Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

Hilarious 1997 Article About Tabitha Soren (Brain-Dead "Journalist")
The Stanford Daily via UseNet ^ | November 11, 1997 | Heather Knight

Posted on 11/05/2003 3:38:56 AM PST by PJ-Comix

She's danced on tables until 3 a.m. with R.E.M.'s Michael Stipe, conducted the first interview with President Clinton after the infamous Dick Morris debacle and commentated at galas from the MTV Video Awards to an inaugural ball.

Having reached her loftiest goals, MTV News anchor Tabitha Soren has just one question.

"I'm only 30. Now what do I do?"

To help figure out just what to tackle next, Soren has taken a one-year respite from MTV to participate in Stanford's Knight Fellowship Program for journalists. As a fellow, Soren takes classes - minus the responsibilities of homework, tests and grades - in order to help her grow as a journalist.

In between her busy class schedule, Soren found time last month for a honeymoon with her new husband - best-selling author and journalist Michael Lewis - whom she met on the campaign trail.

As she flirtatiously waved good-bye to Lewis at the door of the Communication Department's lounge, flung her backpack to the ground and curled up on the large couch to chat, it was clear Soren fits in at Stanford just fine.

Of Prof. John Taylor's Economics 1 class, Soren said, "It's incessant. It's bloody awful."

"Damned if I'm going to my discussion group at 7:30 on Thursday nights," she added. "I cut myself some slack in those areas."

English classes, a business school class, photography and yoga round out her schedule, although she finds time for extracurriculars such as swimming and tanning at deGuerre pool.

Soren lived in Greenwich Village as an undergraduate while attending New York University and was part of the "punk rock, downtown New York scene." Not surprisingly, Stanford feels entirely new.

"I don't feel like I've gone back to school because it's so different. . It's a joy," Soren said. "I feel like I'm at a country club."

In her own college days, Soren majored in journalism and politics and took advantage of internship opportunities, working at CNN, MTV, ABC and NBC, as well as a cable access station.

Her first job out of college was covering the Vermont state government for an ABC affiliate.

"I was bored out of my mind," she said.

She opted to return to New York and landed a spot on MTV News, substituting for Kurt Loder. She interviewed then-presidential candidate Clinton in 1991 and earned a permanent spot as anchor.

She has since covered two presidential elections and worked with the MTV Choose or Lose campaign, which encourages young people to vote. Motivating groups which tend to vote in low numbers - such as young people, women and the homeless - is important for the U.S. democracy to work, according to Soren.

"If we're going to go around forcing democracy on the rest of the world, we might as well make an attempt at having a real one here," she said.

Though MTV may not seem the likeliest place to turn to stay abreast of current events, Soren said MTV News is an essential part of the network.

"Videos get boring," Soren said. "Young people are interested in more than just music. You get their attention with the entertainment, but then you can talk about the vote on Capitol Hill or the anxieties of getting pregnant. You might as well give them something good along with the music."

Soren also interacts with celebrities on a regular basis as part of her work at MTV, although meeting stars isn't as fun as it may seem to the audiences at home, she said.

"Celebrities are rarely memorable people. They get boring because they only know how to talk about themselves," she noted.

With all the apparent excitement of meeting celebrities and politicians on a regular basis, some may wonder just why Soren would give it up for a year to come to the Farm.

"The Knight Fellowship Program is an incredibly unique situation," Soren said. "It allows journalists to pursue for a year knowledge for the sake of knowledge. So often, journalists are all assigned the same stories. You all get the same information from the same people. This gives you different reference points."

Though she said MTV is a "luxurious situation," she might like to make documentaries and pursue other goals in the future.

"I just want to be inspired to do it again," Soren said. "I think a year here will open my mind to what's available."

Correction: Knight Fellow Tabitha Soren's characterization of Economics 1 as "incessant" and "bloody awful" was not intended to apply to the whole class, only to the homework.


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: tabithasoren
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-42 next last
Tabitha Soren was sent to Stanford to "marticulate" because she was so brain-dead. This article is hilarious because it shows Tabitha bored out of her mind with the scholarly routine. I guess the "matriculation" didn't work because the first report Tabitha did upon returning to MTV was the most BIZARRE documentary in history. I saw it once (and then it was pulled from the airwaves forever). It was about the pornography industry. While Tabitha would decry the exploitation of the porn industry, the camera would simultaneously exploit the porn industry by showing us action shots of the porno actors and actresses performing. This documentary was so weird that it was pulled before its scheduled rerun. Also pulled was Tabitha Soren's career. After this documentary aired, Tabitha was never seen on the airwaves again (or at least I never saw her again).

So does anybody know what happened to Tabitha Soren? Even in the dumb world of modern day journalism, Tabitha set new standards for absolute cluelessness.

1 posted on 11/05/2003 3:38:57 AM PST by PJ-Comix
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
I'd forgotten about this brainless ditz.
2 posted on 11/05/2003 3:52:27 AM PST by PBRSTREETGANG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PBRSTREETGANG
Tabitha was supposed to be the "Voice of the New Generation." She was even an NBC correspondent for a while. However, she was so dump that even with the low standards of today's journalism, even they couldn't take her any longer so she was shipped off to Stanford supposedly to "matriculate" and get some brains. It didn't work. Now she is completely gone from the scene. Or at least that is my impression.
3 posted on 11/05/2003 3:57:45 AM PST by PJ-Comix (The Early Bird Gets The Early Worm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
Tabitha was supposed to be the "Voice of the New Generation." She was even an NBC correspondent for a while. However, she was so dump that even with the low standards of today's journalism, even they couldn't take her any longer

Sounds like another candidate for The View!

