones) into a TV news anchorwoman. Media watchdog groups, your average bunch of feminists, and the news industry at large are as predictably nonplussed as they were when CNN tried to sell anchor Paula Zahn as "a little bit sexy."
The rest of us are of course too busy wondering why a marketing move like this is only the basis for a reality show as opposed to, say, an across-the-board status quo in broadcast journalism. I mean, let's face it here: whilst there is doubtlessly much highly-involved, clever investigative work going on behind the scenes every night at six o' clock (or whenever), the actual job of "news-anchoring" is nothing but typical stage performance. If you can read a teleprompter while comfortably looking like you're not reading a teleprompter, well, guess what, you're as qualified to anchor a major newscast as you're ever going to be - which means the only factors that can possibly differentiate you from your competition is your personality and level of physical attractiveness. Such factors are, coincidentally, what we've always hired models, actors, and actresses for.
And if I may speak on behalf of those brave men and women graduating from college with a degree in Theater, they could sure use the work.
The good money's on FOX's critics already knowing this, of course; the thought of Lauren Jones taking to the newsroom isn't just insulting to them, but downright scary, because they know that unless Miss Jones takes a dive and pretends sitting behind the newsroom desk is more technical than it looks (a likely prospect), their nightly hour of fame is in serious danger of being outsourced to people who look better than they do in tight clothes. Oh, they'll still be reporters, sure - they'll just be largely relegated to working from behind the scenes and out in the field. They no wanna.
Like so much of today's journalistic output, this news story is primarily driven by reporters' egos.
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