OUT THERE - WINDSWEPT, INEPT, ASHLEIGH BANFIELD HITS THE ROAD (She should keep on going!)

WALL STREET JOURNAL ^ | 8/22/02 | TUNKU VARADARAJAN

[Elkiejg]

Every Monday to Thursday, from 10 to 11 p.m. EDT, MSNBC thwacks its viewers on the head with a cudgel called Ashleigh Banfield.

Ms. Banfield was recently described by Vogue as "the anchor who is changing the way we watch the news." She has, the magazine continued, created "a new genre of broadcasting--a kind of raw, take-you-there, experiential reporting." I'm not sure what Vogue meant by that last bit of molasses, but my translation reads, Unprepared, verbose and incapable of complex analysis. What we have here is the exaltation of the ditz.

[Elkiejg]

FUNNY - dead on article. Wrote a comment to WSJ, that national media needed to wake up to the fact that they were no longer important and that most "thinking" Americans get their news from FoxNews, WashingtonTimes and FREEREPUBLIC.COM!!

[Gurn]

Ashleigh Talibanfield is so vapid as to nearly defy description. This writer gets it done.

She's Gen X's Katie Couric: a cypher, who only knows she's supposed to be liberal, but doesn't know why.

[Semper Paratus]

What we have here is the exaltation of the ditz.

A perfect description of Ashleigh Talibanfield.

[KoestlersRedFiat]

9/11 made Ashleigh Banfield. And her ego will destroy her.

Another Jessica Savitch (sp?) in the making.

[ez2muz]

"...a cypher, who only knows she's supposed to be liberal, but doesn't know why."

Perfect!

[gridlock]

I must admit, I have never seen Ashliegh Banfield outside of a promo. But I think MSNBC really drove the nail into her coffin with the advertising blitz prior to launching their new Prime Time lineup. After getting everybody nauseous with their "Phil, we got Phil" bit, they roll into the "Where in the World is Ashleigh Banfield" spot, where she intones, "Ashliegh Banfield in Islamabad, Ahliegh Banfield in Bagdad, Ashleigh Banfield in Cairo, etc" and winds up with her intoning seriously "This is Israeli Occupied Land". All the while, in the real world, the Islamabombers are blowing up innocent women and children left and right, and she's making a big deal out of Israeli occupation.

It was a silly little snippet, but MSNBC put in on the air about 1000,000 times over two weeks. After a little while, the drumbeat kind of made the connection that Ashliegh is pro-terrorist and anti-Israel. Like I say, I have never seen her show, so I don't know if this is really true. But that is the impression that you get from this endlessly repeated MSNBC promo.

The folks over at MSNBC really are as dumb as a box of rocks.

[Dudoight]

MSNBC is a migraine headache.

[hobbes1]

The realy sad, telling part is, this is what PMSNBC,
considers a replacement for Alan Keyes, who Had the second most watched show on the Channel. (Behind Hardball....)

[Stallone]

Ash is a nice piece of a$$. Her clothing is exqusite, and would look particularly lovely lying in a crumpled heap beside my night table.

Why on earth do you think they invited television - for news?

The Libs don't get it, never have, never will. They are a lost cause converting to reason. We need to accept what they are (or aren't), and apply the correct remedy to serve our higher purposes.

Image is everything to these idiots. So it is up to Conservatives to learn the rules of War, using slick TV-friendly babes like Coulter, armed with Ridicule and Attack-Dog Persuasion, in the style of Rumsfeld.

Have you noticed - no one messes with Rummy.

[Galtoid]

I'm surprised that this author failed to mention Banfield's complete lack of broadcast credentials. Guess what she did in her other life?
She was a singer in a bar. NO kidding.
She lived in Dallas, and I guess some local network guy must've noticed her potential while sipping a Scotch or something. She has fully admitted she used to be a lounge singer before entering the world of television.

[maica]

Ashleigh and a camera team travelled the route of President Bush during the last three weeks of his campaign in October 2000. Campbell Brown was the NBC reporter on the campaign plane, and Ashleigh arrived separately to provide ' color' of the locales and audiences at Bush's rallies.
Her schtick was rapidfire description of her surroundings. She appeared totally UNimpressed with the whole idea of GWB becoming president. The celebrity that she gushed over was Campbell Brown. It was quite obvious in her chitchat to the MSNBC guy with the speech problem (I forget his name) in studio, that doing the Bush campaign was second prize to doing the Gore campaign.

[Fearless Flyers]

Ashleigh Duh Banfield, before my cable brought me Fox News I used to count how many times her sentences were interrupted with the exclamation "Duh".

After 911 there was a plane crash in Rockaway Beach (spelling) She was live on the scene standing by an ambulance counting the body bags inside. Duh ten duh twenty duh thirty duh forty.

I was completely grossed out and can not look at that person with out wanting to up chuck.

[Free Vulcan]

Did someone say she was pretty? Beer goggles perhaps?

[CPT Clay]

Who even watches that whore?

[Semaphore Heathcliffe]

She was a singer in a bar. NO kidding.

Funny you should mention that. Ashleigh kissed me one night in a Dallas bar.

(Pulls up chair by the fire for a nice story) You see, I was the house drummer in a blues jam a couple of years back, in a bar near the TV station where she worked. She would often come in on Friday night with a group of several friends and hang out and chug some brews after the 10pm newscast. She was easy to spot in the crowd...she has both a naturaly strong presence and the know-how to maximize it.

One night, we were finishing up a set, and Ashleigh was up at the bar near the band. Her friends started razzing her to sing, and our bandleader finally called her up. None of us knew at that point she was a singer. She's putting on the perfect "Who, me? Peeshaw, I couldn't...," at the same time she's striding confidently up to the mic.

She and bandleader decided on "Me and Bobby McGee," (which I thought outed her as a lightweight, because I'm a music snob). We start in to the song, at the same general mid-level dynamics as the set we'd just finished, but Ashleigh's in the mood for a smoky croon. She singin slow and low, her friends are cheering, and I'm thinking how f'ing surreal is this?

Then I thought, this is BS. No way is Superlocalnewsreader going to come in here and make this her show. So I, at the standard dynamic change into the second verse, blow it out. Full-on loud, double-time. Her smoky croon turns to a shoutfest, no where to go but louder-if-she can for the entire song.

Crowd loves it, we finish the song, and Ashleigh dutifully gives each band member a peck on the cheek. Sits back down with her friends, and the surreal moment passes. Back to bidness as usual in a bar in Dallas, late Friday night.

And that's my story of how Ashleigh Banfield kissed me.

[dennisw]

She's an utter moron. The info-babe who sat in for her for a few weeks was much better. Not that I watched her much but .....