(Will Ferrell as TV news anchorman Ron Burgundy in the 2004 comedy "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy)
When it comes to bashing talking heads on national broadcast news — a sport currently in vogue with the altered-memory imbroglio of suspended NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams — I’m an old hand.
Decades ago, I wrote NBC seeking the dismissal of Jane Pauley as a “Today Show“ co-host. I don’t remember exactly why (and in the current challenging atmosphere for false recollections, I won’t venture a guess).
In the intervening years, I haven’t gone that far again (what’s the use?) but my wife can attest that I’ve privately held forth often on the awfulness of network TV newscasters and their first cousins, morning-show hosts. They are, for the most part, an egocentric, pompous lot in a shallow, mind-blocking — but enormously popular — field.
(Disclaimer: These criticisms are not in any way directed at local, small-market TV news people; my separate issues with that enterprise were contained in my December post.)
Admittedly, taking potshots at celebrities is so easy that it’s borderline cowardly.
These fellow humans are way out there, in front of all of us, doing something few of us will ever come close to doing, taking frequent personal risks that open them up to public scrutiny.
While we all would be better off having thick skin when it comes to criticism, woe is the celebrity that doesn’t have the outer layer of a rhino. They will crumble fast.
All that said, I still think Williams is a pious, self-aggrandizing individual and — you’ll have to trust me on this — said so even before he flat-out lied about his exploits on a warplane. With his fall from grace, he hopefully will realize and accept the limits on his abilities, background and talents that many others could so plainly see.
And, anyway, I don’t think knocking celebrity news personnel is in the same category of ordinary celebrity whacking. They are a breed apart, so often being puffed up beyond what their capabilities warrant, either by their own egos or ardent fans. In addition, they deserve close examination because they deal with real-life issues as opposed to the lighter, entertainment fare involving your standard, run-of-the-mill celebrities.
Of course, I am far from alone in this. Mocking pretentious TV news people has long been a staple of popular comedy or drama. Think Ted Baxter on “Mary Tyler Moore” and Will Farrell as “Anchorman” or the movies “Broadcast News” and “Network.”
Yet, there remains a large segment of the population that continues to elevate broadcast news personnel to the upper stratum of respect and admiration. It’s the power of TV combined with the power of physical attraction.
You put telegenic men and women in front of millions of people on a regular basis and they’re bound to attract a strong and loyal following.
That’s not to say that hundreds of these news anchors or morning-show hosts are not smart, educated and talented. It’s just that any position whose qualifications include a pleasant physical appearance and speaking voice narrows the field of potential candidates with the top skills.
In other words, broadcast companies are drawing from a small pool of journalistic talent — those who can track down and report the news and also are good looking and well spoken.
The chances of them finding the best individuals in their field are small. It happens, of course, but it’s more likely the news anchors will not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, even if they come across with authority, smoothness and grace under pressure.
I think Brian Williams falls into that category. Real nice guy, pretty smart guy (never completed college, earning 18 credits total, according to his Wikepedia entry), very aggressive guy. Not really the best journalist, all things considered, but he’s handsome and commanding — a physically captivating presence in front of a TV camera.
So he gets promoted up the ranks, attracts adoring fans, naturally builds a sizable ego, begins to crave the deeper respect and admiration of people he’s covered or followed over the years, realizes (in his head) he doesn’t have the top skills that would naturally produce such reactions, and so he enhances his experiences to see the light of awe and respect in others’ eyes (like real-life military heroes or admired talk show hosts like David Letterman).
While Williams’ resorting to lies may be the extreme actions of someone possessed by such a longing, I do see many others in his field who fall into the same general category.
Take someone like his fellow employee Savannah Guthrie, the woman chosen for one of the top positions at TV news’ ratings-leader, NBC: co-host of “The Today Show.” Very smart, (journalism and law degrees), physically attractive, aggressive, well spoken, looks like a nice enough person (despite a rocky love life, per Wikepedia).
But qualified to be the go-to legal affairs correspondent for a top national news organization, making her one of the country’s top experts in her field? No, but that was her job at NBC before “The Today Show.”
I think it’s safe to say that without her attractive appearance, she would not have been in that position.
Then she was promoted to a role truly beyond her talents and capabilities at “The Today Show,” a division of NBC News. It’s painfully obvious she simply does not have the depth (range of interests, intellectual parameters) or personality (wit, cleverness) to host a morning TV variety show.
