Tuesday, December 11, 2007

The Bimbo~fication of FNC

Used to be that when I wanted to know what was going on in the world, I turned on FoxNews.

Used. To. Be.

Now, I hesitate when I have the remote in my hand. Do I really want to watch FNC?

Do I really want to take the chance that if I turn on what used to be on my TV box (thanks, Shep) nearly 24/7, there will be some short skirted, low neckline wearing 20-something bottle blonde stumbling over the TelePrompTer?

I've watched Fox News faithfully for over two years...ever since watching Shepard Smith's emotional reportage from the I-10 overpass in New Orleans. Back then, you could count on GOOD reporting. People like Shepard, Trace Gallagher, Jon Scott, the amazing Rick Leventhal, Phil Keating and Adam Housely. But the list didn't end with the men. Far from it. They also had the likes of Jane Skinner, Julie Banderas, Martha MacCallum, Catherine Herridge and Jennifer Griffin reporting and anchoring. Women who could hold their own with the men.

But now, professionals like these are few and far between on the network.

Now we are over run with sorority girls. Giggly, bubbly princesses wearing micro minis hiked up to show the maximum amount of thigh, unable to read the TelePrompTer, making uninformed comments and laughing inappropriately.

It's no way to start our day when the worlds first Audioanimatronic anchor is sitting alongside Anchorwoman Barbie in her short leather skirt and lingerie top, giggling before turning on their "serious journalist" voices to report a tragic story.

Gone is the previous professionalism of the network, the 'get the story at all costs' feeling that oozed from my TV during Katrina and the conflict in Israel. Or any real news story.

Good, female journalists are relegated to irregular shifts, overnight headlines and rare occasions of covering breaking news. But long live the bimbo on FNC! She will be on both Studio B AND FoxReport, giggling about the story she's reading but knows nothing about...she's just reading what they told her to read, having to be told what to say by the anchor because she's apparently so enthralled by her own image in the monitor she's forgotten what she's talking about but remembers to smush her headshot together with the anchors to pretend they are kissing.

And the bimbos are getting high praise from upper management!

Now, here's the thing. I have nothing against pretty young women with color treated hair (come on...when your dark roots are showing, you seriously cannot expect anyone to believe that's your 'natural color') making good. Lord knows I was once one myself. I was lucky though. I got by in life on my merits. Maybe I got a little extra because I was pretty, but I am still able to get by, and get by in a good way, because I did not rely on my looks when I was younger. I feel bad for the Courtney Friel's of FNC. The Julie B's and ED Hill's will be around for a good long time. Looks, as they say, fade. Brains...those will serve you much better than those little bra inserts that puff up the cleavage ever could...

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