The increasing number of female news anchors…
The Minneapolis Star Tribune’s Aimme Blanchette in her story on the increasing number of female local news anchors manages to work Anderson Cooper into the piece in a way that CNN probably wouldn’t care for…(via Romenesko)
Some present and former broadcasting students are getting turned off because they don’t think the profession has the gravitas it did in the days of Walter Cronkite and Edward R. Murrow.
“Twenty-five years ago, whoever was the best at delivering the news got the job, and I think today it’s more glamorized,” said University of Minnesota senior Adam Somers, who is focusing on a career in radio. “They’re pretty much making stars out of their anchors, and that doesn’t interest me.”
Consider the piercingly blue-eyed CNN anchor Anderson Cooper. His face regularly appears on magazine covers, he made People magazine’s Sexiest Man Alive list in 2005 and even has an online fan club.
What’s wrong with giving women their just due after telling them they are not our equals? There is a gradual evolutionary process in everything, and this is one of them. I would rather have them than listen to the braying of Chris Matthews, Older man, er Olberman, or Joe Scarborough.
Whoever inserted the name of Anderson Cooper there ought to apologize. He is about as feminine as Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Comment by RGL — September 19, 2006 @ 10:58 am
RGL - I believe the author was making The Usual (flawed) Point that good looks cannot coexist with competence and therefore extreme good looks is the only way to explain Anderson’s ascendence. What that has to say to the article’s main thesis, I could not tell you.
But please - “He is about as feminine as Arnold Schwarzenegger.” Schwarzenegger should look so good in a tux.
Comment by Arthur — September 19, 2006 @ 1:22 pm
You two are missing the big picture point. In my state, 52% of college FRESHMEN are female; and 60% of college GRADUATES are female. The pendulum is swinging. My work? I have watched a male dominated field turn into a female one. This has happened in many other field as well. Take, for example, as any of you who have children will attest, school principles. 25 years ago they were all men; and now the are mainly female.
Comment by erljr — September 19, 2006 @ 2:07 pm
erljr - that only means education, even at management levels, is becoming ‘womens work’. Would be interested to know if salaries of women principals were the inflation-adjusted equivalent of their male counterparts of thirty years ago.
I expect that as more women enter medicine, it too will be slightly ‘ghetto-ized’ and doctors’ recompense profession-wide will drop.
I’m not justifying it - I think it’s awful. But I’ve seen it before. Social work? Don’t make me laugh.
Comment by Arthur — September 19, 2006 @ 2:58 pm
Arthur, I have the same degree as my male Law School classmates, and I make MORE than a lot of them do. I’m missing your point…
Comment by OverHere — September 19, 2006 @ 4:30 pm
The point is that even a story about women in local news becomes about Anderson Cooper. He’s what matters most in cable news.
Comment by Pete — September 19, 2006 @ 6:14 pm
Sorry Pete, I don’t see that point in Arthur’s comment at all. And I have a BIG problem with the idea that women entering a certain field lead to it being “ghetto-ized.”
Comment by OverHere — September 19, 2006 @ 7:08 pm
Arthur, I agree with much of what you said, but not the terms “women’s work” and “ghetto-ized.” I don’t think journalism has become something inferior at all. I can say that, in my profession, salaries have kept up with inflation and cost-of-living. I know some people in other fields that have seen this trend, and they have never brought up inequities in pay for women.
As for female anchors, here is the trend when it comes to dual anchors:
30 years ago: 2 men
20 years ago: 1 woman and 1 man
5 years ago: some can’t find experienced men to anchor, so they try out 2 women temporarily, and they are surprised that ratings stay flat.
Today: anchor teams have to have one woman; the other can be either a man or a woman.
Maybe it’s just me, but that doesn’t appear “ghetto-ized.”
Comment by erljr — September 19, 2006 @ 9:04 pm
Face it! Anyone can read news copy. Only idiots and Gov. Megreavy fail to admit that they’d rather watch Helen Thomas or Charles Krauthammer read news than ANY articulate “babe-o-licious” anchor who gets GOOD questions fed into her ear by news savy producers. Good looks draw the viewership…….Greta not withstanding.
Comment by Roger — September 20, 2006 @ 10:33 am
Roger, what are you talking about?
Comment by erljr — September 20, 2006 @ 10:54 pm