However, she does join fellow pretty host/news-reader Natalie Morales in cracking up at the jokes of their male co-hosts, Matt Lauer and Al Roker, whose large egos need regular stroking. So she’s a lock for the job. (“The Today Show” should be subtitled, “Matt and Al Make the Pretty Girls Laugh” or, on “Weekend Today,” “Lester Makes the Pretty Girls Laugh.” IMO, the inability of Guthrie’s immediate predecessor Ann Curry to play chuckling underling to Louer’s male superiority — actually having the temerity to cast herself as his equal as a newsman and personality — cost her the job. )
Lauer, of course, with all those pretty women hanging on his every word, not to mention a pretty large female fan base, has one the bigger egos in the business. But at least he’s grown into a television institution, fit for his role and accepted for what he is.
For me, the annoying rub with him is that he evidently considers himself a journalist. In an interview years ago with talk show host Phil Donohue, he and “Today Show” co-host Katie Couric answered a question by beginning, “As journalists, . . .”
I nearly fell out of my chair. “What an insult to all the hard-working men and women on the front lines of newspapers and other journalistic institutions worldwide,” I thought. I venture a guess that neither of those network morning-show hosts ever pounded a beat, tracked down a story or wrote their own news copy.
Yes, doing interviews with news-making individuals is part of their job. So are cooking segments and “trending” chit-chats plus almost-daily shills for their boss (NBC entertainment programs). They are hosts of a morning variety show, plain and simple. “Be proud” I would tell them. “Don’t claim to be something you’re not.”
Show me a true journalist who’s ever been asked to promote the business interests of their company. Not gonna happen. Yet, these TV news guys do it all the time and still call themselves journalists.
Is working the red carpet for the Golden Globes or your network’s TV show celebrating a long-standing show (“Saturday Night Live”) journalism? No, and while some would argue that such sidelines still allow for one’s main pursuit to be journalism, I would counter that they pollute, if not poison, the well of independence, professionalism and objectivity vital to the job of gathering and reporting the news.
It is in this arena of blurry celebrity journalism that Brian Williams functioned and then became overwhelmed to the point of felony self-enhancement.
He and his news anchor ilk shill for entertainment programs on their networks, appear as hosts of some (Williams on “Saturday Night Live,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper on the New Year’s Eve countdown, Lester Holt on “Weekend Today”) and regularly present themselves in non-journalist settings (guests on talk shows or hosts of their own shows).
They are big creatures in the notoriously depth-challenged field of TV news — even the once-aggressive, once-probing “60 Minutes” is now just another network news program — but that makes them disproportionately influential in the overall landscape of news production.
As such, the worst violators deserve my regular bashes, and no one should be surprised when a transgression such as Williams’ inspires a spate of gleeful rock throwing from like-minded critics.
Decades ago, I wrote NBC seeking the dismissal of Jane Pauley as a “Today Show“ co-host. I don’t remember exactly why (and in the current challenging atmosphere for false recollections, I won’t venture a guess).
In the intervening years, I haven’t gone that far again (what’s the use?) but my wife can attest that I’ve privately held forth often on the awfulness of network TV newscasters and their first cousins, morning-show hosts. They are, for the most part, an egocentric, pompous lot in a shallow, mind-blocking — but enormously popular — field.
(Disclaimer: These criticisms are not in any way directed at local, small-market TV news people; my separate issues with that enterprise were contained in my December post.)
Admittedly, taking potshots at celebrities is so easy that it’s borderline cowardly.
These fellow humans are way out there, in front of all of us, doing something few of us will ever come close to doing, taking frequent personal risks that open them up to public scrutiny.
While we all would be better off having thick skin when it comes to criticism, woe is the celebrity that doesn’t have the outer layer of a rhino. They will crumble fast.
All that said, I still think Williams is a pious, self-aggrandizing individual and — you’ll have to trust me on this — said so even before he flat-out lied about his exploits on a warplane. With his fall from grace, he hopefully will realize and accept the limits on his abilities, background and talents that many others could so plainly see.
And, anyway, I don’t think knocking celebrity news personnel is in the same category of ordinary celebrity whacking. They are a breed apart, so often being puffed up beyond what their capabilities warrant, either by their own egos or ardent fans. In addition, they deserve close examination because they deal with real-life issues as opposed to the lighter, entertainment fare involving your standard, run-of-the-mill celebrities.
Of course, I am far from alone in this. Mocking pretentious TV news people has long been a staple of popular comedy or drama. Think Ted Baxter on “Mary Tyler Moore” and Will Farrell as “Anchorman” or the movies “Broadcast News” and “Network.”
Yet, there remains a large segment of the population that continues to elevate broadcast news personnel to the upper stratum of respect and admiration. It’s the power of TV combined with the power of physical attraction.
You put telegenic men and women in front of millions of people on a regular basis and they’re bound to attract a strong and loyal following.
That’s not to say that hundreds of these news anchors or morning-show hosts are not smart, educated and talented. It’s just that any position whose qualifications include a pleasant physical appearance and speaking voice narrows the field of potential candidates with the top skills.