4 posted on 11/05/2003 4:00:54 AM PST by bullseye1911
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 3 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
And somewhere on the internet, she's still calling for Bush to give the death penalty to women who have had abortions. (FR joke, for those of you who don't get it.)
5 posted on 11/05/2003 4:03:42 AM PST by Physicist
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
I never could stand her or Kurt Loder.

In the early 90's, they were two liberal dem seminar journalists who were among the first I noticed to wield the "say 'white men' as if it tastes bad" thing on television. I later saw many others doing it(Dan Rather comes to mind).

I was just so apalled that she and Kurt would do that subliminal "hate yourself" meme on national TV, I resolved to *hate* them, instead -- and I still do hold that very strong grudge against them and the left collectively. It's easy to hate people brainwash the masses in a hostile and destructive way.

6 posted on 11/05/2003 4:04:34 AM PST by Yeti
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Yeti
Here is something I just pulled off the UseNet about Tabitha. She was most recently seen as a contestant on Celebrity Jeopardy. Read about her performance there and LAUGH:

The last time I saw her was on celebrity week on "Jeapordy". She did very poorly. In fact ended up in the negative and couldn't play final jeapordy. I really think it ruined her career not being able to answer the dumb downed questions they use for celebrity jeapordy.

7 posted on 11/05/2003 4:07:48 AM PST by PJ-Comix (The Early Bird Gets The Early Worm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
What did she look like? Brain-dead or not, she might have been cute!
8 posted on 11/05/2003 4:10:33 AM PST by Ken522
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Ken522
Some might think Tabitha was cute (a redhead) but something about those dead eyes of hers was a turnoff. There are a lot of rumors floating around about some of her very kinky sexual practices. I would write them down for you but I don't have a #2 pencil available.
9 posted on 11/05/2003 4:13:48 AM PST by PJ-Comix (The Early Bird Gets The Early Worm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Physicist; Tennessee_Bob
And somewhere on the internet, she's still calling for Bush to give the death penalty to women who have had abortions.

"Let one kitten be stomped to death, and the country is outraged. But in the meantime, 800 million billion babies are being aborted every half-second, and nobody cares!"

10 posted on 11/05/2003 4:14:59 AM PST by general_re ("I am Torgo. I take care of the place while the Master is away.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Physicist
That would not have been so annoying if she had confined it to the abortion threads. But she would post it on threads which had nothing to do with it.

Whatever happened to her anyway?

11 posted on 11/05/2003 4:19:39 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: Yeti
I will give Tabitha credit for realizing just how stupid she is. After that disastrous porn industry documentary (I wish I had taped it) Tabitha seems to have removed herself forever from the world of journalism. If only other clueless journalists would follow suit.
12 posted on 11/05/2003 4:21:27 AM PST by PJ-Comix (The Early Bird Gets The Early Worm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: Ken522; PJ-Comix
What did she look like?

Here's here bio: http://www.greatertalent.com/bios/soren.shtml

(Perhaps we should book her for an event?)

13 posted on 11/05/2003 4:23:48 AM PST by PBRSTREETGANG
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: Harmless Teddy Bear; general_re
"That would not have been so annoying if she had confined it to the abortion threads. But she would post it on threads which had nothing to do with it."

People take the time to be so worried about someone posting in an internet forum, meanwhile, 800 million billion babies are being aborted every half-second, and nobody cares!

14 posted on 11/05/2003 4:30:29 AM PST by Rebelbase
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 11 | View Replies]

To: PBRSTREETGANG
Actually it would be HILARIOUS to book her for a Freeper event. When she shows up we could ask her very in-depth questions and get a lot of laughs from her blank looks. Example: "Tabitha, could you give us your opinion on Stalin's Moscow Purge trials?"
15 posted on 11/05/2003 4:30:39 AM PST by PJ-Comix (The Early Bird Gets The Early Worm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 13 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase
Just what I would expect from a known instigator... ;)
16 posted on 11/05/2003 4:35:25 AM PST by general_re ("I am Torgo. I take care of the place while the Master is away.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: Rebelbase
You forgot the part where President Bush would just have to sign an EO to outlaw abortion forever.

But a nice solid try. I give you an 8.2

17 posted on 11/05/2003 4:38:27 AM PST by Harmless Teddy Bear (No matter how subtle the wizard, a knife between the shoulder blades will seriously cramp his style)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 14 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
Then there was the famous Page Six item about Tabitha being in a cocktail party discussion about jazz and Thelonius Monk, and she blurted out, "The Loneliest Monk? Who's that?"
18 posted on 11/05/2003 4:39:18 AM PST by Jhensy
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: PJ-Comix
Actually it would be HILARIOUS to book her for a Freeper event

We could give her the Walter Duranty Award for Journalism. I'm sure she'd be thrilled.

19 posted on 11/05/2003 4:40:07 AM PST by Paleo Conservative (Do not remove this tag under penalty of law.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 15 | View Replies]

To: Jhensy
Then there was the famous Page Six item about Tabitha being in a cocktail party discussion about jazz and Thelonius Monk, and she blurted out, "The Loneliest Monk? Who's that?"

Yeah, I heard about that. What happened is that Tabitha was nothing more than a clueless party girl that the media turned into the "voice of the new generation." She read her scripted questions but outside of that had NO CLUE as to what the hell was going on in the world. To her credit, Tabitha finally realized just how dumb she is and removed herself from journalism.

20 posted on 11/05/2003 4:43:01 AM PST by PJ-Comix (The Early Bird Gets The Early Worm)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 18 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first 1-2021-4041-42 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
News/Activism
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson