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Sexy CNN anchor (1 Viewer)

Mike Broadman

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As you may have heard, CNN had a commercial which features on their anchors. They call her, among other positive things, "sexy."

They have since received criticism from people who say that it is unprofessional and insulting to the journalism profession.

Are they right? Was it a cheap ploy by CNN to call her "sexy?" If it was, is that really wrong? Is entertainment one element of broadcast news? If so, is it not alright to promote the "star's" appearance a little bit?

Thoughts, arguments, debate, chaos...
 

Mike St.Louis

Supporting Actor
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Sep 22, 1999
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It's not something I would expect from CNN. Its more like something I would expect on Entertainment Tonight where they are merely talking heads and not really reporting 'news' as I define it. So in my opinion CNN should not have said that in their commercial.

Instead, let people decide for themselves. I can determine for myself if someone is sexy or not.
 

Don Black

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If I recall correctly, the spot never aired. It was killed before ever leaving the promotions department. I think it was for a Paula Zahn promo and she said she was "offended."
 

MikeAW

Second Unit
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"Offended"...yeah right !

She is loving every minute of it. Now if there was ANY news reporter that needed a makeover it's that Christianne Amanpour (?spelling)...Rupert Murdoch was right in calling her a "War Slut"! She needs a...what is it...softer look ? She needs a makeover just on general principles. What's that song..."Forty Miles of Bad Road" !

Diane Sawyer has it all over them...brains, beauty, and she seems like alot of fun too.

Still Martha Stewart...........
 

Derek Miner

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Yeah, I read this story about the CNN Paula Zahn ads getting on the air and I cracked up. I work at a network where some questionable promotions have gotten on the air, and then were pulled after a call from the president of programming. And yet the promotions department never seems to learn their lesson... Fun to see it happening somewhere else.

Also, this seems consistent with my theory that being owned by AOL-Time Warner means your're going to hell in a handbasket.
 

Darren H

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I think a really important point has been lost in all of this discussion about the controversial ad. Paula Zahn is sexy. Damn sexy. Seriously. Or maybe it's just me? ;)
 

Bruce N

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Feb 13, 2000
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I don't want news reporters that are sexy, I want news reporters that can USE THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE! Why did CNN send Bill Hemmer to replace Nic Robertson? These people are supposed to be professionals, they get paid to communicate in the english language but a large number of them are terrible. Mixing metaphors and adlibbing things that are totally incorrect. Grrrrr! :angry:
Bruce
 

Brian Perry

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"Mikhail Baryshnikov was the most delightful interview I've ever done--and I think he was so attractive and sexy."--

Who said it? None other than Ms. Zahn (in 1997), who was reportedly offended at the CNN ad.
 

Don Black

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To get back to the subject at hand, I do believe that entertainment now makes up part of news reporting. Whether it's right or not is certainly debatable. Look at the Gary Condit crap... Plus, the news organizations are trying to combine their overseas reporting into a joint effort in order to reduce costs.

Makes sense you say? After all, who needs 15 different camera crews in Afganhistan? Well, the joint polling effort of the news agencies is what brought us those wonderful recounts down in FL last year.
 

Darren H

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Sorry. I didn't mean to divert the course of this thread. I actually find the entire situation laughable. Yesterday, I was flipping channels and even discovered Bill O'Reilly yammering about it. I'll hold off comment because his name tends to get threads closed around here.
The media -- particularly those of the ratings-hungry cable news variety -- have gone from laughable to depressing to irrelevant in the last few years. When the "news" became a series of inconclusive debates ("I'm a conservative so blah, blah, blah." "Oh yeah? Well I'm a liberal and blah, blah, blah") and hour-long discussions about the "role of the media," I lost interest. If TV "journalists" are going to be nothing more than moderators and editorialists, then they might as well be easy on the eyes, because I certainly don't care what they're saying. I decided to get an education rather than simply be told what to think. ;)
Fortunately, we have the Internet as an alternative -- a limitless supply of sponsor-free perspectives and interesting journalism at our fingertips.
 

MickeS

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Regarding the newsshows in general, I always find it funny when studio reporters are interviewing eachother. In CNN-HN they have this quite a bit, one reporter asking the other reporter sitting next to them a bunch of questions. Why dod they do this? If they feel like talking, do this after the show. Let the reporter who has something to say do this directly to the audience IN FORM OF A REPORT. It makes sense to ask questions when they have various experts there, since they aren't journalists, but reporters are supposed to be able to do that kind of stuff. Are they just too lazy? It must be a hell of a lot easier to have the other reporter ask questions than to write a good report.

CNN-HN aren't the only ones that do this, everyone does it more and more.

/Mike
 

Patrick Sun

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I don't find Paula Zahn sexy, but for some reason, I think Linda Stouffer is sexy, even though it seems she's aged 5 years in the last couple of years.
 

Mike Broadman

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On Conan O'Brien last night, he showed the ad, then showed an "exclusive" alternate ad that:

visually, it was the same ad, but the narrator says

"Where can you find a morning news anchor who's provocative, super-smart and loves hot girl-on-girl action!

CNN. Yeah, CNN."
 

Jim_C

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I think the only problem with pointing out that she's 'sexy' is the potential to undermine her integrity as a journalist. That would be unfortunate.

The zipper sound effect is a bit much though.
 

MikeAW

Second Unit
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Nov 29, 2001
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Do we REALLY hold Tv news anchors in "high regard", in this post-"Uncle Walter" Cronkite,Huntley-Brinkley, John Chancellor, Frank Reynolds Tv News world ?

Well we used to, especially Walter Cronkite, who stradled the forties, fifties, sixties News Reporting World and sat us down to tell us when John Kennedy was shot and tell his US audience the daily Viet Nam casualty score. He also told us it was wrong...and it stopped shortly thereafter. Today a President can go directly to the people, over the heads of the television news organizations...in the not really so old days, Presidents and politicians had to influence and threaten them to toe the Admimistration political line. That was before the tail wagged the proverbial dog, and news organizations could be held hostage to opinion takers and media manipulators, who manufactured news. Now,

But I feel most of us are sophisticated Tv viewers to know that it's a different world out there...and the Tv news outlets have vested, intertwining financial interests that cut across each other....GE-NBC-Microsoft, Time-Warner- Viacom-CNN, etc...each with valuable things to protect besides covering for the Government, and vice versa. A wilderness of mirrors, to say the least.

These days NO television anchor is without the Sin of protecting someone or something that has an economic or politcal point of view...everybody has got to serve somebody!

CSPAN, to me, is the BEST way to view news today...raw news conferences, committee hearings, Special Order speeches on ANY subject where there is a Special Interest. But at least, the viewer isn't subject to the mindless blathering of someone, or either sex, telling you what's happening before your very eyes or telling what someone just said.

The only thing Tv news outlets can really offer these days is NOT news, but Sex...and the illusion the announcer is offering you something in the way of sexual stimulation.

After all of that, it's just radio.
 

Nathan*W

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I wouldn't have had a problem with the Zahn commercial had it aired. All news organizations employ good looking people to report the news, it's just the way things are done. CNN's only "crime" (if one could call it that) was to announce that that's what they do.
 

Wayne Bundrick

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Everyone already knew CNN was guilty of hiring on looks rather than experience when they brought in Andrea Thompson on CNN Headline News.
 

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