...or Melissa Theuriau
Posted on 09/12/2006 11:51:19 AM PDT by pissant
The buzz about Katie Couric has an oddly familiar ring to me. And to Barbara Walters, Connie Chung, Lynn Sherr and Judy Woodruff -- all of us women who have sat in a news anchor chair.
Brian Williams and Charlie Gibson, recent successors to the anchor chairs on NBC and ABC, didn't have anywhere near the same buildup or scrutiny. Nobody mentioned their clothes or hair, and nobody made anything of the fact that Gibson had been on a morning show, but Couric was criticized for not coming from prime-time news. Nobody mentioned the word gravitas. (Couric was accused of not having it.) Nobody made a fuss about Williams and Gibson's salaries, but much was made of Couric's $15 million.
Walters, who is writing her memoirs and has been reliving her TV news days, remembers that when she left NBC in 1976 for the co-anchor evening news job at ABC, she was offered half a million dollars for the anchor job and half a million for four specials a year. She was roundly criticized for making so much money. "I was vilified," said Walters.
At a time of turmoil in the Middle East, she landed interviews with Anwar Sadat and Golda Meir. It was a big coup. "I was killed for it," she said. People asked, "Why is she doing interviews on the evening news?"
Sound familiar?
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
American Sidebar
Sally Quinn Gets Hers
by Mac MacArthur
http://www.americanpolitics.com/20020618MacArthur.html
June 18, 2002 -- Washington (APJP) -- Yesterday morning, the always-entertaining Media Whores Online reported the news about the de facto demotion of the Washington Post's resident hypocrite courtesan, Sally Quinn:
Sally Quinn turned up for work at her old desk at the Washington
Post recently to receive a rude shock -- she's been ousted from
her prime real estate and banished to the editorial nether regions.
I was laughing out loud at the irony -- after all, she wouldn't have been where she was at the overrated newspaper (that still stakes its reputation on its reporting of the the now-three-decade-old Watergate) if it weren't for her promiscuous use of her own nether regions! The story continued:
Of course, Sally went ballistic. But to no effect.
She's been exiled.
To the Post's equivalent of Siberia -- or, this being America, to
the outer reaches of Beringia.
You just have to laugh.
But the Post should go further. It's about time that Ms. Ride-along-on-your-husband's-rep was booted out of the Washington Post -- and booted out of the Beltway, for that matter.
Of all the repulsive personalities in the District, Quinn -- a graceless, self-appointed grande dame of nothingness -- takes the cake. Her putative reign as a dilettante non-journalist should have been squashed the moment she sat her ass on Ben Bradlee's lap. Quinn deserves nothing but the worst.
In that case, let's hope People magazine interviews her. They should --mostly about her slovenly appearance and bed-head hair, but also about how the snobby Mistress Quinn made a habit of pillorying Hillary and Bill Clinton (and helped drive then-young Chelsea Clinton to a couch) as she strutted her snide stuff at the Post.
For now, ol' Sal is using a desk "down" among the Post's sports staff. You can practically picture her reaction: "Horrors! What will her neighbors think? Consorting with these... these... these PLEBES? It's almost as bad as having to host guests from Little Rock!"
There is nothing funnier than a snobbish, proselytizing gutter snipe getting her comeuppance.
Come to think of it, she DOES belong in the sports section -- as a pinup girl for washed-up predatory pundettes before they become hateful hags more at home on 14th Street than in Georgetown.
...or Melissa Theuriau
Wasn't she an MTV video-jockette?.........
That's just freakin weird.
This brings to mind a song by Shel Silverstein: "Liberated Lady 1999". I won't post the lyrics, but it fits Sally perfectly.
There are rules for the men too. You have to be either handsome or at least all-American, wholesome-looking, or not-so-handsome but distinguished and well-spoken or able to project a serious image. I would like to hear Sally name one major male anchor or prominent news show host who isn't one or the other. Nondescript or Nerdy Neds don't get the major slots and money either. Aaron Brown tried to become a big deal CNN anchor, but no one wanted to watch him. Say what you will about Dan Blather, he was and is physically good-looking, as were Peter Jennings and Tom Brokaw.
Didn't people used to consider Barbara Walters's interview style lightweight and silly? I don't remember her that well, but didn't she used to be mocked for asking silly questions of world leaders and serious people? Diane Sawyer has always been queen of the smarmy sob sisters. Who wants to watch and listen to these jumped-up agony aunts reading the news? I don't.
Audience age
Revenues - Wish they had a chart with comparable dollars from 1980.
Most of the verbiage "blames" the decline of Nightly Network News on the advent of cable, ( read CNN) and viewing habits with news being available "Fresh and updated" 24/7.
HOWEVER, personally, I find it quite indicative that the Nightly Network News decline began/proceeded apace/accelerated with the advent of a certain former governor of California being elected President in 1980.
LOL, are you sure you want that? Katie won't be 'air-brushed' as she was on the cover of the magazine... ;-)
It really doesn't matter to me as I don't own a TV. Has Katie put on wgt?
Sally Quinn is married to Ben Bradlee. I don't remmber her sitiing in an anchor chair unless it was PBS.
Just'a hangin on the bone.
Or how about Darlin Molly Hennenberg....just as she is.
C-c-c-catfight!!
Just threw Kristen in to show that not all good looking women are at FOX.
She is one of Chris Matthews go to guests.
"If CBS wanted ratings, they would hire Laurie Dhue and put her in 5 inch heels and a miniskirt."
Just hire Ann Coulter.
Then the advertisements will be, "What will Ann say today?"
Ratings would go through the roof.
Kristen looks like a West-Coast tupperware-bodied football cheerleader.
oh ...
I want the buildup of being the first, I want the glory of being the first.......but I don't want to be treated like I'm the first.....
It appears to be exactly the same photo, one just altered a bit.
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