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Sexy News Anchors
Today's New York Times carried an article on a CNN promotional clip for Paula Zahn's new morning show, "American Morning," featuring a male announcer saying, "Where can you find a morning news anchor who's provocative, super-smart, oh yeah, and just a little sexy?" The word sexy was backed by what sounded like a zipper unzipping. Is this what TV news is coming to?
JT, Salt Lake City
A ccording to my information that particular promo, which hadn't been approved by the top brass, had a rather short life. (Fox news, CNN's major competitor, jumped all over this one. But, maybe there were sour grapes involved because Zahn left Fox after getting an offer from CNN.)
It appears that someone new to the news business got a little carried away with the Zahn promo. (And, it supposedly was not the sound of a zipper, but the attention-getting sound of a needle scratching across a record—the same sound you hear on "Ally McBeal.")
T he interesting thing about this whole episode is that it brought to the surface what we've known for a long time: given the choice between attractive news credentials and attractive people, the typical audience prefers the latter. Although maybe unfortunate, the nationwide assortment of young, pert, cookie-cutter blondes that you see doing newscasts seems to prove the point.
Some say this trend only underlines the fact that we've abandoned respectable and authoritative TV news.
A s someone who spent many years in front of the camera and behind the microphone in TV and radio news, I have a little different take on this. Personally, I think that commercial (conglomerate influence) over news is much more of a threat to news content than sexy news anchors.
One of the most respectable news organizations in the world is the BBC in England. The people who present the news don't write it, they just read it. In fact, they are called news readers, and they are hired on the basis of effective on-air delivery.
For the most part, the people at CNN don't write their own news—they just read it, and maybe that's the way it should be. Having been in the news business for many years, I know that gathering and writing news is a full-time endeavor—at least if you do it right. Presenting news on-air—if you do it right—takes preparation; and we're not just talking about hair and makeup.
As an on-air anchor, you often find yourself having to extemporaneously comment on breaking news. Thus, it also helps to understand the news—especially the legal and ethical pitfalls of reporting.
I do strongly object to one thing with respect to "sexy news anchors." That's the people who seem to be totally insensitive to the nature of stories they are reporting, and are for ever maintaining an always chipper persona, (Trying to look their best on camera?), even when they are reading stories about heart-wrenching tragedies.
A number of years ago a beauty queen was hired to do news at a major Los Angeles TV station. Although I had my doubts about her credibility in doing news—and a great many people made fun of her—I quickly discovered that she could read the news better than many of the seasoned professionals. And I tend to be pretty critical in this area.
Getting back to the Zahn promo, according to CNN chief, Walter Isaacson, the promo "was a bad mistake.... You can say sexy about a man but not about a woman."
It seems as if this "bad mistake" brought a lot of truth to the surface.
NOTE: A important addendum to this issue can be found here.
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