In other words, broadcast companies are drawing from a small pool of journalistic talent — those who can track down and report the news and also are good looking and well spoken.
The chances of them finding the best individuals in their field are small. It happens, of course, but it’s more likely the news anchors will not be the sharpest knife in the drawer, even if they come across with authority, smoothness and grace under pressure.
I think Brian Williams falls into that category. Real nice guy, pretty smart guy (never completed college, earning 18 credits total, according to his Wikepedia entry), very aggressive guy. Not really the best journalist, all things considered, but he’s handsome and commanding — a physically captivating presence in front of a TV camera.
So he gets promoted up the ranks, attracts adoring fans, naturally builds a sizable ego, begins to crave the deeper respect and admiration of people he’s covered or followed over the years, realizes (in his head) he doesn’t have the top skills that would naturally produce such reactions, and so he enhances his experiences to see the light of awe and respect in others’ eyes (like real-life military heroes or admired talk show hosts like David Letterman).
While Williams’ resorting to lies may be the extreme actions of someone possessed by such a longing, I do see many others in his field who fall into the same general category.
Take someone like his fellow employee Savannah Guthrie, the woman chosen for one of the top positions at TV news’ ratings-leader, NBC: co-host of “The Today Show.” Very smart, (journalism and law degrees), physically attractive, aggressive, well spoken, looks like a nice enough person (despite a rocky love life, per Wikepedia).
But qualified to be the go-to legal affairs correspondent for a top national news organization, making her one of the country’s top experts in her field? No, but that was her job at NBC before “The Today Show.”
I think it’s safe to say that without her attractive appearance, she would not have been in that position.
Then she was promoted to a role truly beyond her talents and capabilities at “The Today Show,” a division of NBC News. It’s painfully obvious she simply does not have the depth (range of interests, intellectual parameters) or personality (wit, cleverness) to host a morning TV variety show.
However, she does join fellow pretty host/news-reader Natalie Morales in cracking up at the jokes of their male co-hosts, Matt Lauer and Al Roker, whose large egos need regular stroking. So she’s a lock for the job. (“The Today Show” should be subtitled, “Matt and Al Make the Pretty Girls Laugh” or, on “Weekend Today,” “Lester Makes the Pretty Girls Laugh.” IMO, the inability of Guthrie’s immediate predecessor Ann Curry to play chuckling underling to Louer’s male superiority — actually having the temerity to cast herself as his equal as a newsman and personality — cost her the job. )
Lauer, of course, with all those pretty women hanging on his every word, not to mention a pretty large female fan base, has one the bigger egos in the business. But at least he’s grown into a television institution, fit for his role and accepted for what he is.
For me, the annoying rub with him is that he evidently considers himself a journalist. In an interview years ago with talk show host Phil Donohue, he and “Today Show” co-host Katie Couric answered a question by beginning, “As journalists, . . .”
I nearly fell out of my chair. “What an insult to all the hard-working men and women on the front lines of newspapers and other journalistic institutions worldwide,” I thought. I venture a guess that neither of those network morning-show hosts ever pounded a beat, tracked down a story or wrote their own news copy.
Yes, doing interviews with news-making individuals is part of their job. So are cooking segments and “trending” chit-chats plus almost-daily shills for their boss (NBC entertainment programs). They are hosts of a morning variety show, plain and simple. “Be proud” I would tell them. “Don’t claim to be something you’re not.”
Show me a true journalist who’s ever been asked to promote the business interests of their company. Not gonna happen. Yet, these TV news guys do it all the time and still call themselves journalists.
Is working the red carpet for the Golden Globes or your network’s TV show celebrating a long-standing show (“Saturday Night Live”) journalism? No, and while some would argue that such sidelines still allow for one’s main pursuit to be journalism, I would counter that they pollute, if not poison, the well of independence, professionalism and objectivity vital to the job of gathering and reporting the news.
It is in this arena of blurry celebrity journalism that Brian Williams functioned and then became overwhelmed to the point of felony self-enhancement.
He and his news anchor ilk shill for entertainment programs on their networks, appear as hosts of some (Williams on “Saturday Night Live,” CNN’s Anderson Cooper on the New Year’s Eve countdown, Lester Holt on “Weekend Today”) and regularly present themselves in non-journalist settings (guests on talk shows or hosts of their own shows).
They are big creatures in the notoriously depth-challenged field of TV news — even the once-aggressive, once-probing “60 Minutes” is now just another network news program — but that makes them disproportionately influential in the overall landscape of news production.
As such, the worst violators deserve my regular bashes, and no one should be surprised when a transgression such as Williams’ inspires a spate of gleeful rock throwing from like-minded critics.
(Ted Knight as TV news anchor Ted Baxter on "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" (1970-1977)